Your show

Episode detail

One episode's performance, retention curve, and how Apple and Spotify compare.

What this page is for

This is a single episode under a microscope — how many people it reached, how long they stayed, and where the two platforms disagree about it.

Reach it by clicking any row on the Episodes page.

The metric tabs

Switch between Unique listeners, Plays, and Listening hours to change what the chart plots. Each one tells a different story about the same episode:

  • Unique listeners — how far it reached
  • Plays — how often it was started
  • Listening hours — how much attention it actually earned

60 days vs all time

An episode's first two months are when almost all of its listening happens, so by default the page shows the 60-day window — a like-for-like comparison against every other episode.

Switch to all time to see the episode's full life, which is useful for evergreen back-catalogue episodes that keep getting discovered.

The retention curve

The chart shows how much of the audience was still listening, second by second, through the episode. This is the most actionable view in PodAnalyst — you can see the exact moment people leave.

Common shapes and what they usually mean:

  • A sharp drop in the first minute or two — the opening didn't match what the title or description promised.
  • A cliff at a specific timestamp — something concrete happened there. A long ad break, a topic change, an audio problem.
  • A gradual, even slope — normal. Listeners drift away steadily.
  • A bump or a flat stretch — something in that section is working. Worth repeating.

Cross-reference the timestamp with your own episode notes. If the drop lines up with the ad break, that's your answer.

Comparing Apple and Spotify

Both platforms are plotted on the same chart. Their audiences behave differently — Spotify listeners tend to sample more widely, Apple listeners tend to be more committed — so a gap between the two lines is expected, not a problem. What matters is when the shape differs between them, which usually points at something platform-specific.

Use the platform filter to isolate one at a time.

Annotations

Shift-click the chart to pin a note to a specific point — useful for marking where a drop or a bump happens, so the explanation lives with the data. Teammates can reply in the thread.

Getting there from here

  • Back to the full list — Episodes
  • How this episode compares to your show's average — Episodes
  • Ask about it directly — the Ask Iris rail is on every page. Try "what happened at the drop in this episode?"