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.
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. 😊🤷🏼♀️
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.