What Counts On YouTube As A View and What Doesn’t!


YouTube is an incredible video-sharing platform and one of the most famous mainstream social media. YouTube is more than just entertainment! The potential to generate money from the platform influenced many people, turning them into “YouTube Creators.” For YouTube creators, views and subscribers are crucial for measuring their success.

In this article, we will clear What counts on YouTube as a view and what doesn’t.

What Counts On YouTube As A View

Does Rewatching A YouTube Video Count As A View?

Yes! Rewatching a YouTube video does count as a view if the person watches it for at least 30 seconds. YouTube counts a view if the above condition is satisfied. If the duration is lesser than 30 seconds, the viewer must view the video entirely. 

Suppose a video is of 20 seconds. In such a case, the videos need to be watched entirely to get a view. 

YouTube uses a black box algorithm because it’s too cautious about views. Removing spam views is a priority. YouTube will stop counting your view if you keep on refreshing the page. If you refresh a video 1000 times from the same IP Address, the views won’t count. Even if you see your views counted, in a few days, YouTube will remove those views. 

How Does YouTube Count Views?

YouTube is one of those social platforms that face the most spam. Rising spam views became a concern for YouTube and the creators. To tackle this problem, YouTube came with criteria.

The criteria consist of 2 rules.

First is the rule of initialization, stating that the user should initiate the video. The effort should be solely by the user without using any unfair means like bots, paid views, or any other.

Second, the video must have a minimum playtime of 30 seconds to be considered as a view. Even if the user hops on the seek but manages to get 30 seconds or more of watch time, the view will be counted. If no, YouTube won’t count the views.

Meanwhile, repeated views count only to a certain extent. If a person refreshes the video multiple times just for views (and has no intention to watch the content), at a certain point, YouTube will stop counting views from that device/IP Address. According to few experts, YouTube stops counting after 4-5 views a day from a device

YouTube View Count Rules

YouTube counts views only if the following conditions are satisfied:

A user begins watching the video. The initialization should be from the user’s end. You must not use external resources or bots to make a view.

The user should watch the video for at least 30 seconds. And, in videos shorter than 30 seconds, One must watch the video entirely to make a view. 

If a user leaves spam comments on videos, the count is more likely to be ignored. 

Views won’t count for autostart videos on blogs and videos embedded in pages. Autostart ones don’t require the user’s consent or effort. Even if he is reading a blog, the video plays in the background. To avoid such views, YouTube stops counting views from such sources.

Are YouTube View Counts Accurate?

YouTube tries to maintain a fair and square experience for all the advertisers, creators, and viewers. The view count is very accurate because it eliminates the majority of the fake views using their algorithm. They closely monitor user activity and are extremely against fake users, views, and bots. YouTube sometimes even freezes a video’s count score until the review.

However, such freeze and slowdowns are temporary, and the count resumption depends on their evaluation. If they find something fishy, they will discard those counts and drop it down to the original. So don’t hammer the F5 button for views. 

YouTube keeps an eye on hopping users. If the algorithm finds an account jumping on different videos watching only 30 seconds, such an account is considered BOT, and views are removed. The rules work strictly for every creator, and any violation leads to the removal of fake views, strikes, or warnings. 

How Often Are YouTube View Counts Updated?

YouTube officially doesn’t publish anything regarding this topic. However, the common belief is that YouTube updates its views in 24 to 48 hours. Web and application views updates in 4-8 hours. And, external embed ones are updated in 12-18 hours. YouTube takes real-time views into account, but the view-count process takes time. It is safe to say that YouTube view counts take around 24 to 48 hours.

Does Replaying Video YouTube Count Views?

Replaying a video on YouTube counts as a view, if and only if the viewer satisfies two conditions. First, the user is genuinely initiating the video viewing process. Second, the watch time is at least 30 seconds. However, after a specific time, YouTube will stop considering views. 

The algorithm attempts to catch and eliminate accounts/devices that view a video for a particular duration and refresh or hop on another video. Such accounts are considered Video Bots, and it removes such views. So replaying the video might fetch you few views for the day, but it doesn’t count as a new view

What Counts On YouTube As A View

Does Looping Count As Views On YouTube?

You will not get multiple views by watching it numerous times. Earlier, people used such methods to get more views, and YouTube had to do something about it. People were creating multiple web pages and just refreshing the page to take in views.

However, today YouTube considers a lot of factors before concluding the view stats. Factors like the device you are using, the device’s IP Address, the Gmail account you are signed in, and your watch time pattern. 

Today, YouTube won’t count views coming from the same device again and again. However, YouTube may count views on popular songs that people listen to many times entirely (from start to end). YouTube can differentiate whether it is viral replicating traffic, a trending song, playlist song, or looping spam view. 

