Sessions or Users - Are you already measuring or still estimating?

October 15, 2025•3 min read

I remember well when I first came into contact with Analytics in 2011 and saw “Users” and “Sessions” in the tool interface. How cool! Real people, you, me, us, measured accurately (anonymously, of course, but I'm not talking about that now), to whom one or more sessions could be assigned. There were “All Users,” “New Users,” and “Returning Users.” From these, you could calculate a “return rate” and see how many “existing users” a campaign had captured. This is important because they convert significantly better than new users. And are therefore also cheaper to acquire. 💪

Oh man, I can tell you, the disillusionment was huge. These weren't real people at all, but browsers. 🤦‍♂️ And if the person behind the browser deleted their cookies, they were a new person. 🙄 I mean, deleting cookies in your browser in 2011 was a real challenge, but it was supposed to happen. Rumor had it at the time that about 40% of users deleted cookies, which seemed like a lot to me personally. But there were no sources. You just heard it somewhere. Aha. 😕

With the introduction of GDPR and privacy tools in browsers over the years, people's awareness of cookies has increased. What used to be a simple snack was suddenly in your computer 😳 Hell! The cookie can't stay there. It has to go immediately.

Cartoon of a person vacuuming flying cookies from a laptop, representing browser cookie deletion and its effect on user tracking.

So more and more people deliberately deleted cookies, and even more people did so unintentionally, thanks to the friendly support of browser manufacturers. I think that's good. I like order.

The result was that you had more and more “new users” and, in general, more and more “all users”. But never mind. More is good for now. It's like the bounce rate 😏

Playful illustration of a happy person celebrating an absurd dashboard showing “1,000,000,000 Users,” humorously emphasizing inflated or misleading analytics metrics.

But wait a minute! There was something!?! If the user is identified in the analytics area via a cookie and (more and more) people delete their cookies, what does the “users” metric actually tell me?

Exactly! Nothing! 😐

That's crap! So this metric has always been a “feel-good” metric. It never had anything to do with reality. Nevertheless, it was there and was used diligently. It was (superficially) easier to understand than, for example, the “session” metric. Deleting cookies had (and has) no influence on “sessions”; “sessions” are measured accurately even without “user” cookies.

And I'll tell you what: the “users” metric is still being used 🤯

Client Use Case

Time for a little anecdote: when I once did an annual evaluation for a client based in Zurich, the client had measured approximately 8 million users for the year. It's important to note that the client only operates in Zurich. If this figure had been true, the entire population of Switzerland, with its around 8 million inhabitants, would have visited the client in Zurich. 🤩

Whimsical map of Zurich overflowing with smiling cartoon figures, illustrating exaggerated user counts in web analytics.

Sessions Are The New Users

Do you see what I mean? It's time to take up the cudgels for “sessions.” Sessions are the new “users.” Sessions are measured correctly. There may not be any cool metrics like “returning visitors,” but you can trust the number. And in combination with the usual suspects “bounce rate,” “time spent on site,” “page views per session,” and your own “micro and macro conversion rates,” you can build equally meaningful performance reports.

Energetic cartoon of a woman throwing “User Reports” into a recycling bin while celebrating a “Session Report” on her screen, representing a shift to better measurement.

Rethink

Yes, a rethink is necessary. The barrier is only in your head! 🧠 Throw users out of your reports. Advise your agencies to switch reporting to sessions. Train your internal stakeholders why “users” are invalid, and you now switch to “sessions”.