Hard paywalls don't hurt retention

David shares the surprising finding that hard paywalls generally don't worsen retention as assumed.

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In this episode, we break down the 2026 State of Subscription Apps report from RevenueCat, one of the largest analyses of subscription app performance ever conducted.

We’re joined by David Barnard, Growth Advocate at RevenueCat, to unpack the key insights from the report.

The study analyzes 75,000+ apps and more than $11B in revenue across over a billion transactions, revealing what’s actually working in today’s subscription economy.

One of the most surprising findings: apps launched before 2020 still generate nearly 70% of all subscription revenue, even though thousands of new apps are launched every month.

If you’re building or growing a subscription app, these benchmarks will help you understand where you stand and which levers can truly move revenue.

You will discover:

✅ Why the top 25% of apps grew 80%+ while the bottom quartile shrank

✅ Why hard paywalls convert 5× better than freemium

✅ The surprising truth about AI apps: higher revenue but worse retention

✅ The growing importance of web-to-app funnels and web revenue

✅ Benchmark metrics like conversion rates, RPI, and retention

Learn More:

Connect with David:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/drbarnard/

State of Subscription Apps 2026:

https://www.revenuecat.com/state-of-subscription-apps/?utm_source=appmasters&utm_medium=youtube