08/03/2025
The hidden world beneath the shadows of YouTube's algorithm.
Among the findings the researchers estimate that the median video has been watched just 41 times; posts with more than 130 views are actually in the top third of the service's most popular content. In other words, the vast majority of YouTube is practically invisible.
There's a secret side of YouTube, just beyond the guiding hand of the algorithm – and it’s nothing like what you know. The vast majority of YouTube's estimated 14.8 billion videos have almost never been seen. Until now.
Most of these videos aren't meant for us to see. They exist because people need a digital attic to store their memories. It's an internet unshaped by the pressures of clicks and algorithms – a glimpse into a place where content doesn't have to perform, where it can simply exist.
"We tend to assume the reason to use social media is to try to be an influencer, either you're Joe Rogan or you're a failure. But that's the wrong way to think about it," says Ethan Zuckerman, who leads the YouTube research as the director of the University of Massachusetts' Initiative for Digital Public Infrastructure.
YouTube tells the BBC it's incorrect to say the platform doesn't let you see videos with low views or content from small channels. The algorithm's job is to help people find the videos they want to watch and that will give them value, YouTube says, and sometimes that does include videos with a small number of views.
"The magic of YouTube is that whether a video has 60 views or six million, people are able to find community, learn a new skill, be entertained, or share their voice with the world," says Boot Bullwinkle, a YouTube spokesperson. "Every channel starts from the same blank slate, from which they can build an audience and grow a business."
Most of YouTube comes from outside of the US, in fact. Zuckerman's lab has estimated that over 70% of YouTube videos are in languages other than English.
People playing video games seems to make up almost 20% of YouTube.
"I don't get a big audience a lot of the time… I just do it because of the joy it brings me" – Bill "WoofDriver" Hellman. He's posted more than 2,400 YouTube videos in the last 14 years, but for all the effort, his channel often gets little traction. Many videos have views in the low double digits. Hellman says. "Maybe it'll inspire someone to take better care of their dogs, but really, I use YouTube like the cloud, so I have a place to document my adventures." YouTube doesn't pay the bills, and the WoofDriver isn't selling anything.
Some videos are heartrending. There was a moving tribute to a departed cat from her owner, Tyler. "Kiko didn't make it," he says, holding back tears. "It's so darn quiet without her here."
Research suggests YouTube's algorithm amplifies negativity, reinforces stereotypes and gives users little control over the content they don't want to see. Over the years, YouTube has faced increasing criticism over concerns about hate speech, political extremism and misinformation. Along with other social media platforms, YouTube has been utilised by drug cartels and harnessed by terrorists as a tool for promotion and recruitment.
YouTube says that the company has employed a set of community guidelines since its earliest days to establish what's allowed on the platform. The company says it has redoubled efforts to address its responsibilities. One way YouTube measures its success is through its "violative view rate".
In 2017, for every 10,000 views on YouTube, 63-72 views came from content that violated YouTube policies, but today that number has fallen to eight to nine views, according to the company.
YouTube says it gives users several ways to manage YouTube recommendations and search results, such as deleting your Watch History.
The YouTube we talk about – the one full of celebrities, scandals and manufactured virality – only tells part of the story. The majority exists in quiet moments, in shaky camera work and voices meant for no one in particular. I watched hundreds of these videos.
Everything one of them is public, but it's also clear that most people didn't upload this content for strangers. It was like being let in on a secret, a sprawling, uncurated documentary of human life. But watching it also felt like work compared to the doomscroll-inducing entertainment you get from the algorithm. Eventually, I closed my tabs and headed back to the YouTube homepage, back to the polished world of the corporate internet.
Angel Whisperer Robren Show: The Secret of Everything - including YouTube.
Read more: https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20250306-inside-youtubes-hidden-world-of-forgotten-videos
