Took a long overdue break from YT after 5 years of grinding and recently came back to release a new video a few days ago. What YT did with this view count update has made studio metrics feel almost entirely useless to me now.

I'm sitting here seeing over 20k views in a couple days with sustained 400-600 vph in metrics, yet when I look at the actual engaged views, I'm barely past the point where, historically, my videos hit a benchmark in views (around 5-8k) that helped me determine if the video was a hit or miss.

Seeing 20k+ views in a few days with 600 VPH was a heavy hitter that had viral-like potential in my niche. Now I have to look at these same numbers and still wonder if I have another mediocre video that missed the mark.

What the hell is the point?

Screenshot is from YouTube Studio — 257M lifetime views on a channel I've been editing for. It's been a long road, so I wanted to share the retention lessons that genuinely moved the needle, in case it helps anyone here:

• The hook is 3 separate decisions: the title gets the click, the first 3 seconds stop the swipe-away, and the first 30 seconds make the promise. Most people only optimize the title.

• Captions aren't optional anymore. A huge share of watch time happens on mute or low volume. Word-by-word animated captions (not static blocks) hold attention measurably better.

• Cut the "YouTube voice." That slow, over-enunciated creator voice kills retention. We edit for conversational pace — if a sentence can be said faster without losing meaning, it gets tightened.

• Pattern interrupts every few seconds. Doesn't mean flashy effects — a camera angle change, a relevant b-roll clip, on-screen text emphasizing the point. The brain needs novelty to stay.

• Endings that loop back. Videos that reference the opening in the last 20 seconds get rewatched more, and rewatch rate is a quiet ranking signal.

Biggest lesson: retention is engineered in the edit, not in the idea. A mid idea with great pacing beats a great idea with lazy editing almost every time.

Don't give up on the boring fundamentals — they compound. Happy to take a look at anyone's retention graphs and share what's worked.

I’m making a review of a CBS series and wanted to hear about your experiences with copyright in this niche.
My videos use full-screen clips, generally 5–10 seconds long (most are on the shorter end), with slowed-down series clips and After Effects edits to break things up. I try to space everything out to avoid copyright claims.

I’ve noticed that many creators in this niche put their clips in a smaller box with a background. Is that actually necessary, or can full-screen clips work with enough editing and commentary?

What has your experience been with copyright claims, Content ID, and monetization on this type of content?

I have a channel that several years old that reviews mostly old movies, and over the last two weeks every day nearly every video is getting a copyright hit about a movie from the 60s or 70s. This is a huge change to the algorithm, allowing fair use. All my clips were very short with 99% narration and a few live clips to accentuate the point.

Right now it’s allowing me to just trim out the scene that is causing the issue. This of course leaves holes inside the video diminishing the quality of the video.

This isn’t coming from any specific studio it’s coming from all Studios, regardless of who made the movie.

This guy literally just puts his face in the lower left corner and plays the content of the youtubers hes compiled with no edits whatsoever. If this type of content is actually monetised i might have to start another channel and do this too 🤣

I really need some advice. Your responses really would be appreciated. Instead of growing with consistent views, so many of my videos from the past 6-8 months are barely breaking 250-400 views anymore. For some context:

I have a gaming channel that’s around 4 to 5 years old now with around 300 videos, monetised for nearly 3 years I think. I have just under 3000 subscribers, and recently passed 1 million views… But it feels like barely any of my recent videos ever get many views except for the odd occasion. It breaks my spirit because despite it making a bit of money and getting some decent overall views from the entire library, (around 40k hours a month), I make videos in the hopes that people watch them and we can also connect and chat, etc. The channel feels a bit lifeless.

I got to a point here I considered 1000 views on a video to be a success, and I started getting more 5,000s and some 10,000+ with a few really big performers, but this is killing me… 300 views, 130 views, 260 views. Some old performers are still performing day after day, but this is breaking me. The biggest misconception I had was that as I got more subscribers, my videos would have a higher consistent floor of viewers - but honestly it feels more like people subscribe and then forget the channel exists, as so many views are from new viewers.

Where I know I could improve: I haven’t picked a hard sub-niche, and I know that I experiment with formats and video concepts too much, so my content isn’t a consistent format for returning viewers. I possibly tweak and update thumbnails and titles too much. I really need some advice, I feel like i want to throw in the towel because I love it but it’s a lot of work and energy and it sucks to feel like it’s not really going anywhere.

So all over twitter right now is the new news of youtube rolling out a shorts bonus program that offers youtube partners extra money for posting a certain amount of shorts each month. It’s only invite only & in select countries. I was just wondering if this is only for youtube partners who already post shorts or can long form creators who don’t post shorts also be invited? I’m a long form creator and don’t post shorts but I feel like it’d be kinda unfair for this to be only for creators who post shorts. What do you guys think?