YouTube Insights: available statistics

In KNOWYOURCHAT, YouTube provides not only classic interactions but, above all, video metrics that show you how long people actually watch and where the views come from.

With YouTube in particular, it pays to look at the details, because two videos with the same view count can perform very differently if their watch time and traffic sources differ.

If you're brand new to Insights, start with the Introduction to KNOWYOURCHAT Insights.

If you want to understand YouTube-specific API limits, also see Limitations with YouTube.

Post details: tabs

When you click a YouTube post, the details – depending on the content – typically include:

If you want a better understanding of the tabs (overview vs. interaction), continue with Post details: Overview vs. interaction.

Overview: the most important metrics at a glance
Interaction: interactions and engagement
possibly Viewers: demographics (if provided by YouTube)

Typical metrics (per post)

In the overview – depending on data availability – you'll often see:

Views
Likes
Comments
Shares (if available)
New subscribers
Total play time
Watch time
Engagement rate (depending on the display)

Traffic sources: Where do the views come from?

A big difference from other platforms: YouTube can show you which sources your content traffic comes from.

Typical traffic sources (as in the screenshot):

Shorts feed
YouTube search
Channel pages
Subscribers
Other YouTube features (depending on the display)

How to use this in practice:

Many views from the Shorts feed: hook and retention are decisive.
Many views from search: title, keywords, and topic hit a real problem.
Many views via channel pages/subscribers: the content strengthens your existing community.

Watch time & view duration

Views show visibility. But YouTube rates content heavily by watch time.

That's why:

A video with fewer views can be "better" if its total play time is high.
A high watch time is a signal that content and structure are working.

Viewers (demographics)

Depending on the post and data availability, YouTube can additionally provide:

Gender
Age
Top countries

Best practices

For clean comparisons, always start with these in Insights:

Platform filter in Insights
Select a date range
It's best to compare Shorts and regular videos separately.
Use traffic sources to derive learnings:
- Search → better titles/topics
- Shorts feed → stronger hooks and a faster structure
Combine views with watch time (total play time/view duration) to assess quality.

✅ Recommendation: Each week, open 3 YouTube posts with high total play time and 3 with low. Then check the traffic source and the opening: does the drop happen because the hook isn't clear, or because the topic doesn't fit?

ℹ️ Note: Not every metric is available for every post. Some values may update with a delay.

If data is missing entirely, Why is data missing in Insights? helps.