Mobile App

Push Notification Benchmarks

for 2023
Actionable Insights to Assess and Elevate
Your Mobile Strategy
Table of Contents

Introduction 3

Industry Verticals 4

How to Read the Data

5

Push Notification Opt-In Rates 6

Push Notification Direct Open Rates 11

Average Monthly Push Notifications Per User 16

Methodology 21

Conclusion & Additional Resources 22

23
About Airship

Airship ® 2023 Mobile App Push Notification Benchmarks 2

Introduction

Mobile apps have the inherent advantage of reaching people wherever they are, at the exact moment
it matters most. That’s because mobile app push notifications arrive on smartphone lock screens, the
most visible real estate in everyone’s pocket. That’s a huge benefit to brands. Notifications don’t get
caught in spam filters or forgotten in an inbox. As a result, push direct open rates can be more than
twice as high as email click throughs. App users benefit from more personalized service and conve-
nience. They can share their preferences and affinities so brands can better meet their needs.

Past Airship research shows that 78% of users will churn in the first week after installing an app if brands
do not have a clear engagement strategy. However, app users who receive any push notifications in their
first 90-days have a 3X higher app retention rate when compared to those who received no push noti-
fications. More frequent notifications correlate with higher retention rates as well.

Last year the Airship platform delivered more than 665 billion push notifications to more than 2.5 billion
users, enabling us to offer the most robust benchmark data available anywhere. Here we share essen-
tial benchmarks across 13 verticals based on that data. These benchmarks will help you assess and
refine your mobile engagement strategy and answer questions such as:

• How do my app’s mobile engagement rates compare to those of my industry competitors?

• What’s the delta between average and top performers across verticals?
• How has messaging and opt-in changed year over year?
• How does message response vary by mobile operating system?
• How many push notifications do my industry peers send their customers?

For each benchmark, we explain what it means, why it matters, how Android compares to iOS, and our
overall analysis. Looking across all our benchmarks for push notifications, what we found was this:
segmentation and personalization drive more efficient use of push notification and result in
higher open rates.

Airship ® 2023 Mobile App Push Notification Benchmarks 3

Industry Verticals

Charities, Foundations and Non-Profit

Apps that provide an interface between supporters and a nonprofit entity, charity, foundation,
and/or apps whose purpose is to generate revenue for a cause.
Total Apps in Vertical: 85

Education
Apps that provide training and learning opportunities including schools or learning institutions.
Total Apps in Vertical: 335

Entertainment
Apps that provide entertainment in the form of video streaming, music, movies, TV, radio,
as well as artist apps.
Total Apps in Vertical: 262

Finance & Insurance

Apps to manage finances, banking, investment, insurance.
Total Apps in Vertical: 501

Food & Beverage

Apps managed by restaurants and beverage companies as well as recipe/ cooking content apps.
Total Apps in Vertical: 187

Gaming & Gambling

Free and paid gaming apps and apps that allow you to place bets/gamble.
Total Apps in Vertical: 252

Media
Apps that include national & breaking news, local news, newsstands, books, magazines and radio.
Total Apps in Vertical: 752

Medical, Health & Fitness

Apps for fitness tracking, health management, pharmacy, health reference.
Total Apps in Vertical: 310

Retail
Apps for groceries, discount/deals, specialty retail, fashion, big box/warehouse.
Total Apps in Vertical: 573

Social
Apps for networking, messaging, dating, communication.
Total Apps in Vertical: 216

Sports & Recreation

Team apps, sports news, recreation.
Total Apps in Vertical: 491

Travel & Transportation

Apps for airlines, automotive, hotel, bookings, rail, vacation rental, public transportation.
Total Apps in Vertical: 470

Utility & Productivity

Apps for navigation, reference, weather, other tools for productivity.
Total Apps in Vertical: 394

Airship ® 2023 Mobile App Push Notification Benchmarks 4

How to Read the Data

The benchmarks were broken down into high (90th), medium (50th) and low percentiles (10th). The 50th
percentile is the median for the vertical. The 10th percentile number means that 10% of the apps had
a lower value, while the 90th percentile means 10% of the apps had a higher value.

Looking at the chart below showing notification opt-in rates, if you are a media brand with a 60% opt-
in rate, you compare to the top 10% of apps in this study and can feel great that you have some of the
highest opt-in rates within your vertical.

However, using that same chart below, if your opt-in rates are less than 29.8% or less, you’re in the bottom
10% for your vertical, so there’s significant room for improvement

Benchmark for HIGH, MEDIUM & LOW Performers

To offer performance benchmarks, we reported results on the 90th, 50th
and 10th percentiles for all apps and verticals.

76.5%

76.1%
67.5%
60%

HIGH – 90th Percentile:

10% of apps in this vertical have a 57.1%
higher value.
44.5%

MEDIUM – 50th Percentile:

The medium value. 50% of apps in

36%
this vertical have a lower value, 50%
have a higher value.
29.8%

25.9%

LOW – 10th Percentile:

10% of apps in this vertical have a
lower value.

