What is considered a good audience retention rate for YouTube videos?

I've found that audience retention rates can be quite context-dependent. For example, my average retention is around 33%, but my best-performing video had a retention of 55%. It seems like shorter videos tend to have better retention rates, but it also heavily relies on the niche you're targeting.

When evaluating retention, I think it's important to consider your video's length. My first two videos were around 20 minutes long, and they had retention rates of about 65% at the 30-second mark and 30% by the end. Meanwhile, my longer video had decent retention at 30% even at the 20-minute mark, which I consider a win for longer content.

In my own analysis, I noticed that my retention rates hover around 33%, similar to what you mentioned. However, I've also been experimenting with different formats and pacing to see if I can improve that number. It's an ongoing process of understanding what hooks my audience.

From my experience, a good audience retention rate can vary significantly based on the type of content you're producing. For my most successful video, which has around 120,000 views, I managed to keep about 75% of viewers engaged for the first 30 seconds, but that dropped to 20% by the end. This was a longer video, clocking in at 36 minutes, which may explain the drop-off, but it still seems to resonate well with my audience.