Mobile App Push Notification Benchmarks for 2023 Have Arrived

Since 2009, when Airship sent the first commercial push notification, we’ve made it our business to guide brands on harnessing the power of notifications across the customer lifecycle. 

This year we analyzed more than 665 billion notifications sent to more than 2.5 billion users across 13 verticals — offering the most robust push notification performance benchmarks available anywhere. Findings suggest that:

Segmentation and personalization are driving more efficient and effective use of push notifications, resulting in higher open rates and fewer sends. Notification opt-in rates continue to grow as well.

You can’t evaluate the success of your mobile app campaigns unless you can measure and compare them to others in your industry. Our Mobile App Push Notification Benchmarks for 2023 aggregates last year’s push notification performance across nearly 5,000 apps to provide clear benchmarks and a starting point on your journey to optimize your own push messaging performance. 

Get answers to these and other questions:

• 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?

Verticals with performance benchmarks include:

• Charities, Foundations and Nonprofits
• Education
• Entertainment
• Finance & Insurance
• Food & Beverage
• Gaming & Gambling 
• Media 
• Medical, Health & Fitness 
• Retail
• Social 
• Sports & Recreation
• Travel & Transportation
• Utility & Productivity

Take the first step and get depth and data on the following key takeaways: 

Push notification opt-in rates 

Many brands anticipated a decrease in opt-ins following the 2022 release of Android 13, and they still do. However, our benchmark study shows an increase in median push opt-in rates across both iOS and Android. As brands continue to focus on the customer experience across the mobile app lifecycle, consumers will continue to see the value of opting in. 

Push notification direct open rates 

The median push notification direct open rate increased over the previous year. As we continue to see brands using more robust segmentation and personalization, we anticipate further increases. Past Airship research has found that highly targeted and personalized messages produce nearly 7X greater open rates, compared to messages broadcast more widely.

Average monthly push notifications per user 

Brands often ask us if they are over- or under-messaging their audiences. The answer is usually “it depends.” Our benchmark data provides detail for each vertical about what, exactly, it may depend on. 

For example, media, sports, entertainment and social apps send a myriad of messages related to real-time updates and customers’ preferences. As we continue to see increased adoption of Live Activities, we anticipate companies in these and other industries will replace sending multiple push notifications with a Live Activity that dynamically updates directly on the customers’ lock screen — from match scores, major developing news and workout stats, to updates on deliveries, ride-share arrivals, reservations and order-ready alerts. 

Download Airship’s Mobile App Push Notification Benchmarks for 2023 now. 

Have questions? Get in touch.