diff --git a/.github/workflows/collect-play.yml b/.github/workflows/collect-play.yml
index 5770a488..4d73fa45 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/collect-play.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/collect-play.yml
@@ -60,6 +60,11 @@ jobs:
         git diff --cached --quiet || git commit -m "chore: update Play Console stats"
     - name: Push changes
       if: env.HAS_SA == 'true'
-      uses: ad-m/github-push-action@fe38f0a751bf9149f0270cc1fe20bf9156854365
-      with:
-        github_token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
+      run: |
+        # Both stats workflows push to master; retry on a rejected push.
+        for i in 1 2 3 4 5; do
+          git push origin HEAD:master && exit 0
+          sleep $((i * 5))
+          git pull --rebase origin master
+        done
+        exit 1
diff --git a/.github/workflows/collect-stats.yml b/.github/workflows/collect-stats.yml
index 20ab7d7b..60e626a9 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/collect-stats.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/collect-stats.yml
@@ -10,7 +10,15 @@ on:
   #pull_requests:
   #  branches: [ master ]
   schedule:
-    - cron:  '0 */6 * * *'
+    # Every 10 minutes; the "Decide whether to collect" step below only collects
+    # every 6 hours outside a launch window. GitHub may delay scheduled runs, so
+    # every row carries its own timestamp.
+    - cron:  '*/10 * * * *'
+
+# Never let two collections race on the push.
+concurrency:
+  group: collect-stats
+  cancel-in-progress: false
 
 jobs:
   build:
@@ -21,13 +29,32 @@ jobs:
 
     steps:
     - uses: actions/checkout@v4
+    - name: Decide whether to collect
+      id: cadence
+      run: |
+        # High-resolution window (UTC) around the v0.14.0 launch; 10-minute
+        # samples correlate downloads with posts (data/launch-events.csv).
+        # Outside it, collect only if the last sample is ~6 h old.
+        WINDOW_END=2026-10-27
+        now=$(date -u +%s)
+        last=$(tail -n 1 data/stats.csv | cut -d, -f1)
+        age=$(( now - $(date -u -d "$last" +%s) ))
+        if [ "$GITHUB_EVENT_NAME" != "schedule" ] || [ "$now" -lt "$(date -u -d "$WINDOW_END" +%s)" ] || [ "$age" -ge 21000 ]; then
+          echo "collect=true" >> "$GITHUB_OUTPUT"
+        else
+          echo "collect=false" >> "$GITHUB_OUTPUT"
+          echo "Outside the launch window and last sample is only ${age}s old; skipping."
+        fi
     - name: Install uv
+      if: steps.cadence.outputs.collect == 'true'
       uses: astral-sh/setup-uv@v5
       with:
         python-version: ${{ matrix.python-version }}
     - name: Install dependencies
+      if: steps.cadence.outputs.collect == 'true'
       run: uv sync
     - name: Collect and append stats
+      if: steps.cadence.outputs.collect == 'true'
       env:
         GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
       run: |
@@ -42,12 +69,19 @@ jobs:
         # breakdowns). Appends only assets whose count changed since last logged.
         uv run python3 collect_stats.py --assets --csv >> data/stats-assets.csv
     - name: Commit
+      if: steps.cadence.outputs.collect == 'true'
       run: |
         git config --local user.email "noreply@github.com"
         git config --local user.name "GitHub Action"
         git add data/stats.csv data/releases.csv data/stats-assets.csv
         git commit -m "chore: update stats"
     - name: Push changes
-      uses: ad-m/github-push-action@fe38f0a751bf9149f0270cc1fe20bf9156854365
-      with:
-        github_token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
+      if: steps.cadence.outputs.collect == 'true'
+      run: |
+        # Both stats workflows push to master; retry on a rejected push.
+        for i in 1 2 3 4 5; do
+          git push origin HEAD:master && exit 0
+          sleep $((i * 5))
+          git pull --rebase origin master
+        done
+        exit 1
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index cdcf764d..7040dfa2 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -28,6 +28,9 @@ The following is manually updated:
  - `chrome-weekly-users.csv` - Chrome extension weekly active users
  - `firefox-daily-users.csv` - Firefox extension daily active users
  - `notes.csv` - Manual entries of major/interesting events
+ - `launch-events.csv` - Timestamped launch posts (UTC; channel, url, note), to line up with the
+   high-resolution download samples. During a launch window (see `WINDOW_END` in
+   `.github/workflows/collect-stats.yml`) stats are collected every ~10 minutes instead of every 6 hours.
 
 
 ## Android vitals
diff --git a/analyze_stats.py b/analyze_stats.py
index 8292fba9..7db7f3a2 100644
--- a/analyze_stats.py
+++ b/analyze_stats.py
@@ -4,6 +4,8 @@
 import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
 import pandas as pd
 
+from collect_stats import is_updater_asset
+
 
 def _load_downloads():
     df = pd.read_csv("data/stats.csv", index_col="timestamp", parse_dates=True)
@@ -50,18 +52,35 @@ def _load_android_rating():
     return df
 
 
-def _load_assets():
+def _load_assets(include_updater: bool = False):
     """Raw per-asset download counts over time (long format).
 
