The project

army stream team

Welcome Letter

Thank you for taking the time to check out the YouTube Streaming Test results!

Why are we doing this? Simple...ARMY is working hard to support BTS on YouTube and we want that support to be accurately reflected. That’s it.

Specifically, we wanted to know:
Do premium YouTube accounts prevent us from losing views?
What are the best streaming patterns and tips to limit our view losses?

Check out the video for a short intro to our testing approach!

Testing Intro Video

What this test isn't...
We are not trying to reveal the YouTube algorithm because that is actually impossible to do. YouTube is an adaptive platform and the algorithm adapts to your viewing habits. So, there are some things we will NEVER know about YouTube but our goal is to focus on what we can observe and change.

So, click the Suggestions button to see what tips we are suggesting!

Home
Welcome
Suggestions
The Data
Promote

4 Simple Suggestions

These suggestions are simple actions that can be added to ANY streaming guide and are based on on our testing results and YouTube research.

Our fandom has done an excellent job of providing YouTube streaming tips, so we're not trying to start from scratch or rewrite streaming guides. Instead, we are providing easy and effective suggestions to SUPPORT any streaming guide.

Select an image below to view the detailed suggestions. The full 4 Suggestion Doc with more details is also available in the Promote section.

Data Summary

YouTube is an adaptive system; Adaptive means it changes as you change. So it is extremely difficult for ANY testing to 100% predict what the platform will do.

Because of that, we have combined testing with historical streaming performance and research to suggest the best options available to us given what we know and can control.

Overall Summary

Testing quickly revealed the answer to one of the most critical streaming questions.

Do premium YouTube accounts prevent us from losing views?

The answer is NO. YouTube Premium does NOT prevent you from losing views. Our testing showed that views were lost on YouTube Premium accounts at similar rates to free accounts. What this emphasizes is that bad streaming habits and patterns will result in loss views regardless of your account type.

It's also important to note that although play listing lost the least views, they were some of the most problematic views to get approved. Those views were significantly delayed, received YT error messages on multi devices and many were not approved until days after the initial 24 hr period.

Click the links below to access daily and full testing results.

How did we test? - Daily Test Summary - Full Testing Results

Daily data Summary

The daily summaries below represent our daily testing results. We have also linked the full testing data files for your review. The Full Testing File is a Google Sheet that can be viewed directly in your browser. There are multiple tabs you can explore to see testing data. The first tab has navigation instructions you can reference.

Day 1 Data Results