Optimal video length for montage/supercut?

[stark]

What do you think is the optimal length for a set of short clips concatenated? I have a set of ~80 10-30 second clips I want to upload as one or a few videos. They are all game related, the same game, probably 30 minutes in total.

 

[Owlins]

I'm not sure if there is such a thing as an "optimal" length. Some say shorter is better. Other say the opposite.

What I would do though is put in your absolute best parts. If that turns out to be 30 mins so be it. That's what I would do anyway

 

[Shehzad]

The clever way to do this is to check your viewer retention length on the analytic section on your Youtube channel, my average is about 3 - 5 minutes so I mostly make my videos about 10 minutes long, my 20+ minute videos do not do as well as my shorter videos. I'd say keep it short and upload the best parts, you can upload the full 30 minutes as another video too so you get the best of both worlds. Also since most of your videos are short in video length it's going to be weird for your subscribers too see a full 30 minute clip or anything over your 3 - 5 minute average videos. Optimal video length can depend on viewer retention but that doesn't mean a 30 minute video won't do as well. Looking at your channel your longer videos already do as well as your shorter one's so I'd say compile the best parts and if that ends up being a bit longer than average it won't matter so much.

 

[Rails2Revolution]

For supercuts, I've found my audience retention rates drop on 3-5 minutes (depending if it was a good ep or not). On that basis, for me personally, I judge if I think the video was one of the better ones, then put it around 3 for a kinda eh one, 5 for one of the better ones, and 4 for the ones in the middle. Of course, sometimes to keep continuity and fluidity of a story based game for example, this doesn't apply as much, because the audience has to be able to keep track of the story. Those types of super cut videos can go way past 10 minutes easily.

Just depends on the video if you ask me.

 

[stark]

Thanks for the replies. In the end there was 47 minutes of edited content, which got reduced to 35 after taking out the more boring clips, and uploaded as a single video. I didn't get bored watching it so I guess that's a good rule of thumb.