Blubrry is starting the new year by releasing monthly statistics on the shows it hosts. That includes the global listener retention rates that shows the average episode held 84.49% of its listeners through to the end during December. The data shows the biggest drop-off rates came during the first and final quarters of the episode, each losing about six percent of their audience, while overall, the vast majority of listeners stick with a show.
Blubrry also reports that among episodes that had more than 50,000 plays or listens, the typical episode had an average of more than twice that last month – with an average of 104,999 plays. On the other end of the spectrum, episodes that had between 100 and 1,000 listens had an average of 152 plays last month.
Even with changes to iOS, Blubrry says a majority (58%) of the podcasts it hosts were listened to via Apple Podcasts during December. Google Podcasts – the app that is being sunset in April – accounted for 2.58%. Blurry also has a bigger international reach than many other hosting companies, with the U.S. accounting for 51% of its downloads in December.
Blubrry says by its count there are 4,316,329 podcasts and it tracked 436,895 new episodes in its directory at the start of the year. Religion & Spirituality accounted for 22% of them, followed by News (19%) and Sports (9%). See all the month’s data HERE.