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Choosing an app category by revenue per install (RPI)

Which app categories earn the most per install (health & fitness, education, business per RevenueCat), the RPI and revenue-to-download ratios Steve P. Young looks for, and how to estimate competitors' revenue.

Updated 2026-10-23·3 sources·product-strategyapp-categoriesrpimarket-researchsensor-towerappmagic

Choosing an app category by revenue per install (RPI)

TL;DR

  • Per RevenueCat’s subscription report (2026), the highest revenue per install categories are health & fitness, then education, then business — Steve tries to stay in these.1
  • Category rankings barely change between day 14 and day 60 RPI.1
  • Health & fitness break-even benchmark: ~$3 RPI by day 14, close to $4 by day 60 — so $1,000 of spend can return ~$3–4K within two months if you can wait.1
  • Average paid CPI is ~$2–5, so RPI must exceed ~$2 for paid ads to work.2
  • For individual apps, look for ≥3:1 monthly revenue to monthly downloads (Endel ~5:1).34
  • Cross-check revenue estimates across Sensor Tower, AppMagic, AppFigures — Steve uses three as a tiebreaker.5

Details

Why RPI first. A category with high RPI lets organic traction later fund paid acquisition; low RPI caps you at whatever ASO alone delivers (What to work on at each stage — from launch to paid ads).2

Estimating an app’s economics.

  • AppMagic (free) and Sensor Tower give monthly revenue and downloads. Endel: AppMagic ~$500K/100K downloads, Sensor Tower ~$600K/100K.3
  • They disagree, sometimes a lot: for BetterSleep, Sensor Tower said ~$600K on 200K downloads, AppMagic ~$800K on 600K, AppFigures also higher than Sensor Tower — Steve went with ~$800K as the majority view.5
  • Filter to iPhone/iPad: iOS users tend to pay more than Android users.6

Ratios Steve uses. Revenue:downloads ≥3:1; for picking a “tentacle” source he prefers ≥$300K/month revenue at ~100K downloads.4 For running Meta ads he wants at least $3 LTV per install (LTV may only reach that by month ~11).7

Disagreements / caveats

  • The RPI ranking is RevenueCat’s aggregate across its customers; your niche may differ.
  • Third-party revenue numbers are estimates and can be off by 2–3×.5
  • Steve also built a profitable app outside these categories — RPI is a filter, not a law.8

See also

Footnotes

  1. App Ideas That People Are Already Searching For (Steal This Strategy) @ 02:22 — Steve P. Young ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  2. App Ideas That People Are Already Searching For (Steal This Strategy) @ 15:54 — Steve P. Young ↩ ↩2

  3. App Ideas That People Are Already Searching For (Steal This Strategy) @ 06:22 — Steve P. Young ↩ ↩2

  4. App Ideas That People Are Already Searching For (Steal This Strategy) @ 14:08 — Steve P. Young ↩ ↩2

  5. This Sleep Sounds App Makes $800K a Month (Copy Their Onboarding) @ 00:50 — Steve P. Young ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  6. App Ideas That People Are Already Searching For (Steal This Strategy) @ 05:35 — Steve P. Young ↩

  7. Before You Spend $1 on Meta Ads, Watch This @ 06:37 — Steve P. Young ↩

  8. App Ideas That People Are Already Searching For (Steal This Strategy) @ 12:47 — Steve P. Young ↩