Knowledge Base

Why do Net Downloads and All Net Downloads Differ?

When selecting a date range that goes back to an app's release, it is expected that the in-period and total amount would be the same, but for iOS and Mac apps they may not.

This is a result of how Apple provides data.

The short answer - the All Net Download sum is the most accurate number.

The long(er) answer:

Apple reports downloads and revenue in several granularities. For each, they have a different retention policy. This retention policy means that every granularity is limited in the number of periods we can import data for when an account is linked for the first time.

This is particularly problematic with daily reports for apps that joined Appfigures after being released, as we calculate the in-period total using the selected granularity.

The retention policy for daily reports started as 7 days in 2008, and was gradually increased over the years to 365. That means that if your app has been live for more than a year before you started tracking it with Appfigures, the in-period number won't be complete.

For the all-time total, we combine all available granularities intelligently to produce an accurate total, which is the true number you should be using.