FEATURE / RETENTION & EPISODES

Every episode, second by second.

Episode-level retention pulled straight from Apple Podcasts, Spotify and YouTube — the real curve, never an estimate, so you can see exactly where listeners stay and where they leave.

THE CURVE

The most actionable view in PodAnalyst.

Retention shows how much of the audience was still listening, second by second. A sharp drop in the first minute or two means the opening didn’t match what the title promised. A cliff at one timestamp points at an ad break, a topic change, or an audio problem. A gradual slope is normal — and a bump or a flat stretch is something working.

At a glance, four checkpoints tell you how the episode held up: the 25%, 50%, 75% and 100% marks, each scored against every other show in the platform.

Retention

Percentage of listeners retained over time

25% Mark

77%

Good

Better than 73%

50% Mark

67%

Good

Better than 62%

75% Mark

56%

Average

Middle 48%

100% Mark

35%

Good

Better than 73%

THE DASHBOARD

Four numbers, and the trend behind each.

Unique listeners, listening hours, plays and followers — each with its change since last month. Switch between monthly, the past 60 days, or all time; filter to one platform or read them together; group by day, week, month or year; and flip to a running total when you want the cumulative shape.

The episodes table below it compares every episode on the numbers that matter: starting listeners, how far each one beat or trailed your average, and retention at the 25, 50, 75 and 100 percent marks. Sort by any column, and see at a glance which episodes are carrying the show.

EpisodeStarting listeners% from Avg25%50%75%100%

Ep. 47 — The Long Take24,180+18%94%76%61%38%

Ep. 46 — Signal & Noise19,640+6%91%72%58%34%

Ep. 45 — Cold Open17,020−9%88%69%54%31%

Pro and above. On the Community plan the retention columns are blurred — upgrade to Pro to unlock them.

ONE CHART, THREE PLATFORMS

Where the platforms disagree is the signal.

Apple, Spotify and YouTube are plotted on the same curve, so you can see how each audience behaves. Spotify tends to sample more widely; Apple listeners arrive more committed; YouTube viewers watch further before they drop. A gap between the lines is expected — a divergence in shape is what tells you something.

Shift-click anywhere on the chart to pin a note to a moment, and your team can reply in the thread.

YouTube is a Pro and Network platform. On Community the chart plots Apple and Spotify.

Ep. 47 loses listeners fastest between 2:00 and 5:00 — 18 points steeper than your show average for that window. The 6:40 cliff lines up with the ad break.

What should I change next episode?

Move the ad break past 7:00 and tighten the first five minutes — that’s where your two best-retaining episodes hold.

See where your listeners actually go.
Go get the curve.

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