How fast videos go viral

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Hi all,
I was just wondering, because I'm not sure on this. I wonder how a video on youtube gets thousands of views, like right away?, or after a bigger youtuber mentions the video?.

If you posted a video that was destined to get a hundred thousand views, does some YT algorithm just make it get thousands of views telling by how many likes it has?.

Thanks in advance for any ideas and tips.
 

Uncle Eggnog

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I suppose that if a big channel mentions you, their instinct is to follow what that person tells them to do and have a look. Take Pewdiepie for example, he mentioned a few people like Jacksepticeye, Maria Joyce and poppy and im not saying it made their channel but it definitely helped them grow quicker. Also if it gets shared across the internet quickly you can expect thousands of people to watch it and also then share it themselves.

I did a hot sauce challenge on my channel, It was about 4 months ago and its hit 17k views ( i only have 490 subscribers) and it keeps on growing :)
 

WannaBeDerp

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It's the same thing I'm wondering too, you kniw the mechanics of it all.
If you posted a video that was destined to get a hundred thousand views, does some YT algorithm just make it get thousands of views telling by how many likes it has?.
I'm not sure about that, wouldn't that give the people behind the desk at youtube too much power.
 

sanitary103

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tons of reasons like others mentioned. I also believe if you jump on something that is trending, you have a better chance.

far from viral but I did a response video about Steve Harvey making fun of Asian men and that video got tons of activity within the first 8 days or so. Can't recall the exact amount but it must have been at least 10K plus within that week alone.
 

chottom

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The algorithm constantly tests sequences of videos to try to find the longest possible watch time for a group of users. If your video ends up in one of this videos it will become viral. It took almost 6 months for a our most "viral" video (1.7 million views) to become viral,
BTW if a bunch of your videos end up in such sequence - all your channel will become viral!

PS. Likes and dislikes are not very important for the algorithm. Watch time (how your video performs in a sequence of videos) matters.

PPS. When I say "sequence of videos" I mean subject related sequence of videos (whatever this subject may be).
 
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I suppose that if a big channel mentions you, their instinct is to follow what that person tells them to do and have a look. Take Pewdiepie for example, he mentioned a few people like Jacksepticeye, Maria Joyce and poppy and im not saying it made their channel but it definitely helped them grow quicker. Also if it gets shared across the internet quickly you can expect thousands of people to watch it and also then share it themselves.

I did a hot sauce challenge on my channel, It was about 4 months ago and its hit 17k views ( i only have 490 subscribers) and it keeps on growing :)
Well that's interesting. I guess you can never always tell, you can only be happy that it happens to you when it does. I think the trick is to just keep posting until one of your videos finally gets thousands of views, which is just the tip of the iceberg. Thanks uncle egg nog.
 

KiddieToysReview

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It's happened to us a few times over the last few months. The algo tests the video for the first few hours, perhaps up to 12. If it likes the result, it propagates your video across the platform (to varying degrees). This is an example of a video that went to the home page. This video was the first of a playlist to set a new trend that many others have copied from us. It's interesting what @chottom said, because this was the first video of its kind, there was nothing on the platform like it in our vertical. there were other videos, but the quality was crap, and they were not in the kids vertical. The algo had nothing really to match it into a sequence, but something about the targeted keyword combinations and thumbnail triggered enough parameters to send it off.

Now, how to reproduce it consistently? That is the $1,000,000 question.

surge.jpg
 
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It's happened to us a few times over the last few months. The algo tests the video for the first few hours, perhaps up to 12. If it likes the result, it propagates your video across the platform (to varying degrees). This is an example of a video that went to the home page. This video was the first of a playlist to set a new trend that many others have copied from us. It's interesting what @chottom said, because this was the first video of its kind, there was nothing on the platform like it in our vertical. there were other videos, but the quality was crap, and they were not in the kids vertical. The algo had nothing really to match it into a sequence, but something about the targeted keyword combinations and thumbnail triggered enough parameters to send it off.

Now, how to reproduce it consistently? That is the $1,000,000 question.

View attachment 39986
I guess the golden rule is to create what you think is interesting to your viewers, and no video content creator is perfect so continuously trying new things is the best thing to do.

I myself chose a trending niche that currently has over a dozen other big Youtubers doing the same exact thing, but for the time put into each video, there is always a reason for a subscriber to watch each and every one of our videos.
 

TheDutchTexan

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As soon as it is picked up on by bigger you-tubers, sharing sites and the like. Without exposure your videos will always trickle in views. I have hit 10K views in a day ONCE, and that was a mustang crash. It fizzled out hard after that. Sometimes it has a little spike when another car crashes at Cars and Coffee.