YouTube doesn't make public their view counting algorithm so that it can't be gamed, so it's anyone's guess.
this post was submitted on 10 Sep 2025
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Ohhhhh! So that's why a lot of the comments to this post contradict each other. Well, that makes senses.
Yep. I have a few hunches about how it works (I would guess that the answer to your original question is "no" or "only kinda," for instance) but honestly my hunches are likely no better than tea leaves and significantly less tasty.
Seems @Multiplexer@discuss.tchncs.de has tried this at some point, but maybe repeat rhe test in 2025?
- Upload a private/unlisted video to YT
- Watch once all the way through on YT
- Confirm count went up within 24 he's
- Watch on another platform
- Rinse, repeat.
I'm also curious if yt-dlp has an impact.
Test has actually been done in 2025, just 2 or three months ago.
And yes, it took until the next day for the count to increase.
Background for the test was, that I am not using paid streaming services any more (and use ad-blocking apps) but wanted to see if the artists still get the views counted.
Although actually I am more interested if this is also true for YT-music (which is the main one I am using a lot without paying or watching ads).
One might assume it is the same as for the videos, but I don't know how to test it... So if anyone has an idea...?
Hmm, can you get stats on your own music or podcast in the admin pages?
Good idea, I could publish a podcast and have a look on how it behaves!
So, just need to think of a podcast topic nobody is likely to want to listen to... hmm...
Yes.
The video is still provided by youtube and they can simply take "note" at the time they are streaming out certain parts of the video and see how much percent were watched.
~~So, it seems like not~~. Edit: But Actually, yes.
I just tested this by finding some random video about cheese with a low number of views (827 as I write this).
I watched the WHOLE DAMN THING. TWICE. Kidding, I love cheese, it was lovely. Both times I watched it via Invidious instances. It was 827 before, still 827 right now.
Edit: OK, looking now, it's up to 830. Dammit, have one of you all been watching my cheese video? I never watched it when I loaded it from YT direct. So there's 1 extra view.
Just FYI, view counts don't always update in realtime. Depending on how many views a video already has and how many views it's had in the last hour, the view count may only refresh server-side in intervals.
Yep, up to 830 now. The cheese stands in a crowd! You're right.
Even watching on YouTube like that normally won't show the counter go up. It's not a real time counter.
The only time I know YouTube view counts are accurate and not being fuzzed, is when I upload a video, instantly make it private, and never click on it. Zero views. Confirmed. 😊🤷🏼♀️
I'm pretty sure YouTube randomly "fuzzes" the public view count of videos specifically to prevent this kind of research.
You need to finish the study by proving it does change the views when you watch via youtube directly
To Youtube such views probably look more like a viewbot than a legitimate user, so they don't count it.
It depends. Newpipe definitely does, because it's a local client and uses your internet to watch the video. Invidious however can be configured to cache videos, which is useful on bigger instances where people watch the "top" videos. If a video is cached it will simply use the local video stream and not count a view.
Yes, it does.
I had the same question a while back and tested it with an obscure video I had published myself (20 views within 10 years or so....)
Views using Newpipe were counted.
But only once (when watching multiple times in a row).
I think it would have only counted once, even if you watched on Youtube directly. They're pretty serious about preventing view count manipulation these days.
Most likely. Even if you aren't directly asking YouTube for the video, the other site does.
Honestly no idea. It would depend if the views are counted from an api request or from amount of clients asking for the video. Newpipe Invidious and many other 3rd party frontends dont use youtubes api cause they would quickly be blocked and sued.
I feel like that's not how API's work.
Yes.