Segmentation and analytics

Cohort retention: how to read the retention curve

Cohort retention is the share of players in one cohort, for example those who made their first deposit in the same month, who are still active after 1, 3 and 6 months. The curve shows where players drop off and where retention reaches a plateau.

Yevhen SychovOctober 2026

Formula and example

Month N retention = active in month N / cohort size x 100%In September 1,000 players made their first deposit, and 250 of them deposited in November: second-month retention is 25%.

Cohort table

Rows are the month of the first deposit, columns are the months after it. An example:

CohortM1M2M3M6
July42%30%24%15%
August45%31%25%
September36%25%

How to read it

  • The M1 column drops for recent cohorts: a problem in the first days or with traffic quality. In the example, September is already worse than July and August in the first month.
  • A plateau after M3-M6: the core that will stay for a long time. The higher the plateau, the higher the LTV.
  • The gap between same-month cohorts from different sources: which traffic brings players and which brings only first deposits.

Why average retention lies

Overall retention across the base mixes old players with new ones. When traffic grows, average retention falls, even if every cohort holds up as before. And the other way round: when traffic falls, the average rises and hides problems. Make decisions by cohort.

Define activity once and keep it fixed: a deposit, a real-money bet or a login. In money terms, the deposit matters most.

All glossary terms