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Monthly active users (MAU) tells you how many people or accounts met a publisher’s activity rule for a game during a month. It measures monthly reach—not whether players return regularly, enjoy the game, or support a durable business. To assess a live-service game’s health, read MAU alongside retention, engagement, acquisition, and monetization, and check how the publisher counts an “active user.”

What does monthly active users tell you about a live-service game’s health?

MAU is a scale measure: it shows the size of the audience that qualified as active within a reporting month. For example, GDEV defines MAUs as individuals who played a particular game in a calendar month. The company says the measure is useful for scale and usage, but relies primarily on daily performance metrics to assess engagement. GDEV’s 2025 Form 20-F explains its definition and approach.

That distinction matters because a player who launches once and a player who plays every day can both qualify for a month’s MAU count. The metric does not reveal how often people played, how long they stayed, whether they returned in later months, or whether they spent money. MAU is one useful part of a health assessment, not a quality score or a verdict on the game.

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Is a high MAU good?

A high MAU can be good evidence of broad monthly reach, provided the counting method is clear and consistent. It is not proof of strong loyalty, satisfaction, profitability, or even frequent play. There is no universal “good MAU” threshold established across game genres, platforms, ages, and counting rules. Compare a game with relevant peers only when the benchmark uses comparable definitions, periods, and populations.

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Growth needs the same care: rising MAU means more people or accounts met the activity rule, but the increase might reflect new acquisition, reactivated players, a release, wider platform coverage, or a change in measurement. A flat count can also conceal churn if new or returning players replace those who stopped playing. Retention and cohort trends help distinguish lasting engagement from audience replacement.

Which metrics add the missing context?

Use companion measures to answer questions MAU cannot. Roblox’s official analytics documentation separates retention, engagement, acquisition, and monetization KPIs, reflecting that these are distinct dimensions rather than substitutes for a monthly audience count. Roblox Creator Hub’s Analytics dashboard documentation describes those categories.

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  • Frequency and depth: DAU, DAU/MAU where available, session frequency, session duration, and playtime show how intensively monthly users engage. DAU/MAU is a ratio of daily to monthly active users; it is meaningful only when the underlying definitions and period align.
  • Durability: retention by new-player cohort and trends in returning or reactivated players show whether people come back over time. Roblox describes retention KPIs as measuring how many users return after their first visit.
  • Acquisition: sources of new users and conversion help explain what is driving audience changes. Separate a paid acquisition surge from continued return behavior.
  • Monetization: paying-user conversion and revenue per active or paying user add business context. Read these alongside engagement; a revenue shift or concentration among payers does not by itself establish broad audience health.

How should you read rising, falling, or stable MAU?

Start with the direction of the number, then ask what changed in the game or in the measurement. The count alone identifies a movement in monthly reach; it does not establish its cause.

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  • Rising MAU: investigate new acquisition, reactivation, content updates, cross-platform reach, and any definition or tracking changes. Use cohort retention and engagement to see whether the increase persists.
  • Falling MAU: check seasonality, acquisition investment, update timing, outages, platform changes, and consistency of the counting rule before attributing the decline to player dissatisfaction or game quality.
  • Stable MAU: look for churn and replacement beneath the top-line figure. Cohort retention and returning-player trends can show whether an established audience is holding or new users are filling gaps.

One company example illustrates why attribution should be specific. GDEV reported average DAU of 1.060 million in 2025, down by 321,000 average DAUs from 2024. In its 2025 Form 20-F, GDEV attributed its MAU and DAU decline in part to reduced user-acquisition spending in 2024 and 2025 and seasonal patterns. That is GDEV’s explanation for its results, not a general explanation for declines at other games. See GDEV’s filing.

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Why MAU figures may not be comparable

“Active user” is not a standardized industry-wide counting rule. Publishers can differ in the activity required, reporting window, identity resolution, and whether they deduplicate people or accounts across games, devices, platforms, or social networks. GDEV notes that one person playing two games may count twice, and a person playing the same game on separate platforms or social networks may also count twice. Activision Blizzard has also documented differing device-deduplication rules across parts of its portfolio. Activision Blizzard’s first-quarter 2023 results provide its definitions.

PLAYSTUDIOS warns that its metric definitions and calculation methods may differ from those used by other companies, limiting comparability. Its 2025 annual report also identifies possible distortions including multiple devices or accounts, data latency, fraud or bot activity, platform tracking changes, and differences between analytics tools. The company says its analytics systems and resulting data have not been independently verified. PLAYSTUDIOS’ 2025 annual report states: “These metrics are not based on standardized industry methodologies, and our definitions, assumptions, and calculation methods may differ from those used by other companies, which may limit comparability across the industry.”

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A practical checklist for evaluating a published MAU

  1. Find the definition. Confirm what counts as activity, whether the unit is a person or account, and whether the number is an average or a point-in-time count.
  2. Check the scope. Note the reporting month, geography, game, platforms, and any cross-device, cross-platform, or cross-game deduplication rules.
  3. Compare like with like. Avoid ranking figures that use different definitions, windows, or data sources as if they measured the same audience.
  4. Test for durable engagement. Review DAU and other usage measures, new-player retention, and returning-player trends alongside MAU.
  5. Explain movement with evidence. Check acquisition, content timing, seasonality, outages, and tracking changes; attribute a stated cause to the company that reported it.
  6. Keep business performance separate. Review monetization measures as another dimension, not as a substitute for retention or audience reach.

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