How to Show Retention Report Breakdown by First Event Property Without Filtering Specific Values

Philip · 2026-02-16T23:57:14.550Z

Retention report. I'm trying to show a breakdown by property of first event. But 'breakdown' breaks down by property of every event in the funnel. I can kindof achieve this by clicking the "filter" next to the first event and then picking the value of the first event. But then I only get the retention rate for a specific value, not a breakdown of all values

How to Show Retention Report Breakdown by First Event Property Without Filtering Specific Values | Mixpanel Community

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kapa.ai
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Hi Philip, Please stand by as I search the Mixpanel knowledge base for an AI-powered answer. I normally take about 15 seconds or so. In case AI cannot answer your question, feel free to reach out to Mixpanel support at mixpanel.com/get-support. If you have follow-up questions for this thread, please tag me again with your question: @kapa.ai <follow-up question> 👋
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kapa.ai
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The knowledge sources don’t explicitly describe a “property attribution” control for Retention like Funnels has, so I can’t confirm a way to make Retention breakdowns use only the first event’s property in the same flexible way. I’ll outline what is documented and what that implies.What Retention does support: - You define a Retention Behavior as “do Event A, then come back and do Event B.” [Retention quickstart] - You can: - Add filters (global) to restrict which events/users are included. [Reports filters; Retention quickstart] - Add breakdowns to segment the metric by a property or cohort. [Reports breakdowns; Retention quickstart]However, the docs only describe “breakdowns” generically (grouping results by a property), and do not mention any Retention-specific option to say “use the property value from the first event only,” nor any Retention equivalent of Funnels’ “First Step Defined / Last Step Defined / Per-Step” property attribution. Those attribution controls are documented only for Funnels. [Funnels property attribution]So, based on the docs: - A Retention breakdown will segment the metric result by the chosen property, but the sources don’t state that you can pin that property specifically to the first event only. - Using a filter on the first event (as you discovered) lets you isolate one value of that property, but you’re right: that gives you a single segment, not a multi-value breakdown.Because the documentation doesn’t describe a way to: - tell Retention “break down by property X, but only from the first event,” or - apply a Funnels-style “First Step Defined” attribution in Retention,I’m not able to point you to a documented setting that would give you a full breakdown of all first-event property values in one Retention report.If this behavior is critical, you may need to: - continue using filters to inspect one value at a time, or - consider whether a Funnels report (which does have property attribution controls) can approximate the question you’re asking about post-event behavior, since Funnels can break down by a property attributed to a specific step. [Funnels property attribution]But to be transparent: the knowledge sources do not document a direct way in Retention to do “breakdown by property of first event only” across all values.
kapa.ai is still learning and improving, please let me know how I did by reacting below.
ℹ️ Tip: Mention @kapa.ai in the thread for follow-ups or DM the app for 1-to-1 help.

kapa.ai
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·
Hi Philip, Please stand by as I search the Mixpanel knowledge base for an AI-powered answer. I normally take about 15 seconds or so. In case AI cannot answer your question, feel free to reach out to Mixpanel support at mixpanel.com/get-support. If you have follow-up questions for this thread, please tag me again with your question: @kapa.ai <follow-up question> 👋
Feel free to ask a follow-up question once I've answered by mentioning me with @kapa.ai
kapa.ai
APP
·
·
The knowledge sources don’t explicitly describe a “property attribution” control for Retention like Funnels has, so I can’t confirm a way to make Retention breakdowns use only the first event’s property in the same flexible way. I’ll outline what is documented and what that implies.What Retention does support: - You define a Retention Behavior as “do Event A, then come back and do Event B.” [Retention quickstart] - You can: - Add filters (global) to restrict which events/users are included. [Reports filters; Retention quickstart] - Add breakdowns to segment the metric by a property or cohort. [Reports breakdowns; Retention quickstart]However, the docs only describe “breakdowns” generically (grouping results by a property), and do not mention any Retention-specific option to say “use the property value from the first event only,” nor any Retention equivalent of Funnels’ “First Step Defined / Last Step Defined / Per-Step” property attribution. Those attribution controls are documented only for Funnels. [Funnels property attribution]So, based on the docs: - A Retention breakdown will segment the metric result by the chosen property, but the sources don’t state that you can pin that property specifically to the first event only. - Using a filter on the first event (as you discovered) lets you isolate one value of that property, but you’re right: that gives you a single segment, not a multi-value breakdown.Because the documentation doesn’t describe a way to: - tell Retention “break down by property X, but only from the first event,” or - apply a Funnels-style “First Step Defined” attribution in Retention,I’m not able to point you to a documented setting that would give you a full breakdown of all first-event property values in one Retention report.If this behavior is critical, you may need to: - continue using filters to inspect one value at a time, or - consider whether a Funnels report (which does have property attribution controls) can approximate the question you’re asking about post-event behavior, since Funnels can break down by a property attributed to a specific step. [Funnels property attribution]But to be transparent: the knowledge sources do not document a direct way in Retention to do “breakdown by property of first event only” across all values.
kapa.ai is still learning and improving, please let me know how I did by reacting below.
ℹ️ Tip: Mention @kapa.ai in the thread for follow-ups or DM the app for 1-to-1 help.