WAU (Weekly Active Users) is the number of unique users who engage with an app or website over a seven-day period. It sits between daily and monthly measures of your active audience. For apps people use a few times a week rather than every day, WAU often reflects real usage better than either DAU or MAU alone.

How WAU is measured

WAU counts each unique user once within a rolling or fixed seven-day window, no matter how many times they open the app. As with any active-user metric, the number depends on what you define as active, so decide whether an app open counts or whether a real action is required, and hold that definition steady across weeks.

Why WAU matters

WAU smooths out the day-to-day noise of DAU while staying more current than MAU. It is useful for apps that users open a few times a week rather than every day. A single bad day can drag DAU down without meaning much, but a falling WAU is a clearer sign that engagement is slipping.

Reading it alongside DAU and MAU

Together, DAU, WAU, and MAU reveal usage rhythm and stickiness. A rising WAU with steady MAU means you are getting more frequent visits from the same audience. Comparing the three ratios shows whether growth comes from new users, from more frequent visits, or from better retention of the users you already have.

What counts as a good WAU?

There is no fixed target, because WAU scales with your audience and how often your app is meant to be used. A weekly-habit app should see WAU close to its MAU, while a daily game may show WAU well above DAU but still short of MAU. The useful reading is the trend and the ratios, not the raw count.

Using WAU to spot trends early

WAU is often the first active-user metric to reveal a real shift. Because it covers seven days, it filters out the weekend dips and single-day spikes that make DAU jumpy, while reacting far sooner than a thirty-day MAU that can hide two weeks of decline. Teams watching for the effect of a release or a content update tend to read WAU first, then confirm the pattern in the slower monthly number. A WAU that turns down for two or three weeks running is a signal worth acting on before it reaches MAU.

WAU and monetization

Each weekly active user is a chance to earn. Keeping an offerwall visible and rewarding gives your weekly audience recurring reasons to complete offers and generate revenue. Users who return a few times a week may see the offerwall repeatedly, so fresh, relevant offers turn steady WAU into steady earnings without needing to grow the audience.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Reading WAU in isolation. Its value comes from comparison with DAU and MAU, not on its own.

• Switching windows. Mixing a rolling seven-day count with a fixed calendar week makes trends unreliable.

• Changing the active definition. Redefine what counts as active and your history stops matching.