Media Medical, Nonprofit,

Health & Charities &
Fitness Foundations

High Medium Low

Questions about the data? Not sure where to find your own results?
Feel free to get in touch and let someone from our team of industry experts help!

Airship ® 2023 Mobile App Push Notification Benchmarks 5

Push Notification Opt-In Rates

What It Means
The percentage of an app’s audience that has opted in to receive push notifications. This benchmark
is based on monthly opt-in rates averaged over 12 months.

Why It Matters
Push notification opt-ins are essential to deepening engagement with your customers. When app us-
ers opt in, brands can reach out beyond the confines of the app to engage people right on their device
lock screens — the most visible real estate available! That creates a world of opportunities to be there
for your customers in the moments that matter most, keeping them engaged and driving conversions.

Android vs. iOS

Historically, Android opt-in rates are significantly higher than iOS rates because iOS users had to opt
in to receive push notifications. Now, apps targeting Android 13 or Android 12 are also required to
obtain opt in to notifications, so we will see Android’s elevated opt-in rates decline over time.

When app users opt in, brands can reach out

beyond the confines of the app to engage people
right on their device lock screens — the most
visible real estate available!

Airship ® 2023 Mobile App Push Notification Benchmarks 6

Android Opt-In Rates for Push Notifications

Charities, Foundations,
and Non-Profit

Education

Entertainment

Finance & Insurance

Food & Drink

Gambling & Gaming

Media

Medical, Health & Fitness

Retail

Social

Sports & Recreation

Travel & Transportation

Utility & Productivity

0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40% 45% 50% 55% 60% 65% 70% 75% 80% 85% 90% 95% 100%

90th Percentile 50th Percentile 10th Percentile

Airship ® 2023 Mobile App Push Notification Benchmarks 7

iOS Opt-In Rates for Push Notifications

Charities, Foundations,
and Non-Profit

Education

Entertainment

Finance & Insurance

Food & Drink

Gambling & Gaming

Media

Medical, Health & Fitness

Retail

Social

Sports & Recreation

Travel & Transportation

Utility & Productivity

0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40% 45% 50% 55% 60% 65% 70% 75% 80% 85% 90% 95% 100%

90th Percentile 50th Percentile 10th Percentile

Airship ® 2023 Mobile App Push Notification Benchmarks 8

Year-Over-Year Comparisons: Opt-In Rates for
Push Notifications

2022 Performance

High Medium Low

93.5%
79.5%
58.6%

76.4%
51.4%
30.7%

2021 Performance

94.5%
81%
48.9%

73.3%
51.2%
29.2%

Airship ® 2023 Mobile App Push Notification Benchmarks 9

 Our Analysis
Even with the changes to iOS and Android
this past year, we didn’t see significant
drops in notification opt-in rates across
either platform. In fact, we saw slight
increases in push opt-ins specifically
on iOS devices.

Airship ® 2023 Mobile App Push Notification Benchmarks 10

Push Notification Direct Open Rates

What It Means
The percentage of total sends within a month that triggered an app open. For this benchmark, we looked
at monthly direct open rates per app averaged over 12 months.

Why It Matters
Direct open rates are a key way of measuring your push notifications’ impact on app engagement.
Keep an eye on this figure, while also monitoring conversions, active users, opt-outs, indirect opens
and uninstalls to get a more granular understanding of how push messages are influencing engage-
ment and retention.

Android vs. iOS

Across industry verticals, engagement with Android notifications maintains a wide lead over iOS. This
is primarily due to differences in how notifications behave on iOS vs. Android devices. When you un-
lock the screen on an Android device, notifications persist on the lock screen, requiring you to swipe
left or right to dismiss them. In iOS, the notification vanishes from the lock screen as soon as you
unlock the device and are grouped with the app’s other messages in the notification center.

Airship ® 2023 Mobile App Push Notification Benchmarks 11

Android Push Notification Direct Open Rates

Charities, Foundations,
and Non-Profit

Education

Entertainment

Finance & Insurance

Food & Drink

Gambling & Gaming

Media

Medical, Health & Fitness

Retail

Social

Sports & Recreation

Travel & Transportation

Utility & Productivity

0% 2% 4% 6% 8% 10% 12% 14% 16% 18% 20% 22% 24%

90th Percentile 50th Percentile 10th Percentile

Airship ® 2023 Mobile App Push Notification Benchmarks 12

iOS Push Notification Direct Open Rates

Charities, Foundations,
and Non-Profit

Education

Entertainment

Finance & Insurance

Food & Drink

Gambling & Gaming

Media

Medical, Health & Fitness

Retail

Social

Sports & Recreation

Travel & Transportation

Utility & Productivity

0% 1% 2% 3% 4% 5% 6% 7% 8% 9% 10% 11% 12% 13% 14% 15% 16% 17% 18% 19% 20%

90th Percentile 50th Percentile 10th Percentile

Airship ® 2023 Mobile App Push Notification Benchmarks 13

Year-Over-Year Comparisons: Push Notification
Direct Open Rates

2022 Performance

High Medium Low

14%
5%
1.4%

9.4%
3.5%
1.2%

2021 Performance

16.8%
4.6%
1.1%

10.2%
3.4%
1.1%

Airship ® 2023 Mobile App Push Notification Benchmarks 14

 Our Analysis
Direct open rates for push notifications saw
a slight increase in the low and medium
ranges from 2021. Brands that are leveraging
better segmentation and personalization
in their strategies are seeing better direct
open rates than those that are not.

