[GA4] Engagement overview report

The Engagement overview report is a pre-made overview report that summarizes your engagement data. The report can help you compare key engagement metrics over time, understand which pages and screens people are visiting, and identify the features they're interacting with.

The report appears on the left in the Life cycle collection. You won't see the report in the Business objectives collection by default, but an editor or administrator can add the report to your left navigation.

How do users interact with your website or app? Use Engagement reports in Google Analytics

View the report

1. From the left menu, select Reports .
2. On the left, expand Engagement in the Life cycle collection.
3. Click Engagement overview.

Pre-made summary cards

The Engagement overview report includes the following summary cards by default. Administrators and editors can change the cards so you may see different ones from these.

Average engagement time

Average engagement time shows the average time that your website was in focus in a user's browser or a mobile app was in the foreground on a user's device. Google Analytics uses the following formula to calculate the average engagement time:

Average engagement time = (The total length of time your website was in focus or your app was in the foreground across all sessions) / (The total number of active users)

Average engagement time is calculated automatically using data from the web pages and app screens that are set up with Google Analytics.

How to interpret the chart

The average engagement time in the tab may be greater than the individual average engagement times in the chart.

This is because the average engagement time in the tab shows the sum of engagement time per user divided by the number of users in the entire time period. Each point in the chart shows the engagement time per user divided by the number of users for that day.

Example

Two users visited your website in July.

• On July 2, user #1 visited for 3 minutes.
• On July 3, user #2 visited for 4 minutes.
• On July 4, user #1 visited for 5 minutes and user #2 visited for 6 minutes.

In this example, the average engagement time in the tab would be 9m 00s because user #1 visited for a total of 8 minutes and user #2 visited for a total of 10 minutes in July. The average of those two engagement times would be 9 minutes.

The average engagement time in the chart would look like the following:

• July 2: 3m 00s
• July 3: 4m 00s
• July 4: 5m 30s

In this example, the average engagement time in the tab would be greater than the average engagement time each day.

Engaged sessions per user

Engaged sessions per user shows the number of sessions that were engaged per user. An engaged session is any sessions that lasted 10 seconds or longer, or had 1 or more key events or 2 or more page or screen views. Google Analytics uses the following formula to calculate the engaged sessions per user:

Engaged sessions per user = (The number of sessions that lasted 10 seconds or longer, or had 1 or more key events or 2 or more page or screen views) / (The total number of users)

Engaged sessions per user is calculated automatically using data from the web pages and app screens that are set up with Google Analytics.

How to interpret the chart

The engaged sessions per user in the tab may be greater than the individual engaged sessions per user in the chart.

This is because the engaged sessions per user in the tab shows the sum of engaged sessions per user divided by the number of users in the entire time period. Each point in the chart shows the engaged sessions per user divided by the number of users for that day.

Example

Two users visited your website in July.

• On July 2, user #1 has 1 engaged session.
• On July 3, user #2 has 2 engaged sessions.
• On July 4, user #1 has 3 engaged sessions and user #2 has 2 engaged sessions.

In this example, the engaged sessions per user in the tab would be 4 because user #1 visited for a total of 4 engaged sessions and user #2 visited for a total of 4 engaged sessions in July. The average of those two engagement times would be 4 engaged sessions.

The engaged sessions per user in the chart would look like the following:

• July 2: 1 engaged session
• July 3: 2 engaged sessions
• July 4: 2.5 engaged sessions

In this example, the engaged sessions per user in the tab would be greater than the engaged sessions per user each day.

Average engagement time per session

Average engagement time per session shows the time spent engaged with your website or app per session. Google Analytics uses the following formula to calculate the average engagement time per session:

Average engagement time per session = (The average time that your website was in focus in a user's browser or an app was in the foreground of a user's device) / (The total number of sessions)

Average engagement time per session is calculated automatically using data from the web pages and app screens that are set up with Google Analytics.

