What count as a view on YouTube? Or how does YouTube count views? If you are contemplating about monetizing your channel or becoming YouTube famous, the idea of how YouTube counts views may have crossed your mind. YouTube uses various ways to validate views and as well to reject some of the views. So, when does a view count? We start by understanding how YouTube approve them.
How Does YouTube Count Views?
YouTube only count those views that meet the following criteria:
- When a user intentionally initiates the watching of a video.
- And when a user watches it on the platform for at least 30 seconds. So anytime you watch a video for 30+ seconds, that view will count. If you watch less than 30 seconds, it is highly likely that view will not count.
Repeated Views
For repeated views, YouTube counts to a certain point and stop counting after getting to a specific number not stated by YouTube. For example, consider when you watch the same video over and over again, or when you ask your friends to watch your videos multiple times. In such a case, only a few views are valid. In fact, most experts believe that 4 or 5 views per day are sufficient. Past that, YouTube automatically stops adding new views to a video’s view count number. This means, even your efforts of requesting your friend to repeat watching your video are futile.
Video Shorter Than 30 Seconds
What happens to videos that are shorter than 30 seconds? As mentioned above, a view is valid after a video is watched for 30+ seconds.
YouTube prefers the 30-second limit as it allows them to pick those videos suitable for monetization and those that do not meet the cut. Often, videos shorter than 30 seconds are not monetizable.
Watch Bot Not Recommended
YouTube always wants to make sure that video views are coming from real people and not bots. YouTube can detect whether a real person is watching videos or a bot is watching by analyzing the watch behavior. For example, a bot will randomly jump from one video to the other. A real person, on the other hand, will move from one video to another that is linked to the first one, not just haphazardly.
When YouTube Does Not Count Views?
- In case a bot is used to watch videos.
- When a user leaves spam comment on videos
- In case a video is embedded in a page and autostart.
Live Views
Live views count the same way as other views, just like it counts the views of pre-recorded videos.
Note that, live videos must adhere to the community guidelines to be allowed to stay up on the platform.
When Does YouTube Verify That Your Video is Real?
YouTube has a tipping point at which they decide whether a video is real or not. It is the employees at the company who analyze videos and decide whether to verify them as real. Often the tipping point is 301 views. For years, this has been the tipping point, although the view count has continued to increase.
YouTube View Calculator
This calculator helps you figure out if your account is ready for monetization. Basically, this calculator enables you to see what your estimated CPM will be, as well as your estimated daily earnings, estimated monthly earnings, and estimated yearly projection.
How Many Views Your Video Has?
It is never an easy task to tell the number of views a video has. Even YouTube is not also sure about how best to calculate views. This is because sometimes a video has both fake and real views. Now to get a better understanding of the number of views your video could be having, consider using the following YouTube pages:
- YouTube Search,
- the YouTube Watch Page,
- YouTube Analytics,
- The new Creator Studio.
The above pages will give you different figures, but at least you will get an idea of the views your video is likely to have.
Are Views A Valuable YouTube Metric?
Are views the best way to measure your success? Sometimes back, they were an excellent measure of success on YouTube. But today they are not. In fact, according to the YouTube Creator Academy, they are not anymore. So, if your planning to monetize your channel, make sure to consider other YouTube monetization strategies.
Conclusion
There is no doubt YouTube is an excellent place to grow your reputation. Generating views is one way to do that. But remember to generate legitimate views to get the best returns for your effort and time.