Airship ® 2023 Mobile App Push Notification Benchmarks 15

Average Monthly Push Notifications Per User

What It Means
The average number of push notifications an app sends to its users per month.

Why It Matters
This figure helps brands answer the question: how much is too much when it comes to push notifica-
tions? Overall, we know that more frequent push notifications increase app retention rates. However,
too many notifications can erode trust and come off as spam. The key is to find the right balance to
keep customers engaged without overwhelming them.

Variations In High vs. Medium & Low Performance

You’ll notice that the high values for this benchmark are much greater than the medium and low figures.
That’s because our count includes both transactional and promotional push notifications, which vary
widely depending on the vertical. Also, Sports and Media brands typically send far more notifications
than those in other industries.

The key is to find the right balance to keep

customers engaged without overwhelming them.

Airship ® 2023 Mobile App Push Notification Benchmarks 16

Android Average Monthly Push Notifications Per User

Charities, Foundations,
and Non-Profit

Education

Entertainment

Finance & Insurance

Food & Drink

Gambling / Gaming

Media

Medical, Health & Fitness

Retail

Social

Sports & Recreation

Travel & Transportation

Utility & Productivity

0 1 2 3 4 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 75 80 100 200 250 300

High Medium Low

Airship ® 2023 Mobile App Push Notification Benchmarks 17

iOS Average Monthly Push Notifications Per User

Charities, Foundations,
and Non-Profit

Education

Entertainment

Finance & Insurance

Food & Drink

Gambling / Gaming

Media

Medical, Health & Fitness

Retail

Social

Sports & Recreation

Travel & Transportation

Utility & Productivity

0 1 2 3 4 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 75 80 100 200 250 300

High Medium Low

Airship ® 2023 Mobile App Push Notification Benchmarks 18

Year-Over-Year Comparison: Average Monthly Push
Notifications Per User

2022 Performance

High Medium Low

59.3
10
.7

74.5
10.45
1.1

2021 Performance

188.4
8.4
.5

202
8.8
.8

Airship ® 2023 Mobile App Push Notification Benchmarks 19

 Our Analysis
When it comes to how many notifications
brands sent each user, we saw a slight
increase in the low and medium send
percentiles. However, we saw a decrease
in the high sends. As brands begin
leveraging better segmentation tools,
targeting gets more precise.
This shows us that top brands are driving
higher direct open rates and delivering
fewer broadcast notifications by
leveraging more of the robust features
within the Airship platform.

Airship ® 2023 Mobile App Push Notification Benchmarks 20

Methodology

Airship analyzed customer data in aggregate from January to December 2022 to identify apps with at
least 1,000 active users that had sent at least 1,000 cumulative push notifications in one month.
That group included more than 2.5 billion app users across thousands of apps, with figures broken
out across 13 industry verticals. All of our benchmarks are based on monthly calculations, which are
averaged over 12 months.

2.5 billion app users

Thousands of apps
13 vertical industries
12 months

Airship ® 2023 Mobile App Push Notification Benchmarks 21

Additional Resources

Want to learn more about how you can leverage Airship to increase your customer interactions at
every stage of the customer journey? Check out the following resources and get in touch to request
a demo.

• 2022 Mobile App Experience Gap Survey

• The Mobile Customer Imperative

• The Way to Master Mobile App Experiences

• 2023 Insights & Predictions

Let us know if you’d like to learn more about how Airship can help you assess and improve your mobile
strategy.

Airship ® 2023 Mobile App Push Notification Benchmarks 22

About Airship

At the dawn of mobile apps, Airship powered the first commercial push notification messages and then
expanded its data-led approach to all re-engagement channels (mobile wallet, SMS, email), app UX
experimentation, no-code native app experience creation and App Store Optimization (ASO).

With the Airship App Experience Platform and Gummicube’s ASO technology and expertise, brands
now have a complete set of solutions to optimize the entire mobile app customer journey — from the
point of discovery to loyalty — driving greater value for everyone involved.

Having powered trillions of mobile app interactions for thousands of global brands, Airship is proud
to be at the forefront of what has become the digital center of customer experience, loyalty
and monetization – mobile app experience (MAX).

No one knows more, does more, or cares more than Airship when it comes to helping brands master MAX.

© 2023 Airship Group, Inc.

Airship and the Airship logo are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Airship Group,
Inc. in the United States and other countries.

Airship-Push Notification Benchmarks 2023-EN_03202023

Airship ® 2023 Mobile App Push Notification Benchmarks 23