There is some confusion out there about how youTube counts video views. How do I know this? Well, at least I was confused. So here are a few things I figured out when learning about it.
YouTube Video View Count
YouTube counts videos as they are started. In as little as 5 seconds (i.e., if you only watch the first 5 seconds of a video), your video count is incremented. It could be less. I tested 5 and it worked. That’s enough for me. This is for watching videos ON YouTube.
Also from my research, I’ve come across a little hitch in the incrementing logic that says somewhere around 300 views (some people say at 308 views), YouTube freezes your view count while it starts sniffing around for view fraud. Obviously, since video view count is such a huge part of the ranking algorithm on YouTube, they are sensitive to people inflating their views. This can happen in a number of ways, but they basically want to comb through cookies and IP addresses to make sure that the video views up to and past this point are valid. I guess it’s possible 308 is some sort of a point of inflection that determines whether a video is actually popular, according to their math.
What about embedded videos?
This is where it starts getting a little wonky. From what I’ve been able to find (there isn’t much official documentation on this in their help section, unless I’m a dummy, which is possible), YouTube will increment the view count if you embed their own player and do NOT have autoplay enabled. So, what about the API, if you create your own player? It sounds like the view count on youtube.com will not be incremented if you choose to use your own (or a widget) player. I’ll have to do some testing to validate this, but it makes sense since you have a lot of control over video behavior in your own player and could just run video views to the moon.
If you have your player set to autoplay, this is also a case where video views will NOT be incremented. The reason for this is pretty obvious. People used to post their videos all over blogs, myspace, and wherever else they could to get as many views as possible. If the video begins playing on page load, rather than via user input, the more pageviews you get, the more plays you get, irrespective of whether people actually wanted to watch your cat jump into a wall. And this unfairly played to the advantage of major sites and media outlets, where it was easy for them to generate tens of thousands of pageviews in a day or a week.
So to recap:
YouTube video count WILL increment when:
- You watch a video on youtube.com, as long as you don’t reload the video a bazillion times (particularly as it approaches 308 views).
- You watch an embedded video (using YouTube’s own HTML5 or Flash player) on another domain that requires you to hit play.
YouTube will NOT increment video count when:
- You watch an embedded video in a player that has autoplay enabled (video begins playing immediately on page load).
- You watch a video that is loaded through a proprietary player via the YouTube API.
Hope this helps someone out there!
Tweet
4 Trackbacks
You can leave a trackback using this URL: http://www.atlantaanalytics.com/practicing-web-analytics/how-does-youtube-video-view-count-work/trackback/
How does YouTube video view count work?…
I consider myself late to the YouTube game and all its quirks. I also consider myself a self-made genius for figuring out how to post HD videos and that is saying a lot. I currently maintain two different channels, one for personal and home videos and …
[...] To Grow OrchidsItsBizkit – 50 Cent Returns to ABC’s “The View” (Video)How does YouTube video view count workHow does YouTube video view count workItsBizkit – 50 Cent Returns to [...]
[...] the tab open doesn’t count, we have to play it ourselves. But that’s not too much work! AtlantaAnalytics says that a view counts after watching only 5 seconds of the video! That’s very helpful [...]
[...] that it is watched until the end. A lot of viewers watch only a few seconds and stop the video. But this is still counted as one view. So Youtube publishers need a way to make a video more entertaining. The solution can be found [...]
28 Comments
tHANKS – GOOD EXPLANATION!!
Tested this on Facebook. If you play your video within the facebook, meaning, you’re just gonna use FB plugin, it will not count. So usually, i post just the link. ><
Wow, I have always wondered how the view counts work.
Thanks for useful information, it really helped me.
Great work!
If I wasn’t signed into my Youtube account and I watched a video, would that count as a view?
Thanks for the clafication. Great job figuring this out.
It doesn’t work on blogs… I’ve tried and the autoplay is of, but still no morw views.. And i know people have watch because they leaved plenty of comments.. So why doesn’t it get more views ?
The reason why the number of views increase is because YouTube post the exact number of views every 6 or 8 hours.
