YouTube recently announced they have adjusted their ranking algorithm to include the length of time a video was watched. They have said that experimenting with this ranking factor has lead them to show suggested videos that are less click-driven and more watch-driven.
The idea behind this is that while some videos may be clicked on several times, it doesn’t mean that people are sticking around to watch them. By giving weight to videos that are showing they hold viewer’s attention, YouTube is able to promote videos that more people will actually want to see.
Part of this announcement included YouTube adding the time watched statistics to the YouTube Analytics dashboard. YouTube users can access the time watched statistics under the “Views” report under the section labeled, “Estimated minutes watched.”
This new change is expected to help highlight videos that more people are watching from start to finish. It may also help those who are putting together videos see at what point in a video they are losing the majority of their audience.