Definition
A metric that measures the percentage of viewers who continue watching a video at any given point, expressed as a curve showing how audience size changes from the beginning to the end of the content. On YouTube, audience retention graphs are available in YouTube Studio analytics and show both absolute retention (percentage of viewers remaining at each moment) and relative retention (performance compared to similar videos). Audience retention rate is one of YouTube's most important algorithmic signals — videos with above-average retention are rewarded with increased recommendation distribution.