I found this very helpful! It is hard to find this information on You Tube itself! I am going to share this info with my website viewers!!!
Thank you so much!!
thanks for the information!
but I’m wondering, if the same account watches the same youtube video twice, does it count as one or two views?
Would you minding explaining your research methods?
@Emily Fatima: Hi fatima, if the same account watches the same youtube video twice, it counts as two views
I know this because I’ve tried clicking into a video I’ve set as “private” (i.e. no one knows about it), yet simply because I’ve clicked into it, the view count of that video increases 
Hello! This is kind of off topic but I need some guidance from an
established blog. Is it difficult to set up your
own blog? I’m not very techincal but I can figure things out pretty fast. I’m thinking about
setting up my own but I’m not sure where to start. Do you have any ideas or suggestions? Appreciate it
Sound interesting but don’t think this works I tried playing this video-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XwKQsNCw8l4
4-5 times whithin 15min to show to my friends however the views did not increase!
Also one more point it shows lesser number of views while you are viewing the details in results thrown by you tube search but on clicking the video the actual no. of views are more!
Hence either It’s all just theoretical analysis(IM) or there is some bug in you tube
When I check on my videos, its says like 50 views.But when I check my Youtube anylatics, it says 20. I don’t know why. SOMEONE RESPOND.
@Vivek Lohani: Doesn’t it know the IP you’re viewing from and stop the counting after one view?
It sure did help me.
my youtube views froze out at 301 for the routine checks but now the count is at 348. it has been rising 2 or 3 views per hour so has taking 3 days to go from 301-348. I know this vid has over a couple of thousand views. the person who uploaded my video is promoting other people and im unsure if he himself has done something here. anybody?????
so now I am up to 374 view (still raising by 2-3 views per 3 hours), I have checked on multiple computers and its still the same. after research I have found out that the person with the account (uploader) can control the speed the views are released by sending a request to youtube
Hello! Do you use Twitter? I’d like to follow you if that would be ok. I’m
absolutely enjoying your blog and look forward to new updates.
What about pay. Is it true You Tube will pay me after 50,000 views or is it less or more?????
I have interviewed a few parents to attempt to understand what their true objection is with their child playing video games.
All that energy is boxed in, amplified by the space.
Making your game play is the next phase you’ll be focusing on.
when i refresh my videos some videos count does not increase but in some it does why
Howdy! I just would like to give you a big thumbs up for
your great info you have got right here on this post.
I will be coming back to your website for more soon.
on the other hand, these types of symptoms enables you
to amount your taking part in discipline in regards to your own
ventures and building a revenue any time trading binary options Broker Reviews.
The end result is that you’re going to certainly not get rid of in excess of anyone spend, of course, if the marketplace gets into the suitable direction, you’ll
earn 70% of the original expenditure. With in which planned, if you think with regards to a normal Ponzi system once we stated earlier, the
broker agents would certainly struggle to work with regard to long gaining a real
minimal percent upon each and every purchase.
A lot of kind marketplaces, together with equity promotes, are affected by facts about these
types of economic components plus the condition these assets simply because they pertain particularly to the entire
economic climate.
Range function provides consumers a “range” of price hindrances,
1 large and one low. Day exchanging is usually a very popular sort of dealing this areas as a consequence of the ability to enter in
addition to exit just about any market place in only units.
‘Digital’ makes it possible for traders to
figure out no matter if a new useful resource will certainly proceed above or perhaps below a pre-specified place.
Hi! Would you mind if I share your blog with my
myspace group? There’s a lot of people that I think would really appreciate your content. Please let me know. Thanks
Although some people may not like it, video games are here to stay.
s a responsibility that could be overwhelming, considering the limited hours available in a school day,
the number of kids in the classroom, and the diversity of backgrounds and
personalities each child represents. For those who have
free time in addition to not perform besides wait around then you
can certainly take pleasure in your time and effort by using
cell phone games simply to move that period.
I’ve been surfing online more than three hours nowadays, but I never found any attention-grabbing article like yours. It is pretty price sufficient for me. In my opinion, if all webmasters and bloggers made excellent content material as you did, the web might be much more helpful than ever before.