A heatmap is a graphical representation of a single viewing or listening session of your media. Each public view of a Wistia-hosted media file generates a heatmap that illustrates a viewer’s interaction with the content.

Heatmaps are a powerful tool for understanding how your audience engages with your content. Are viewers skipping a certain section of your video? Do international fans tune out quicker than local ones? Is your Call to Action resulting in clicks? Heatmaps can provide you with these insights and more.

Heatmaps contain audience information, contextual information (when and where the media was played), and a color-coded timeline of events.

At the end of each heatmap is the total percentage of the media your audience member played (parts played multiple times are counted only once).

The date and time to the left of the heatmap indicate when the media was played.

Next to the time, you’ll see a number in a blue or grey box—this number indicates the total number of your Wistia videos this person has watched. If the box is blue, you’re looking at an identified audience member. Viewers are identified when they fill out a Wistia Form, click through an email campaign that passes their email address, or watch while logged in to Wistia on a public media page, the Share Video page, or a Share for Review link with tracking turned on.

The small caret next to the audience member's name and location opens the heatmaps to show even more data. Here you’ll find stuff like device (browser and environment), IP address, and the page where they played the media.

Click the viewer's name or network to open their individual viewer page, or go to View Stream in your account analytics to access all heatmaps. The View Stream is account-wide, so it shows heatmaps for every media in your account.

Heatmaps are color-coded to show you which sections of your media a particular audience member found interesting.

The more the viewer engages with your media, the “hotter” the color on the heatmap.

Do you see a grey dot with a white circle in the middle of your heatmap? That icon is a waypoint, a visual indicator that your audience member took a specific action on your media (e.g., clicked on a CTA or Annotation Link). Hover over the waypoint to see exactly what that action was.

Waypoints show you what action was taken, but not who took it. To see which viewer clicked your CTA, add a Wistia Form to your media so viewers are identified before they watch.

You can export heatmaps to CSV by clicking "Export Stats to CSV" at the bottom of the Engagement page.

In the "Export Stats" modal, specify a date range, or leave blank to export all available events.

Heatmaps are only created when the Wistia player can send viewing data back to us. Ad blockers, VPNs, and privacy-focused browsers can block that, so try a test view with extensions turned off. New heatmaps can also take a little while to appear during busy periods.

If you shared the video through a link shortener or redirect, check that the final URL still includes the viewer's email parameter (wemail). Some shorteners keep UTM parameters but drop it. To see what an anonymous viewer sees, test in an incognito or private window.

Views from your media's page inside your account aren't tracked. Views on public or embedded pages are. Use IP filtering in your account settings to exclude your team's views.

Still stuck? Check out our Analytics Troubleshooting guide for help.