     Columns: timestamp, tag, asset, platform, downloads. The collector logs an
     asset only when its count changes, so this is sparse — see _asset_series()
     for the forward-filled reconstruction.
+
+    Tauri updater assets (latest.json polls, .sig, .app.tar.gz) are dropped
+    unless `include_updater`: they count update checks, not downloads. See
+    updater_checks().
     """
     df = pd.read_csv("data/stats-assets.csv")
     df["timestamp"] = pd.to_datetime(df["timestamp"], utc=True)
+    if not include_updater:
+        df = df[~df["asset"].map(is_updater_asset)]
     return df
 
 
+def updater_checks(df=None):
+    """Time series of Tauri update checks (latest.json fetches) per release.
+
+    Every running aw-tauri polls releases/latest/download/latest.json, so the
+    growth rate of the current release's count tracks active Tauri installs.
+    """
+    df = _load_assets(include_updater=True) if df is None else df
+    df = df[df["asset"] == "latest.json"]
+    return _asset_series(df)
+
+
 def _asset_series(df=None):
     """Wide per-(tag, asset) download counts, forward-filled over time.
 
diff --git a/collect_stats.py b/collect_stats.py
index 00ac54ec..f51e2cc3 100644
--- a/collect_stats.py
+++ b/collect_stats.py
@@ -78,10 +78,24 @@ def downloads_by_asset() -> list[dict]:
     return rows
 
 
+def is_updater_asset(asset_name: str) -> bool:
+    """Assets fetched by the Tauri in-app updater, not by people downloading.
+
+    `latest.json` is polled by every running aw-tauri install (via
+    releases/latest/download/latest.json), and the `.sig` / `.app.tar.gz` files
+    are what the updater downloads to apply an update. Their counts measure
+    update checks and applied updates, so they are kept in the per-asset series
+    but excluded from the headline download total.
+    """
+    return asset_name == "latest.json" or asset_name.endswith((".sig", ".app.tar.gz"))
+
+
 def downloads(verbose=False) -> int:
-    """Total downloads across all release assets."""
+    """Total downloads across all release assets, excluding updater traffic."""
     total = 0
     for r in downloads_by_asset():
+        if is_updater_asset(r["asset"]):
+            continue
         if verbose:
             print(f' - {r["tag"]} [{r["platform"]}] {r["asset"]}: {r["downloads"]}')
         total += r["downloads"]
diff --git a/data/launch-events.csv b/data/launch-events.csv
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..32c733be
--- /dev/null
+++ b/data/launch-events.csv
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+timestamp,channel,url,note
+2026-10-06T13:38:00+00:00,github,https://github.com/ActivityWatch/activitywatch/releases/tag/v0.14.0,v0.14.0 published
+2026-10-06T17:00:00+00:00,discord,,v0.14.0 announcement in #announcements (approximate time)
diff --git a/test_collect_stats.py b/test_collect_stats.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..f4dfe93b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test_collect_stats.py
@@ -0,0 +1,53 @@
+import collect_stats
+from collect_stats import is_updater_asset, platform
+
+
+def test_updater_assets_are_excluded_from_downloads():
+    assert is_updater_asset("latest.json")
+    assert is_updater_asset("activitywatch-tauri-0.14.0-darwin-aarch64.app.tar.gz")
+    assert is_updater_asset("activitywatch-tauri-0.14.0-linux-aarch64.AppImage.sig")
+    assert not is_updater_asset("activitywatch-v0.14.0-windows-x86_64-setup.exe")
+    assert not is_updater_asset("activitywatch-tauri-0.14.0-linux-x86_64.AppImage")
+    assert not is_updater_asset("activitywatch-v0.14.0-macos-arm64.dmg")
+
+
+def test_platform():
+    assert platform("activitywatch-tauri-0.14.0-darwin-aarch64.app.tar.gz") == "macos"
+    assert platform("latest.json") == "unknown"
+
+
+def test_downloads_total_excludes_updater_assets(monkeypatch):
+    assets = [
+        {
+            "tag": "v0.14.0",
+            "asset": "activitywatch-v0.14.0-windows-x86_64-setup.exe",
+            "platform": "windows",
+            "downloads": 300,
+        },
+        {
+            "tag": "v0.14.0",
+            "asset": "activitywatch-tauri-0.14.0-linux-x86_64.AppImage",
+            "platform": "linux",
+            "downloads": 20,
+        },
+        {
+            "tag": "v0.14.0",
+            "asset": "latest.json",
+            "platform": "unknown",
+            "downloads": 51,
+        },
+        {
+            "tag": "v0.14.0",
+            "asset": "activitywatch-tauri-0.14.0-darwin-aarch64.app.tar.gz",
+            "platform": "macos",
+            "downloads": 6,
+        },
+        {
+            "tag": "v0.14.0",
+            "asset": "activitywatch-tauri-0.14.0-darwin-aarch64.app.tar.gz.sig",
+            "platform": "macos",
+            "downloads": 3,
+        },
+    ]
+    monkeypatch.setattr(collect_stats, "downloads_by_asset", lambda: assets)
+    assert collect_stats.downloads() == 320