2026 Benchmarks: More Apps, Less Quality - Issue 306

What RevenueCat and Adapty’s 2026 reports say about acquisition, conversion, retention, and where subscription apps are actually heading.

Big week for product and growth analytics: a few benchmark reports were released last week, including RevenueCat’s State of Subscription Apps, based on 115K apps and $16B+ in revenue. Adapty also shared their report as well earlier last week - State of in-app subscriptions 2026.

This is the kind of report that will shape a lot of discussion over the next few weeks about where the subscription app market is heading.

Below is my breakdown with key takeaways and reflections across the full funnel: acquisition, activation, conversion, retention, and winback. Some of the trends were expected, and we all saw them coming. But others genuinely surprised me. And a few things I don’t agree with. Let’s dive into it.