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Episode Analytics ​

Every episode has its own analytics page. Where the main Analytics workspace shows your whole show, this page answers a narrower question: how did this one episode do?

Open an episode's analytics ​

There are two ways in:

  1. In the sidebar, click Analytics, scroll to the Episodes table, and click the episode's title.
  2. Or open the episode in the editor, switch to the Publish tab, and click View analytics on the Episode analytics card.

Use the Back to episode link at the top of the page to return to the editor.

Externally hosted shows

show.fm does not serve the audio on an externally hosted show, so it has no download data of its own. On a manual show the page shows a labelled sample preview. Once the podcast owner connects your host (Transistor), episodes sent through the connection show your host's download numbers, pulled once a day, labelled Downloads from Transistor; apps, countries and devices are not part of what the host shares. Episodes you published by hand before connecting keep the preview, because Transistor's numbers are read by the episode id it gave show.fm, which those episodes do not have. See Externally Hosted Shows.

The three headline tiles ​

  • All-time downloads: the episode's lifetime total, counted to the same industry rules as the rest of your analytics (bots removed, one download per listener per day). This total ignores the date range picker.
  • First 7 days: downloads in the seven days from the episode's first download. Because older episodes have had longer to accumulate downloads, this is the fairest way to compare episodes against each other.
  • First download: the date the episode was first downloaded, with the most recent download date underneath.

Downloads over time ​

The Downloads over time chart plots daily downloads for your selected range. Pick a range at the top of the page: Last 7 days, Last 30 days, Last 90 days, Last 12 months, or All time.

Ranges longer than your plan's analytics history show a lock icon. Your data is still collected in full, and upgrading unlocks the longer view retroactively. Plan windows are listed in Understanding Your Analytics.

Days are UTC

Like everywhere in show.fm analytics, days are counted in UTC. A late-evening download can land on the "next" day if you're west of the UK.

Read the launch curve ​

The Launch curve shows cumulative downloads since the episode's first download day, at four milestones: Day 1, Week 1, Month 1, and Quarter.

Launch comparisons matter because lifetime totals are unfair to newer episodes: an episode from last year has had months longer to collect downloads than one from last week. Comparing the same-age windows (how each episode did in its first day, week, month, and quarter) tells you whether your show is actually growing and which topics land hardest at release.

If the launch curve is missing

The launch curve needs your selected date range to reach back to the episode's first download. If you don't see it, pick a longer range.

See who listened ​

The Audience section breaks this episode's downloads in the selected range into ranked lists:

  • Apps: which listening apps delivered the episode.
  • Countries: where listeners are.
  • Devices: phones, computers, smart speakers, and so on. Device breakdowns are part of advanced analytics (all paid plans).

Below those sit Sources and Embedded on, which show plays that came through your embedded player and public listen pages. See Player and embed attribution for how to read them.

Check talk time ​

For interview shows, the Talk time panel shows who spoke and for how long, taken from the episode's transcript: each speaker with their share of the conversation as a percentage and in minutes. It's a quick balance check, for example when you want to confirm your guest got more airtime than you did.

Talk time needs two things:

  • Advanced analytics (all paid plans).
  • A transcript for the episode. See Transcripts.

If either is missing, the panel simply doesn't appear.

See downloads from before you moved ​

If you imported download history from your previous host, an episode with imported figures also shows a Before show.fm card at the bottom of this page. It shows the downloads your old host reported for the episode and the period they cover, labelled with where they came from.

These figures are kept apart from everything above: they are not part of All-time downloads, First 7 days or the launch curve. Hosts and Producers on paid plans see the card. Click Manage imported history to go to the import on your Analytics page. See Import download history.

If the page says "No downloads recorded yet" ​

Downloads appear within about an hour of listeners fetching the episode. For a brand-new episode, listeners' apps also need to poll your feed first, so give it a few hours after publishing. If the episode isn't published yet, the page tells you so; there's nothing to count until it's live.

What's Next? ​

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