• CTR

  Basics: Stands for "Click-Through Rate". This is how many people who see your thumbnail/title, click on the video. If 100 people see your thumbnail/title on youtube, and 4 click, your CTR is 4.00 Learn: This is probably the most misunderstood stat across YouTube. Even Youtube employees have said that it's not as useful/intelligent as they had hoped. In reality, this number changes a lot... day to day, hour to hour, depending on where people watched the video from, etc. When A/B testiPopular

• Impressions

  Basics: This is how many times your video showed up on YouTube. In other words, how many times people saw this thumbnail/title show up on their screen on youtube.com. learn: Impressions are a good stat. The more the algorithm pushes the video, the more you'll see a spike in impressions. When impressions begin to flatline, it's a good indicator that the algorithm is no longer pushing the video, and might be a good time to make a thumbnail/title change. Many videos will get a large spikPopular

• Returning Viewers

  Basics Returning Viewers are viewers who have watched something on your channel before. Learn This does not mean "subscribed views". This means "people who have watched a video on your channel before". How you view this stat depends on the video - if the video is just trying to engage your "existing audience", this stat is important. In a way, this can be a more helpful number than your subscriber count. This tells you how many people watching this video are likely interested in yourSome readers

• AVD*CTR

  Basics This is a custom stat, not listed in youtube studio. It's the average view duration, multiplied by the CTR. Learn Some people think this is the best stat to focus on. Many think it's absolutely useless, and if anything, misleading. We provide the calculation for you, but it's up to you to decide if it's useful or not. Here's a thread on where it might be useful: https://twitter.com/CharlesWeill/status/1535310836926922752 (https://twitter.com/CharlesWeill/status/153531083692692Some readers

• Average View Duration (AVD)

  Basics: This is how long people watched your video for, on average. If 100 people watched your video, and 50 watched for 1 minute, and 50 watched for 2 minutes, your average view duration is 1.5 minutes. Learn: This is a helpful stat. It's a good indicator of how good your video is at keeping people's attention. This is often a good metric of how well you told the story, or how engaging the video is. Gotchas: This is again a very misunderstood stat. Unfortunately, like every staSome readers

• Average View Percentage

  Basics The average percentage of the video that people watched (in video analytics). Learn "Isn't this just AVD?" No, but it's related. This is the fraction of the video people watched. If they watched 1 minute of a 10 minute video, AVP is 10%, AVD is 1 minute. If they watched 5 minutes of a 50 minute video, AVP is 10%, AVD is 5 minutes. Gotchas This stat is treated very differently by many different people. Some people think it's super important, some people think it's useless.Some readers

• Browse Views

  Basics This is how many views your video got from people clicking on your video from the "Browse Features" section of YouTube. Learn This is probably the main stat most creators focus on. This category is mostly views from the homepage of YouTube. This is pretty much the most "personalized" form of views - this is YouTube saying "I think you'll like this video". As this stat goes up, YouTube is pushing your video to different audiences. This will cause other stats, like CTR and AVD toSome readers

• Views

  Basics: This is all of the views your video got, added up. Doesn't matter where people watched it, or how long they watched it for. If they watched it, it counts as a view. Someone put your video in an email? That's a view. Someone shared your video on twitter, then someone watched the video through the tweet? That's a view. (https://downloads.intercomcdn.com/i/o/1107441899/5cFew readers

• Average Views Per Viewer

  Basics The average number of times a viewer watched this particular video (in video analytics). Learn For podcast-like videos, this number will be higher - people will watch your videos in pieces. For shorter videos or gaming-type videos, this number will be lower - people will watch your videos in one sitting. It's mostly informational. Gotchas This stat has a different meaning when you view it in the context of your channel. In that context, the stat means The average number oFew readers

• External Views

  Basics This is how many views your video got from people clicking on your video from outside of YouTube. Learn Defined literally as "any link to a YouTube video video that does NOT come from within YouTube itself." EX: a bunch of people clicking on your video from twitter. Gotchas These views don't count towards CTR. You can get 1000 external views, and have a CTR of 0. These views don't come from "impressions", so they are ignored by YouTube when calculating CTR.Few readers

• New Viewers

  Basics New Viewers are viewers who have never watched something on your channel before. Learn This does not mean "unsubscribed views". This means "people who have never watched a video on your channel before". How you view this stat depends on the video - if the video is just trying to engage your "existing audience", this stat isn't important. For "How to" and tutorial focused channels, this will often be higher than "Returning Viewers", as people might only need to watch one of yourFew readers

• Suggested Views

  Basics This is how many views your video got from people clicking on your video from the "Suggested Videos" section of YouTube. (The right side of the screen, or the bottom of the screen on mobile, while watching another video) Learn This is a good stat to dig into - gives you some insight into how the YouTube algorithm is judging your video. You'll often ask the question of "what audience is my video getting pushed to?". This helps get some insight into that. Gotchas You can geFew readers

• Unique Viewers

  Basics Estimated number of unique people that watched your video Learn Basically, some people watch the view multiple times, or watch it in chunks. This results in more than 1 view per person. This stat is telling you how many actual humans watched your video. Gotchas Unique Viewers * Average Views Per Viewer ~= Total Views. The math isn't exact, since youtube rounds AVPV up, but this is good to get a better understanding of how people watch your video.Few readers

• Comments

  Basics This is how many comments your video got. Learn Comments can be a good indicator of how eFew readers

• Search Views

  Basics This is how many views your video got from people searching for something on YouTube, and clicking on your video. Learn This is a very particular stat. If you're making a video that you want to rank for a particular search term, this is a good stat to look at. This is common for "How To" and tutorial videos. If you're not trying to rank for a particular search term, this stat is not really important. Gotchas There is one EXTREMELY important thing to note about this stat.Few readers

• Likes

  Basics This is how many likes your video got.Few readers