You’re right to question this, and you’ve hit a limitation of what the docs spell out clearly.
From the docs we do know:
- When you apply a breakdown, each funnel entry is assigned to a segment (bar) based on a property and a “property attribution” rule (First Step Defined, Last Step Defined, or a specific step). [Breakdowns; Property attribution]
- Users do not get counted in all bars at Step 1; they count in each segment “in which they qualify,” and to qualify for a new segment they must exit the previous attempt (unless you’re holding a property constant). [Breakdowns]
What the docs do not explicitly describe is the exact attribution behavior when:
- Your breakdown is effectively “by which of several OR’ed events was used at Step 3”, and
- A funnel attempt never reaches Step 3 (only does Step 1).
So I can’t definitively say, from the docs alone, how Mixpanel chooses between A/B/C for those “only Step‑1” attempts in your specific setup. The documentation just says:
- The segment value is determined by the selected property attribution (which step’s property value is used). [Property attribution]
- If that property is not defined on the chosen step, you can see undefined as a segment. [Property attribution]
Given that, there are two possibilities consistent with the docs:
1. Your breakdown is actually using a property that present at Step 1
In that case, even if the user never reaches Step 3, Step‑1’s property value is enough to decide whether the attempt belongs to A, B, or C. Then it’s not “the same for all bars” — the Step‑1 property value is the differentiator.
2. The breakdown is truly based only on which Step‑3 event fired
The docs don’t say how Mixpanel attributes attempts that never reach Step 3 in this exact configuration. It might:
- Put them into an undefined / $other segment, or
- Use some internal rule that isn’t documented.
Because the knowledge sources don’t go into this special case, I can’t reliably tell you which of those is happening in your project.
How to resolve this in your report (using only what the docs support):
1. Check the breakdown configuration and attribution:
