As search, social and AI continue to reshape discovery, publishers are looking for more reliable ways to connect with readers directly. Apps are playing an increasingly important role in strengthening owned channels and supporting subscriber relationships.
The Pugpig 2026 Media App Report offers a clear picture of what’s working, what isn’t and what the top-performing apps have in common. Combining analytics from more than 440 apps with survey responses from 140 publishers, it’s our most data-rich edition yet.
Inside, you’ll find data on how engagement concentrates among a small group of super users, how much richer content formats like audio, video and games boost engagement and where publishers are still struggling to measure the value their apps create.
Here are a handful of the biggest takeaways from this year’s report, useful for any publisher trying to get a deeper understanding of how their apps are performing and where to focus effort going forward.
Rich features consistently drive deeper engagement
Features like games, audio and video consistently drive deeper engagement. Users who interact with these formats, as well as those who search, save and share articles, show a clear lift in engagement compared with those who do not.
Users who play games open their app 2.7x more often than those who don’t and rack up over 29 hours of in-app time a month in top-performing apps. Video and audio show a similar pattern, with users who watch video spending 3.3x more time in-app each month and audio listeners spend 2.5x longer.
Search, save and share tell a similar story, suggesting these are genuine signals of loyalty and intent and important features for publishers to use in their apps. The report shows that these features have an outsized impact on how habitual and valuable that group becomes.
A small number of super users drive the majority of engagement
One of the clearest patterns in this year’s data is how important super users are to overall app engagement. Our report found that just 15% of monthly active users generate 75% of all sessions, whilst 6% of MAUs account for 75% of all screen views. Those numbers point to a small group of users that come back to the app more often and get through far more content once they’re there than the average reader.
This should frame how publishers think about app strategy. Growing the total user base is very important, but the data suggests that significant value comes from deepening the relationship with the most engaged readers. That means identifying the content and features that most encourage repeat use.
There’s a wide gap in how many subscribers actually use the app
Another significant factor that drives app engagement is the share of the audience with a direct subscription, which varies widely between publishers. The report finds that, for news titles, anywhere from 11% to 94% of total subscribers open the app each month.
There’s a real opportunity here too. Many apps attract a substantial number of non-subscribers alongside their paying base, yet only 26% of survey respondents said the main role of the app is subscriber acquisition. With non-subscribed users significantly less engaged than paying users, there is clearly a lever publishers could pull to improve conversion.
The report also hints at a commercial opportunity in in-app advertising. Apps are often designed as ad-light experiences, which keeps impressions per screen low when compared to web. But high session frequency among engaged users means total impressions per user per month can still be meaningful, particularly when formats and targeting are tuned to app audiences. Treating the app as a revenue platform across both reader and advertising income is one of the clearest commercial signals in the data.
Publishers know what to measure, but not all can measure it well
When we speak to our customers about what matters most for their apps we get fairly consistent answers around subscriber retention, acquisition, time spent and engagement. However, according to this year’s survey, there is a significant challenge in the ability to measure these KPIs with any consistency.
That gap between what publishers know they should track and what they can actually measure is significant. Without clean measurement, it becomes much harder to attribute revenue to the app clearly, which in turn makes it easier for the app’s contribution to be undervalued internally.
According to the report, capacity, not money or technology, is the issue. Product team capacity is named by half of publishers as the single biggest blocker to progress, well ahead of budget constraints, stakeholder alignment or editorial capacity.
Effort and investment separate the top performers from the rest
Perhaps the most encouraging takeaway from this year’s report is that strong app performance is less about technical sophistication and more about sustained investment. The best-performing apps are usually the ones publishers have consistently given time, resources and attention to.
That shows up across almost every metric in the benchmark data. Richer content formats, push strategy, onboarding, personalisation and content discovery all follow the same pattern. The report’s overall message is that small, sustained improvements compound, and publishers who treat their app as a genuine priority tend to see it reflected in the metrics
Next steps for publishers
For teams looking to act on the data, the report closes with a set of practical recommendations for turning these findings into progress.
Getting more subscribers to actually use the app is the starting point, alongside investing in features that reward repeat use. Audio, video, games, search, save and sharing are clearly all associated with stronger engagement, and there’s clear room for more publishers to make better use of them.
The report also flags push notifications as an underused tool and highlights the opportunity in converting anonymous users into known readers, given how many app users still aren’t logged in or registered.
Beyond acquisition and adoption, the guidance turns to consistency and discovery. Publishing frequently, improving how users find relevant content and measuring app performance against real business outcomes are all highlighted as ways to make the app pull its weight as a genuine engagement, retention and revenue channel.
These findings show that the apps performing the strongest currently are combining richer content, sharper measurement and consistent investment to build real habits with their readers.
For any publisher trying to work out where they stand, that’s exactly what this year’s report is designed to help with, giving you a clear picture of how your app compares and what the leading publishers are doing differently.
The 2026 Pugpig Media App Report is available to download now, published by Pugpig, the mobile app platform that powers apps for over 450 of the world’s leading media brands.
