Subversive
Sub Club · Mar 6The Top 10% of Apps Grew 306%. Everyone Else? Barely Beat Inflation | SOSA 2026
A walkthrough of RevenueCat's 2026 State of Subscription Apps report: a flood of new AI-built apps, a power-law split in growth, and what the data says about paywalls, trials, churn and AI app retention. Key results: the top 10% of apps grew 306% while the median grew 5.3%, and hard paywalls converted 10.7% download to paid versus 2.1% for freemium.
What to take from it
- Test a hard paywall if you pay for acquisition▶ 38:41Hard paywalls converted 10.7% download to paid by day 35 versus 2.1% for freemium, about 5x.
- Don't fear hard paywalls hurting year-one retention▶ 44:00P90 year-one retention is 58% for freemium and 54% for hard paywall; the medians are 27.7% and 26.8%.
- Choose freemium only when free users create real value▶ 39:30Mojo converts over 50% of its revenue after the first day using a generous free tier and a tasteful once-a-week paywall on launch for free users.
- Win the user on day zero, before they leave▶ 45:2155% of all 3-day trial cancellations happen on day zero, and the trend has been rising each year.
- Let users pick their trial reminder day▶ 46:30Duolingo saw a conversion uplift from letting users choose the reminder day.
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