When it comes to measuring the success of your youtube video content, views are one of the most important metrics to take into account. View counts are one of the first indicators of whether a video is popular and worth watching, and they are also used to determine how far along a channel or video is in its path to making money or becoming famous on YouTube.
But what is a view on youtube? In short, a view is counted when someone physically clicks the play button on a video and watches it for at least 30 consecutive seconds. This applies to videos uploaded directly to YouTube and those embedded on websites or social media sites like Facebook.
YouTube uses a series of technical measures to ensure that only legitimate views are counted. For example, videos must be watched from a real device and a real user account; views cannot be counted for videos that auto-play in a news feed or are hidden off-screen; and views only count once per unique IP address or user account within a rolling 24-hour period.
YouTube also tracks the views of live video streams. While many people may worry that this would artificially inflate a video’s view count, the truth is that views for live videos are recorded in much the same way as they are for regular videos. As long as a live video is in line with YouTube’s community guidelines, it will receive the same number of views as other YouTube videos. youtube views