What YouTube doesn't tell you about view counts

We timed it to the second on hidden test videos, and one move skipped the wait.  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ 

We timed it to the second on hidden test videos, and one move skipped the wait.

DEEP DIVE

ENGAGED VIEWS What Turns A View Into An Engaged View YouTube defines an engaged view as "clicking to watch or watching past the initial seconds." It has never said how many seconds. Since August, a view counts from the very first frame, even in a homepage preview, so that number is what separates your views from your engaged views. So we tested it. We uploaded test videos to a channel nobody watches, then watched each one for different lengths of time and checked YouTube Studio after every try. Watch the timing test →

About 10 Seconds Of Preview, Or One Click What counted as engaged in our test, on long-form videos of 2, 5 and 10 minutes. Homepage or search preview Clicked to watch   Engaged in under a second 0s 5s 7-9s 10s 12s 15s 20s 30s ● Engaged view    ○ View only    ◐ On the line Ten seconds counted on the 2-minute video but not the 5-minute one; beyond that, length didn't move the cutoff, and Shorts weren't tested. Vote for the number you check first, and you'll see what's typical for it.

VIDIQ CREATOR POLL What Do You Check First After An Upload?   Views👀   Likes👍   Comments💬   Subscribers🔔 Mulai, pick one and we will show you what everyone else said.

Where About Half Of Views Stop On average across 100 channels we checked, about 54% of views are engaged, so close to half end at the preview. That preview is your video's opening seconds, so they're worth an extra pass on your next upload. Strangest of all, a 5-second video played start to finish in search still didn't count as engaged. See The 5-Second Video Test Talk soon, Rob from vidIQ

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