Top 10 Playlists by Watchtime

This query ranks your YouTube playlists by watch time, showing the most engaging playlists based on viewer consumption. It provides key performance metrics for your top-performing playlists over a specified time period.

Parameters

Dimension

Fixed to playlist:

• Playlist: Aggregates data by playlist 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.

Tip: For scheduled requests, you may need to update the date daily. Instead of specifying the date manually, you can use 'today' or 'yesterday' as the parameter. When the request runs, the date will automatically adjust to the desired day.

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").

• Can also sort by:
  • "-views" for sorting by total views
  • "-playlistStarts" for sorting by number of starts
  • "-averageTimeInPlaylist" for sorting by average viewing time

Filters

The filter is pre-set to 'isCurated==1', which focuses on manually curated playlists rather than auto-generated ones.

Maximum Results

Specifies how many playlists to return in the results.

• Default: 10 playlists
• Range: 1 to 500 results
• Note: The API natively supports 50 results, pagination is used for larger result sets

Tip: You can adjust the maxResults value to see more or fewer playlists in your ranking.

Columns

• Dimension: The playlist ID.

• Estimated Minutes Watched: The estimated total number of minutes that viewers spent watching videos in this playlist.

• Views: Total number of video views that occurred through this playlist.

• Playlist Starts: Number of times viewers started watching this playlist.

• Average Time In Playlist: The average duration viewers spend watching content in this playlist per session, measured in minutes.

Notes

• Results are automatically sorted by watch time in descending order
• Only includes manually curated playlists (isCurated==1)
• This query is useful for:
  • Identifying your most engaging playlists
  • Understanding which playlist structures work best
  • Deciding which playlists to promote or update
  • Comparing playlist performance

Tip: To analyze playlist performance over time instead, use the 'Daily Playlist Statistics' query.