ARPU (average revenue per user) is total revenue divided by the number of users over a period. It condenses monetization into one comparable number and is watched closely alongside subscriber count, because growth can come from more users or from earning more per user.
ARPU exposes the trade-offs between models and tiers: a cheap ad tier may have lower ARPU but expand the audience; a premium tier raises ARPU but may limit reach. Hybrid services track ARPU per tier to see where value comes from, and combine it with churn to estimate lifetime value - the figures that justify content and acquisition spend.
