How to read your Roblox retention

Retention tells you whether new players come back after their first visit. It is usually the clearest signal of whether your game is fun enough to return to, and it matters more than a one-day spike in visits.

D1, D7 and D30, explained

Roblox measures retention for each group (cohort) of new players, grouped by the date they first played:

• D1 retention: the share of new players who came back the day after their first visit.
• D7 retention: the share who came back a week later. Roblox defines this as returning on the 8th day after the first visit (Day 7).
• D30 retention: the share who came back a month later. Roblox defines this as returning on the 31st day after the first visit (Day 30).

D1 mostly reflects your first-time experience. D7 reflects whether your progression keeps people going. D30 reflects whether there is enough to do once players have finished the main goals.

Where to find it in the Creator Dashboard

Go to Creations, select your game, and choose Retention in the Analytics menu on the left. For group-owned games you need the group's analytics permission.

A few things that trip people up:

• The x-axis is the cohort's first play date, not the day they returned. The same date on all three charts is the same group of players.
• The newest dates on the D7 and D30 charts are often empty. A cohort's D7 number only appears after 7 days, and D30 after 30.
• A dip on all three charts right after a big influx of new players is common and usually temporary.
• At the bottom of the page, the cohort table shows daily cohorts over their first 10 days and weekly cohorts over 10 weeks, with 7-day playtime, conversion and revenue per user. It is the best place to check whether an update or event brought in players who stick.

What counts as a good number?

We don't quote benchmark percentages here because we haven't found a public source we trust for them, and retention varies a lot by genre and audience. The most useful comparison is your own trend: are new cohorts retaining better or worse than the ones before your last update?

What to try when retention is low

Low D1: tighten the first five minutes.

• Make your core loop (the actions players repeat to progress) obvious, fun and rewarding.
• Keep the tutorial short and use tooltips, so players reach the fun quickly.
• Track each first-session step and fix the step where most players drop off.
• Test on different devices and watch crash rates, frame rates and errors after each update.

Low D7: fix progression.

• Give players clear short-term and long-term goals.
• Add variety: new modes, items and social features.
• Balance difficulty so players don't run out of content or stall out of frustration.

Low D30: give players a reason to stay.

• Ship regular updates. Roblox's retention documentation describes a common rhythm of smaller updates to existing mechanics every 2-4 weeks and bigger new features every 2-3 months.
• Add social systems such as trading, parties, guilds, leaderboards or PvP.

Source: Roblox Creator Hub, Retention documentation.