How is D1 Retention Calculated

Dear Unity Analytics Support,

We are getting some major discrepancies in retention data across our analytics services, with Unity often coming in significantly higher, with some days missing data.

How does Unity Analytics calculate D1 Retention? Is there an industry standard on how is is calculated? I can think of two primary ways to account for it, but I imagine there are other ways as well as well as hybrid versions. Here are two examples:

1. By 24-Hour Cycle
   1. User downloads and and opens the game on March 15th at 8:00PM and a timer is started.
   2. Exactly 24 hours later on March 16th at 8:00PM they open the app again, and D1 Retention is counted because a full 24 cycle has passed.
2. By Calendar Day
   1. User downloads and and opens the game on March 15th at 8:00PM and the day is timestamped, but the hour is ignored.
   2. The following morning on March 16th at 10AM they open up the app again and D1 Retention is counted because the next calendar day a user has opened the app.

On a similar note, will you guys add D2 / D3 / D4 / D5 / D6 / D10 / D14 / D60 / D90 as well? Having both a more granular weekly log of retention would be really helpful as well as a longer forecast window.

Thanks,
Jefferson

 

Thanks for the feedback @jeffersonstewart

D1 (as well as D7 and D30 retention) are calculated based on calendar days (following UTC time). Regarding the discrepancies, please PM me or submit a support ticket (link here) and we'll take a closer look.

I'll make sure to bring your suggestions for additional retention logs up with my team

Cheers,
-Angelo

 

Is the D1 retention in Unity calculated by looking at the next day reopening of the "New Users" or the "DAU"? Thanks.

 

Sorry not sure what you mean be reopening of the New Users. D1 retention are those users who come back the following day, so they're not new users.