How to interpret the chart

The average engagement time per session in the tab may be greater than the individual average engagement time per session in the chart.

This is because the average engagement time per session in the tab shows the sum of engaged sessions per session divided by the number of sessions in the entire time period. Each point in the chart shows the average engagement time per session divided by the number of sessions for that day.

Example

Two users visited your website in July.

• On July 2, user #1 has one engaged session of 3 minutes.
• On July 3, user #2 has two engaged sessions of 3.5 minutes and 4.5 minutes.
• On July 4, user #1 has one engaged session of 4 minutes and user #2 has one engaged session of 6 minutes.

In this example, the average engagement time per session in the tab would be 10m 30s because user #1 had a total of 7 minutes of engagement time and user #2 had a total of 14 minutes of engagement time in July. The average of those two engagement times would be 10.5 minutes of engagement time.

The average engagement time per session in the chart would look like the following:

• July 2: 3 minutes of engagement time
• July 3: 4 minutes of engagement time
• July 4: 5 minutes of engagement time

In this example, the engaged sessions per user in the tab would be greater than the engaged sessions per user each day.

Users in last 30 minutes

Users in last 30 minutes shows activity as it happens using data from the Realtime report. The first half of the card shows the total number of users in the last 30 minutes and the number of users in the last 30 minutes per minute.

The second half of the card includes realtime activity for a relevant dimension. For example, the Engagement overview report may show the top pages and screens users are visiting right now, while the User attributes overview report may show the top countries users are visiting from right now.

Views and Event count

Views shows the number of mobile app screens or web pages your users saw. Repeated views of a single screen or page are counted as separate views. Event count shows the number of times an event was collected from your website or app.

Both of these metrics are calculated automatically using data from the web pages and app screens that are set up with Google Analytics.

Note that while the charts show the number of views and event counts per day, the values in the tabs show the sum of views and event counts for the entire time period.

Event count by Event name

Event count by Event name shows the top events users triggered and how often each of the top events were triggered. For example, the following table shows that the screen_view and user_engagement events were triggered the most frequently.

You could click any event in the table (e.g., "screen_view") to open a report about the event, or you could click "View events" to open the Events report.

Views by Page title and screen class

Views by Page title and screen class shows the number of times users viewed each page or screen in the specified time frame, sorted by the most frequently viewed pages and screens.

For example, in the following table, the Home and Shopping Cart pages were the most frequently viewed pages. You could click "View pages and screens" to open the Pages and screens report.

User activity over time

User activity over time shows the number of people who used your website or app in the past 30 days, 7 days, and 1 day. You can use the card to see changes in activity over a shorter timeframe compared to changes over a broader timeframe. The card includes only users who engaged with your app in the device foreground.

For example, in the following chart, you would have 72K users in the past 30 days and 3.5K users in the past 1 day. If the number of users in the past 1 day were to begin to trend downwards, you could expect to see fewer users over the past 7 and 30 days in the near future.

User stickiness

User stickiness compares engagement by active users over a narrower time frame with their engagement over a broader time frame. The ratios can help you understand how well you retain users over time — higher ratios suggest good engagement and user retention.

Google Analytics calculates the following ratios automatically:

• Daily Active Users (DAU) / Monthly Active Users (MAU)
• Daily Active Users (DAU) / Weekly Active Users (WAU)
• Weekly Active Users (WAU) / Monthly Active Users (MAU)

The ratios consist of the following values:

• Daily Active Users (DAU): the number of active users in the last 24 hours
• Weekly Active Users (WAU): the number of active users in the last 7 days
• Monthly Active Users (MAU): the number of active users in the last 30 days

For example, the ratio "DAU / MAU" shows the percentage of users who engaged with your website or app in the last 24 hours compared to those who engaged in the last 30 days. If users engaged with your website or app daily, the ratio will be 100%. If some users engaged with your site or app in the past month, but didn't visit in the past day, the ratio will be less than 100%.