Episode Stats Overview

The episode stats page is a wellspring of data. Accessible by clicking Analyze on an episode’s page, the episodes stats page is the place to find data about an episode’s performance. Statistical information like engagement, play rate, action stats (and more!) all live here.

If you want a quick refresh on the terminology we’re using, head over to the Wistia Glossary. Otherwise, read on, friend, for all of the nitty gritty details about understanding Wistia episode stats. As a reminder, Episode stats refer to analytics for your Video Episode or Audio episode and we will be covering both below.

Note
An episode’s Analyze page will show you information about plays specifically through Wistia and Wistia embeds. This doesn’t include play data from podcasting apps. For this, head on over to your Channel’s Analyze page. And, you can find more information on Channel stats here!

Engagement Graph

The blue section of the engagement graph shows the engagement of audience members who clicked play on the episode. The orange section above shows the number of times that section of the episode was replayed. Move your cursor over the graph to see specific information for a time or frame in the episode, and click the graph to play the episode from that point.

Want to know more? There’s a lot to engage with on this subject, and we’ve got it covered on our Help Center page all about engagement graphs.

Summary Bar

The summary bar next to the engagement graph displays overall data for the episode.

You can use this for high-level data comparison between the percentage of your audience who clicked play, percent viewed, and the total time your audience spent consuming your content.

Curious about how we got these numbers? Click Show Details for a deeper explanation of this information and to check out the formulas we use to calculate them.

Average Engagement

On the episode stats page you’ll see Average Engagement next to the engagement graph. The average engagement for your episode’s playback represents how much attention your audience is paying to your content.

Engagement is calculated by looking at the total plays and multiplying that number by the length of the episode. This gives us the total amount of time your audience could have spent with your episode (or 100% engagement rate). Then we take the actual time people spent with the episode (hours watched or listened), and divide that by the first number. And ta-da! Engagement rate.

Tip
If you ever forget this calculation, you can always click the Show Details button on your stats page to see the breakdown again.

Total Plays

Below Average Engagement on the episode stats page you’ll next see Total Plays. This one’s pretty easy. Total plays shows you the raw number of times your episode was played — no matter how long your audience member sticks around.

If you’d like to drill down further into this stat, click Show Details to see more.

Play Rate

Finally, below Average Engagement and Total Plays on the episode stats page, you’ll see Play Rate. Play rate, like average engagement, is a calculated stat.

We take the number of unique plays and divide it by the number of unique page loads. We calculate loads as anyone who loaded the player on your page (which, for the most part, unless you’ve done some fancy coding, or your viewers were super fast when running away from your page 🏃) is pretty synonymous with your webpage loads.

Actions

Actions are an easy way to track audience engagement from Calls to Action, Annotation Links, and Turnstile email submissions. Actions also include clicks on the Share buttons and navigation with Chapters.

Note
Our audio player is pretty amazing, but at the moment a number of customizations are not available for them. Calls to Action, Turnstiles, and Annotations are only availabe for Video Episodes. Keep that in mind when looking at your Timeline Actions!

Hovering over a waypoint below the engagement graph will show what percentage of people took a certain action during your episode — like entering their email. Clicking the waypoint reveals the individual heatmaps for those audience members. Waypoints indicate actions taken on Timeline Actions, which include Turnstile submissions, and clicks on calls to actions and annotation links.

Chapter markers are indicated with a smaller dot below the Engagement Graph. Hovering over the dot displays the chapter title, and the total number of clicks that chapter received.

Tip
Have more than one action on your timeline, and can’t remember which one comes first, second, or even seventh? No worries! Hovering over the waypoint on a heatmap will show you the exact action a viewer took.

Curious to see how many people shared your media in their social networks using the Share buttons? See the total count by selecting Show Details. There you’ll see the total number of shares and the share rate. Scroll down to the individual heatmaps, and then hover over the smaller grey dots to reveal which Share button the viewer selected.

Heatmaps

Heatmaps live right underneath your episode’s Engagement Graph. Heatmaps are a graphical representations of an individual audience member’s time with your content. You can see when they started their session, how much of the episode they listened to or viewed, and if they took any actions while doing so. Heatmaps are color-coded to show which parts of the episode were the most interesting 🔥. Check out the heatmaps page for more.

Note
A heads up to our podcasting friends, Heatmaps will only capture listener engagement that happens within Wistia or from a Wistia embedded episode.

Stats Troubleshooting

Having problems with your stats? Bummer! Your first step is to check out our Status Page to confirm that nothing funky is happening on our side of things.

Then head over to the Stats Troubleshooting page to check out our tips.