Is Watch Time More Important Than Views in 2025?

[RisingAdmin]

Is Watch Time More Important Than Views in 2025?

YouTube watch time.jpg (94.98 KiB) Viewed 21 times

I keep seeing creators argue about this and I honestly don’t know the right answer anymore. Some say YouTube only cares about watch time and retention, while others say views still matter if you wanna get pushed.

I’ll be real, when I check my analytics, the videos with fewer views but higher average watch time actually get recommended more often than the ones with “viral” clickbait views. That kinda makes me think watch time is the real king in 2025.

What I’ve Noticed on My Channel

• One of my videos got 1,200 views but average watch duration was only 40 seconds (video was 6 mins). It flopped hard after the first day.
• Another video got just 300 views but people watched at least 3 minutes on average. That one slowly started showing up in Suggested and is now at 2,000 views.

So now I’m convinced: YouTube cares more about viewer satisfaction and retention than just raw clicks.

What Big Creators Say

MrBeast, Ali Abdaal, and even some TubeBuddy guys keep saying watch time is the “currency” of YouTube. Views look nice on the surface, but if people don’t stick around, the algo doesn’t reward you. And honestly… my own small experiments match that.

Why Watch Time Feels Like a Trap

Here’s the problem though: improving watch time is HARD. Views? Easy as you make a catchy thumbnail and clickbait title to get more views. But getting people to stay for 5–10 minutes straight? That’s a whole different skill.

It feels like storytelling, pacing, and editing matter way more now than keyword stuffing. Like, you can optimize all you want, but if people drop after 20 seconds, YouTube will bury the video.

What About Shorts?

This is another thing I’ve been wondering. For Shorts, views are insane (you can hit thousands overnight). But watch time is super short by nature. Does YouTube measure Shorts differently? Some say yes but they use “completion rate” instead of minutes watched.

That might explain why some Shorts blow up and others just flatline.

So… Which Is More Important?

If I had to choose, I’d say watch time beats views in 2025. Because views without watch time don’t seem to go anywhere. But decent watch time, even with fewer views, can snowball into YouTube pushing you into Suggested.

Community Question

What do you guys think? Do you believe watch time is more important than views now? Have you had a video with tons of views flop because people didn’t stay, or one with small views grow just because people actually watched it?

[SocialBee]

I think it depends on the content. For entertainment channels, views still matter because clickbait thumbnails get you that first wave. But yeah, if people don’t stick around, you might not get views anymore. For me, once I started scripting my videos tighter, my retention improved and suddenly older vids started growing again.

[LenaVlogs]

I 100% agree with this. I had a tutorial that only got like 500 views at first but average watch time was 5 mins. Now it’s sitting at 10k because YouTube kept pushing it in Suggested. Meanwhile my meme video with 4k views died after a week cause everyone clicked off in 15 secs. Watch time is definitely the game now.