One thing we love to talk about in the creator landscape is 

We’re talking billions of views across six different channels. Millions of loyal subscribers. Hundreds of challenges that changed YouTube forever.

 recognized MrBeast as an award-winning video creator, philanthropist, and entrepreneur. You might have seen his face — one that millions have come to recognize — on the cover of the spring Creators Issue.

But for those who don’t know, MrBeast (real name Jimmy Donaldson) is famous for doing expensive stunts and challenges on YouTube. Imagine mixing the best game show ever with the craziness of a real-life video game, and that’s what you get from a MrBeast video: high energy and lots of competition.

To grow on YouTube, it’s a good idea to learn from the best and be inspired by the best. Get a head start by getting to know MrBeast, his YouTube stats, and  why he’s so successful on the platform.

Started his YouTube channel in 2012 at age 13

Spends $48 million a year making videos [

Raised more than $20 million to plant trees around the world [

Raised more than $30 million to remove sea trash [

Spent $3.5 million to create the YouTube version of Squid Game [

The first content creator on the cover of Rolling Stone [

Launched the MrBeast Burger virtual brand [

So, how many channels does MrBeast have? There are six altogether:

: Currently, a somewhat inactive MrBeast channel

Altogether, MrBeast’s subscriber count is slightly more than 

Are you ready for this mind-blowing stat? As of July 28, 2022, MrBeast has more than

So far, MrBeast’s Squid Game is his most popular YouTube video. It has a whopping 

To get billions of views like MrBeast, you have to go above and beyond on YouTube. If we’ve learned anything from his journey, it’s that

exciting challenges, cash prizes, and making videos with zero wasted minutes is a recipe for success.

Here’s the typical flow of a MrBeast video:

Follow contestants as they face the challenge

Take a look at this recent upload from MrBeast, “Would You Swim With Sharks For $100,000?” Do you see the classic pattern?

Part of the reason MrBeast is so successful is that he’s not the focus of a video. He gives viewers something to enjoy each step of the way: the contestants, the expensive video sets, and the action that unfolds.

He also keeps your attention with superior editing. Each clip is only seconds long, which creates a hurried yet exciting pace for his content. You don’t have time to think about leaving the video because you're hopelessly hooked.

There's also a feel-good factor to MrBeast's content. Not only does he give money to the lucky winners of his challenges, but he also donates to family, friends, the homeless, and various charities. Sometimes the entire point of a video is, "If we can successfully do 

In a nutshell, all of these things make MrBeast 

Ready to reach stardom on your own channel? 

Here’s the ultimate guide for boosting your views on YouTube.

Are you curious about MrBeast's YouTube stats? Keep reading to see how many views, subscribers, and accomplishments he's collected over the years.

So Far, These Are MrBeast's Most Impressive YouTube Stats


Growing a YouTube channel is no joke. While making videos is a fun hobby, it takes more than filming, editing, and uploading to reach the biggest YouTube milestones:

A trophy case filled with YouTube plaques

What you truly need is an understanding of YouTube analytics.

That means you’ll need to get cozy with the YouTube Studio. In it, you’ll find metrics for analyzing and growing your channel, from video views to click-through rate.

There’s a lot to explore when you first dive in, so here are the most important analytics on YouTube.

Click-through rate (CTR) is the percentage of people who click on a video after seeing the thumbnail.

If 10,000 people see a video’s thumbnail, but only 500 people click it, that’s a 5% CTR. In other words, 5% of people who saw the thumbnail decided to watch the video.

There’s an easy formula for calculating CTR: number of clicks / number of impressions x 100 = CTR.

You’ll never have to calculate it, though. YouTube’s channel dashboard shows your CTR for multiple time periods. 

Simply go to YouTube Studio > Analytics > Reach to see your channel’s CTR.

Why should you care about click-through rates when there are other things to analyze? It’s the only YouTube metric that opens 

. People have to click on a thumbnail before giving your video some Watch Time, a like, or a comment. Plus, viewers tend to subscribe after watching good videos.

6 Tips to Get a Good Click-Through Rate on YouTube

Want to grow your YouTube channel faster? Take a look at the audience retention on individual videos.

You’ll want to pay attention to the average percentage viewed (APV), which is how much of the video viewers watched.

For example, here’s a screenshot of our audience retention for a 10-minute video. As you can see, most people watched 33% of it.

YouTube recommends videos to viewers based on Watch Time metrics like APV. Try to boost yours to at least 50% so you can get more views.

How to Increase Audience Retention on Every YouTube Video

3. Traffic From Recommended YouTube Videos

“YouTube recommendations” is a critical traffic source on YouTube. As we mentioned above, having YouTube suggest your content to viewers is a massive help. You don’t have to do anything because the algorithm does the work for you.

By the way, YouTube shows a list of traffic sources for every video. 

Simply go to YouTube Studio > Content (pick a video to analyze) > Analytics > Overview

. Then scroll down to see where traffic is coming from for that particular video.

Keep an eye on this traffic source to see which videos get suggested the most, then make similar content for your audience.

