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Game Development vocabulary · Monetization & Live Ops

DAU

Meaning in game development, with examples

/ˌdiː eɪ ˈjuː/abbreviationAdvanced term

In game development, DAU means: Short for daily active users: the number of different people who play a game on a given day. MAU is the same figure for a month.

In Turkish: DAU, günlük aktif kullanıcı

How it is used

Used in dashboards, investor updates and live-ops meetings. The DAU/MAU ratio shows how often monthly players return, a sign of how 'sticky' a game is. Revenue metrics such as ARPDAU, average revenue per daily active user, are based on it.

Example sentences

  1. DAU jumped to 80,000 during the Halloween event.

  2. Our DAU is stable, but fewer players are making purchases.

Common collocations

  • DAU/MAU ratio
  • grow DAU
  • peak DAU
  • MAU
  • retentionHow many players keep coming back to a game over time, usually measured as the percentage who return one, seven or thirty days after installing it.
  • live serviceA model in which a game is updated continuously for years after launch with new content, events and seasons, to keep players playing and spending.
  • monetizationThe way a game earns money from players, for example by selling the game itself, in-game purchases, subscriptions or ads.
  • free-to-playDescribes a game that anyone can download and play for free, which makes money from optional purchases, ads or a battle pass instead of an upfront price.

This word in other fields

The same English word can have a different meaning in another field:

More terms: Monetization & Live Ops

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