So even if you try to refresh your video after every 30 seconds, YouTube will track the activity and flag the video. Because, even though you are fulfilling the condition of at least 30 second watch time, a view coming from the same IP address makes YouTube feel suspicious about you. Thus, it concludes it as repeating views and deletes it from counting. 

Does YouTube Count Views In Incognito Mode?

Yes! YouTube counts views coming from users using incognito mode. Indeed, Incognito users don’t often log in to their tabs. But, YouTube has other factors and methods to count views. The worth mentioning is “IP Address.” 

YouTube uses the device’s IP Address to determine that the view is coming from a user willing to watch a video. It tries to ensure that views aren’t coming by refreshing the page. YouTube only considers views from the same IP Address if the video views come from different days and times. If they find a user watching a video again and again from the same IP Address, the views will be flagged regardless of the incognito tab or no logged-in account. Overall, YouTube believes in user-initiated work.

Does YouTube Count Views From VPN?

Yes! Why not! YouTube believes in user-initiated play. A view isn’t a view if it’s scripted play, looped one, or spam one. A view should be purely by choice of the user. So if you click a video and watch it, YouTube will count it. It doesn’t matter whether you use a VPN or not. 

The process remains the same. YouTube watches your IP address to check whether you have viewed the video on the go or not. And, multiple views from one IP address are considered as one. So even if you use a VPN, your view is counted at least once.

Does YouTube Count Views From Other Websites?

YouTube counts views from other websites with few exceptions. The exceptions that eliminate a view from counting are as follows:

  1. Embedded Video set on Autoplay: If a video is set on Autoplay on a website, YouTube is likely not to count the view. Because YouTube wants the user to play the video. Autoplay is forcing them to watch it or play it in the background.
  2. Hammering the F5 button to increase views: YouTube won’t count views coming reloading the page. Repeat views are indeed genuine in some cases, like music and tutorials. However, the majority ones are unethical. After viewing an embedded video, a user reloading the page probably tries to trick the system into gaining views. Such activities won’t interest YouTube to count the view.
  3. Spam Views from same or known IP Addresses: People have bought views on various websites, but those views are temporary. Because the majority of them are coming from a bunch of IP addresses, YouTube is aware of. So even if you see the view count increased after YouTube audits it, those numbers will decline. Meanwhile, even if you don’t opt for the paid views, try to do it yourself. Even this trick won’t work because YouTube snipes your IP Address and activity too.
  4. View from Robots/ViewBots and Broken Embed Code
Does Rewatching A YouTube Video Count As A View?

Does YouTube Count Views Without An Account?

Absolutely Yes! YouTube count views without an account. If it can count views in incognito, then it can count without any account too. As simple as that!

Do Views Outside Of YouTube Count?

Yes! YouTube counts views from other sources or websites. Video redirections from Facebook, Twitter, Whatsapp, and other social media are counted. Creators even have a separate analytics portal to view the percentage of traffic from different sources. Every view counts if it’s fair.

Does YouTube Count Views If Muted?

YouTube will definitely count the view even if you mute the video. YouTube doesn’t have any method to know whether you are playing mute or not. So playing a video on mute won’t affect View count.

How To Track YouTube Views Live?

When it comes to Live video view count on YouTube, that stats are incorrect. YouTube view count displayed while Live is usually mistaken as it doesn’t update in real-time. So how to get accurate stats? Well, there are YouTube view count trackers that guarantee accurate count. These trackers update their stats every 30 seconds to ensure accuracy. So to track YouTube views live, you can use the YouTube view count tracker.

Recently YouTube deleted more than 10 million views of BTS. The Live stream had way more views than the stats shown today. We have seen live subscriber count trackers while “YouTube vs. PewDiePie.” The tracker was live 24×7. 

Does Rewatching A YouTube Video Increase Watch Time?

Yes! The watch time increases if you rewatch a YouTube video. However, there are few exceptions too. If the video is private, deleted, unlisted, the watch time won’t increase even if you watch for hours. Meanwhile, ad campaigns, shorts, and live streams not converted into Video on Demand won’t increase your watch time. Only public videos influence watch time. 

Is It OK To Watch Your Own YouTube Videos?

It’s absolutely fine to watch your own YouTube Video. After all, it’s your hard work! But if you see it to increase view and watch time, it won’t work. The first time you view your own video, a view is counted. After that, YouTube doesn’t count it as a new view. Overall, rewatching your videos won’t help you increase views and watch time.

How Do I Disable View Counts In YouTube?

Steps to disable view counts in YouTube are as follows:

  1. Go to Video Manager of YouTube
  2. Click/Tap on the Edit option of the video
  3. Select Advanced Settings
  4. Now, under Video Statistics, there will be an option “Make video statistics on the watch page publicly visible.”
  5. Uncheck that option
  6. Save Changes
  7. Done!

Recent Content