Read-through rate

Meaning

Read-through rate, yeondokryul, is the share of readers of a given episode who read the next one. If episode one has 1,000 views and episode two has 600, the 1-to-2 read-through is 60%. Because it can be computed per episode, it graphs exactly where readers leave. Platforms use it to decide promotions and paywall conversion; writers use it to diagnose weak episodes. Drop-off rate is the inverse (100% minus read-through).

Why it matters

View counts are the result of promotion, but read-through is the result of the writing. However good the cover and title, a weak episode one collapses episode two's read-through, and the platform's algorithm stops pushing the title. The read-through at the point where free episodes become paid (usually around episodes 15 to 25) decides paid revenue. Reading the curve exposes flaws. A sharp fall at one episode means its ending was weak or it contained a development readers rejected. A slow steady decline means the pacing is slow. A writer cannot fix the last episode by looking at read-through, but can fix the next title.

Example

Minjae opened the serial's statistics. Episode 1: 8,200. Episode 2: 5,100. Episode 3: 4,900. Episode 4: 4,800... Episode 12: 4,100. Episode 13: 2,300.

The 12-to-13 read-through alone was 56%. Everything else was above 90%. He opened episode 12 again. It was the one where the protagonist abandons a companion and runs for the first time. Twenty comments all said the same thing.

Read-through points precisely at the episode with the problem. Here the problem was not prose but the protagonist's choice (a loss of reader affection).

Common mistakes

• Watching views only. Episode-one views are made by marketing. Read-through is the work's skill.
• Fixing only the sentences of a fallen episode. Usually the problem is that episode's event or the protagonist's decision. Ask what broke the reader's expectation.
• Ignoring read-through at the paywall. The cut at the first paid episode should be the strongest in the whole serial.