In app subscriptions report for 2025

Adapty has released its 2025 State of In-App Subscriptions report, delivering a comprehensive analysis of global trends, pricing benchmarks, and growth strategies shaping today’s app economy. Based on anonymized data from more than $1.9 billion in tracked revenue and over 215 million transactions across 11,000+ apps, the report offers a data-driven roadmap for developers, marketers, and product leaders navigating the evolving landscape of subscription monetization.

In app subscriptions 2025: How Top Apps Monetize (Data from 11,000+ Apps)

The in-app subscription market is surging, projected to reach $170 billion in 2025. While AI has accelerated the development and launch of mobile apps, turning downloads into durable revenue streams remains a challenge. Adapty’s report directly tackles this gap, uncovering the strategies separating top-performing apps from the rest.

Vitaly Davydov, CEO of Adapty, emphasized the opportunity ahead:

“We’re providing deep dives into lifetime value (LTV) by plan and region, paywall experimentation, and a new Adapty Pricing Index. Whether you’re optimizing onboarding, rethinking your paywall, or fine-tuning pricing, this report equips you to seize the market opportunity.”

In-App Subscriptions on Track for $170 Billion

The report reveals the United States continues to dominate, accounting for nearly 49% of global in-app subscription revenue, followed by Europe (24.8%) and the Asia-Pacific region (10.3%). LATAM (Latin America) and MEA (Middle East and Africa) are emerging markets, with LATAM notably seeing 60% of revenue come from weekly plans.

Across app categories, weekly subscriptions have shown the strongest growth, increasing by 10% year-over-year and now capturing nearly half of all subscriptions. Users are demonstrating a clear preference for short-term flexibility, particularly in categories like Productivity, Utilities, and Photo & Video, where weekly plans account for over 50% of revenue. By contrast, Health & Fitness and Education apps favor annual subscriptions, reflecting user commitment to long-term outcomes like fitness goals or language learning.

Adapty Pricing Index: Benchmarking Country-Level Strategy

One of the report’s standout features is the Adapty Pricing Index, which offers a country-level benchmark normalized to U.S. prices. The index reveals wide disparities: median subscription prices in the Netherlands are 62% higher than in the U.S., while in Turkey they are nearly 3.5 times cheaper. This tool empowers app teams to move beyond gut-feel regional multipliers, equipping them with real payment data to inform smart, localized pricing strategies.

"Instead of guessing whether $6.99 is too much in Turkey or too little in the Netherlands, developers can now confidently align their pricing with actual user behavior," said Kir Potekhin, CPO of Adapty.

Lifetime Value and Profitability Insights

The report’s detailed LTV analysis offers critical guidance for app monetization. In the U.S., LTV balances across plan durations at roughly $47–$49 after 12 months, with annual plans slightly ahead. In Europe, annual plans outperform, while in LATAM, weekly plans surprisingly deliver the highest LTV—underscoring the importance of regional context.

Trials consistently boost LTV across all regions, with U.S. trials lifting 12-month LTV by an impressive 64%. Moreover, premium-priced plans outperform lower-tier counterparts across all subscription durations, indicating that higher price points do not inherently damage conversion or retention.

Marcus Burke, a Meta Ads and App Growth Consultant, recommended tactics such as reducing trial anxiety, framing pricing around monthly breakdowns, and using decoy plans to boost yearly conversions.

Conversion, Retention, and Refund Trends

Adapty’s findings show that while free trials can improve lifetime value, they do not always guarantee higher conversion rates. Direct paywalls without trials often achieve superior full-funnel conversion, particularly in Lifestyle and Productivity apps. Retention, however, improves markedly post-conversion: once users commit, renewal rates remain robust, with 70–84% continuing through multiple periods.

Notably, annual plans carry the highest refund rates (4.2%), pointing to potential unmet expectations or buyer’s remorse. Short-term plans, particularly weekly subscriptions, have the lowest refund rates, likely because they feel lower risk to consumers. Adapty’s Refund Saver tool has been instrumental, helping recover over 60% of refund value across categories and up to 73% in Health & Fitness, Education, and Lifestyle apps.

The Power of A/B Testing and Paywall Experiments

Apps running frequent A/B tests on paywalls achieve up to 100x more revenue than those that do not, according to Adapty’s data. The report highlights that testing plan durations and trial configurations offers the highest potential uplift in both conversion rates and LTV. Once these factors are optimized, developers can experiment with pricing and visuals to further refine performance.

Sylvain Gauchet, Head of Growth at Reading.com, cautioned that pushing annual plans by default may hurt LTV, as it reduces the ability to price-anchor and deters users who are unwilling to commit upfront. Instead, he suggests focusing on an optimized mix of durations and trial offers.

Five Revenue-Driving Trends for 2025

The report closes with five critical trends shaping subscription app growth:

1. Offer Flexibility: Weekly subscriptions are on the rise, catering to users’ demand for low-commitment options.

2. Test Higher Price Points: Premium pricing does not necessarily reduce conversions and often boosts LTV.

3. Implement Smart Free Trials: Carefully designed trials can elevate LTV by up to 64%.

4. Expand Globally with Precision: While the U.S. leads in total revenue, smaller markets like Singapore, Qatar, and the Bahamas deliver outsized per-user value.

5. Never Stop Experimenting: Apps conducting ongoing A/B tests see significantly greater revenue gains.

Weekly subscriptions show the strongest growth