Why did my 'Daily installs' go down?
Here are some app changes that might cause a decrease in installs:
- New permissions that require users to manually accept changes
- Changes to country or language distribution
- Changes in advertising
- Changes in app placement within the store
- Operators pre-installing your app (system apps are only counted in statistics after an initial update through Google Play)
If you believe that none of these scenarios applies to you, contact our support team.
There's a problem with the statistics report that I downloaded.
If you're unable to open the report that you downloaded from Play Console, contact our support team.
View updates to Google Play statistics
Note: The updates below are entered and ordered chronologically. Older updates may no longer be relevant.
A change to the systems that record app installs and uninstalls caused our Play Console metrics to accidentally miss some data. There was a reduction in reported metrics across installs, acquisitions, engagement metrics and more.
Historical data from 28 June 2022 to 29 July 2022 has been recovered.
Unfortunately, due to the limits on our data retention, there will be some data that cannot be recovered. The precise range of data that we cannot recover is as follows:
- Store performance: 11 June to 4 July
- Engagement: 11 June to 11 July
- Users and device metrics: 11 to 27 June
- PlayPass: 11 to 24 June
- Store listing experiments will not be backfilled
May to June 2022: Acquisition reporting data fix
We’ve updated our calculation methods for subscription metrics in Play Console.
Subscription metrics, such as new subscription counts, conversion and retention rates, and cancellations, are more consistent. They are also now calculated in line with financial metrics.
You’ll be able to directly compare data between Play Console and the Real-time developer notifications API. Finally, all subscription metrics are also now cumulative. This means that data for previous days won’t change over time.
We made several improvements and fixed bugs relating to how we count installs, uninstalls, updates and device activity. In addition, we improved our approach in counting data that is missing for users who have removed install activity for privacy reasons.
26 July and 26 August 2019: Missing user acquisitions data
August 2019: Subscription analytics bug fix
July–August 2019: Incorrect attribution of deep link traffic
May–July 2019: Under-reporting Play Store search acquisition performance
4 March 2019: Install data discrepancy
The data source for some metrics within Play Console has been updated. The updated data source measures some metrics, like 'Installs on active devices', more accurately.
You may also notice a change to other metrics and most dimensions (such as operator or language).
As of 17 July 2018, more comprehensive pre-install data is included in installation metrics.
If your app comes pre-installed on any devices, you may notice an increase in 'Installs by user', 'Installs by device' and 'Installs on active devices'.
As of 16 July 2018, your app's 'Cumulative installs by user' data will no longer be available on the Statistics page.
If you need to calculate this data point, you can take your app's final 'Cumulative installs by user' entry and add the sum of 'Installs by user' since that date.
Over the next several weeks, you may notice some changes to reports, app deletion and account data within Play Console.
Between 9 May 2017 and 17 July 2017, some subscriptions that failed at purchase were miscategorised as started subscriptions.
Sales and payout reports weren't impacted, but data on new, active and cancelled subscriptions may have been inflated in other Google Play Console reports.
The data from this time period has now been corrected.
Starting on 5 December 2016, we'll reduce the latency associated with updating your app's 'daily installs by user' and 'daily uninstalls by user' data on the Statistics page. This means that you'll be able to access this data sooner than you previously could.
For some apps, you may notice a slight shift in 'daily installs by user' and 'daily uninstalls by user' data on this date.
Store Listing experiment results
Starting from 30 November 2016, results for any new or pending store listing experiments will be based on the metric: 'Installs on active devices'.
If you started an experiment before 1 September that's scheduled to end after 1 December, we'll provide you with data going back to 1 September. For the most accurate results, we recommend ending any experiments that began before 1 September and creating a new experiment.
Current installs data
Your 'Current installs by device' and 'Current installs by user' data will be available until 30 November 2016 on the Statistics page and in exports. For data after 30 November, use 'Installs on active devices' instead.
For more information, see the 'Introduction of installs on active devices' section below.
We're introducing a new metric called 'Installations on active devices'. Initially, you'll see this metric on your app's Statistics page, with data going back to 1 September.
Later this year, the new metric will replace 'Current installs by device' and 'Current installs by user' in all current reports. You'll still be able to access historical data for the replaced metrics in charts and CSV downloads.
Why are install metrics changing?
'Installations on active devices' shows how many devices that have been online at least once in the past 30 days have your app installed.
Your app's 'Current installs by device' and 'Current installs by user' data has included devices that were last active up until several months ago. By switching to 'Installs on active devices', we're able to focus on devices used within the last 30 days to show you recent user engagement with your app.
Impact on your metrics
Since 'Current installs by device' and 'Current installs by user' included a longer activity window, it's expected that you'll see lower numbers for your app's 'Installs on active devices' data.
Timeline
We'll keep you updated on the timeline for this change within the announcement section of Play Console.
- Open Play Console.
- At the top-right corner of any page, select the bell icon
.
.Here's what you can expect:
| Timeframe | Impact on data |
|---|---|
| 29 Sept. |
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| 3 Nov. |
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| 30 Nov. |
|
Starting from 29 November 2015, we will introduce new criteria for counting user and install metrics to account for users and devices going inactive. This change will affect the following metrics: 'Current installs by user', 'Current installs by device' and 'Total installs by user'.
As we make these changes, you may notice that these metrics decrease over time for some apps.
On 27 June 2015, we updated the install statistics on Play Console to use more accurate and reliable data.
As a result, some developers may see small changes in their apps’ install and uninstall data on their apps’ Statistics pages.
You may notice that this change has resulted in a one-off decrease in the number of total installs for your apps. We apologise for any confusion that this may have caused.