Most Watched Videos

This query provides performance metrics for your most-watched YouTube videos over a specified time period. Videos are ranked by watch time, allowing you to identify your most engaging content. You can retrieve up to 200 top videos.

Example Output

Parameters

Dimension

The dimension is set to "Video" and aggregates data by video ID.

Start Date

The beginning date for fetching analytics data in format YYYY-MM-DD (e.g., 2024-01-01).

• Cannot be in the future.

End Date

The end date for fetching analytics data in format YYYY-MM-DD (e.g., 2024-09-30).

• Cannot be in the future.
• Must be after Start Date.

IDs

Specifies the channel for which to retrieve data.

• Options:
  • "channel==MINE": Fetches data for your own channel.
  • "channel==CHANNEL_ID": Retrieves data for a specific channel you own.

Sort

Default sort is by estimated minutes watched in descending order ("-estimatedMinutesWatched").

• Examples:

  • "-views" for sorting by views in descending order.
  • "-likes" for sorting by likes in descending order.
  • "-estimatedMinutesWatched" for sorting by estimatedMinutesWatched in descending order.

  Tip: You can find the technical names of the metrics you can sort by when you click on the chart symbol at the bottom of the Parameters section.

Filters (Optional)

Defines specific data criteria:

• Examples:
  • "country==US" to filter by country.

Maximum Results

Specifies the number of videos to return. Maximum results is 200.

Columns

• Dimension: Video ID.

• Views: Total number of video views.

• Premium Views: Views from YouTube Premium subscribers. This number is included in 'Views'.

• Comments: Total comments added.

• Likes: The change in total likes (='likes added' - 'likes removed'). Before 2012/09/01, 'likes removed' were not subtracted.

• Dislikes: The change in total dislikes (='dislikes added' - 'dislikes removed'). Before 2012/09/01, 'dislikes removed' were not subtracted.

• Shares: Number of times videos were shared.

• Estimated Minutes Watched: The estimated total number of minutes that viewers spent watching the video.

• Average View Duration: This is an important viewer engagement metric and is defined as total watch time divided by total video play count. Measured in minutes.

• Subscribers Gained: New subscribers gained from this video.

Notes

• Results are automatically sorted by watch time (estimated minutes watched) in descending order.
• The query returns the most-watched videos within the specified date range.
• Additional metrics like Premium Minutes Watched, Subscribers Lost, and Playlist interactions are available but not shown by default.