YouTube Algorithm Guide - How Your Videos Are Recommended to Viewers

4. Subscribers Gained from Each YouTube Video

With its flashy, ego-boosting ways, subscriber count isn’t a useful YouTube stat. It doesn’t affect your views, and it doesn’t change your favor with the YouTube algorithm. 

The only way to get more views is to make good videos.

identify videos that bring in subscribers

 – not to track the overall count but to discover what’s growing your community. This is the only YouTube subscriber analytic you need.

. You’ll see a dashboard showing how many people subscribed after watching a particular video.

6 Honest Reasons You Might Be Losing YouTube Subscribers

5. YouTube Engagement (Comments, Likes, Video Shares)

Likes, comments, and video shares aren’t popular like other YouTube channel statistics. Many creators think video views are the thing to pay attention to, and hey, maybe they’re right.

But we can’t ignore the little things. Most viewers are passive on YouTube, so it 

 a triumph convincing them to do anything: liking, sharing, typing a comment. Even getting them to click on an end screen or info card is a win.

 You’re building a real community on YouTube when people start engaging with your content.

Are you obsessed with YouTube channel views? Well, don’t limit yourself to tracking video views only.

 metric, and you need it to grow your channel.

To see new versus returning viewers for any video, go to

 YouTube > Content (pick a video to analyze) > Analytics > Audience.

It’s a genius metric because it reflects every YouTube creator’s goal: growing an audience while satisfying current viewers.

How to Track Returning Viewers on Your Channel

Every Creator Needs These YouTube Analytics Tools

Are you ready to track your YouTube channel stats? Here are some tools to analyze your progress:

: A real-time stats bar that lets you see specific metrics without opening the YouTube Studio. See video views in the last 60 minutes, 48 hours, and seven days – or view the YouTube Watch Time tracker for monetization.

: Too busy to audit your channel? This tool does the hard work for you, identifying your best content and suggesting improvements to your channel.

: Want a YouTube growth tool that plugs into your channel? Download vidIQ to see channel stats, YouTube keywords, and video ideas.

Doing a YouTube analysis of all your content can be intimidating. That’s why you need these powerful metrics to cut the fluff and find tangible ways to make better videos.

Speaking of satisfaction, do you want to satisfy the YouTube algorithm and get more views? Here are six signs you’re well on your way.

Which video metrics are important for growing on YouTube? There’s a lot to explore with YouTube channel analytics, but here are six that lead to better videos.

YouTube Channel Analytics: The 6 Most Important Video Metrics

Quick! What’s the most important part of a YouTube video? Is it the beginning, middle, or end?

If you know the answer, that means you understand the power of audience retention on YouTube. If you’re unsure or don’t know much about this channel-boosting metric, that’s OK. We’re seconds away from sharing the answer.

, our co-hosts Dan and Rob reveal lesser-known secrets about audience retention. Listen to the episode above to soak up all the wisdom, or keep reading to discover those gems 

1. Got High Audience Retention? That Means Your Videos Are Entertaining

Why does audience retention matter so much on YouTube? Aren’t video views the supreme metric for growing a channel?

Audience retention measures how entertaining a video is. 

More than anything, that’s the key to unlocking more views.

The YouTube Studio has a detailed audience retention report. It shows a video's average view duration, which is how many minutes viewers watched on average. In a hypothetical scenario, you might have a 10-minute video that people watch for four minutes.

And then there’s the average percentage viewed, which is also known as 

. Here's how YouTube calculates it: Average view duration / length of video x 100 = audience retention rate.

“A good example would be, let’s say your video is five minutes and the average view duration is two and a half minutes,” Rob says. “That would be exactly 50% audience retention.”

And guess what? The higher your audience retention rate climbs, the easier it is to succeed on YouTube.

 Getting people to watch for longer means they might view/click more ads. And who 

 Videos with higher retention send a positive signal to YouTube’s recommendation system. The video has a higher chance of being recommended to viewers, especially if there are other positive signals (high 

, lots of likes, positive survey responses, etc.)

2. The Best Audience Retention Rate Is One That Beats Your Previous Rate

When creators discover audience retention, they usually have the same question about it: 

But coming up with a general number is difficult for two reasons:

Depending on the video, audience retention varies.

 One example is that educational videos don't hold viewers' attention like vlogs or comedic sketches. Once people get the information they're looking for, they bounce!

Comparing your audience retention rate to another creator’s isn’t helpful. 

It doesn’t explain what you’re doing right or wrong on your channel.

But if you need a ballpark rate to strive for, we 

“My general answer is, ‘Well, what is your audience retention now?’ Rob asks. "If you say it’s currently 30%, I say, ‘OK, that is your benchmark.’ What you need to aim for is an audience retention of, let’s say, 35%. If you increase it from 30% to 35%, that’s like a 20% increase. And then you move on to the next step: Forty percent.”

3. The Most Crucial Part of a Video Is the First 30 Seconds

What happens in the first 30 seconds of your video is critical. Many creators focus on the meat of their content – the sections where they give the most value to viewers. But if people aren’t satisfied at the beginning of the video, they will click away to watch something else. And if they click away, your audience retention rate takes a massive hit.

Growing a YouTube Channel - 4 Things Creators Overlook

“When you look at your retention graph, it starts at 100% and rapidly drops down until it stabilizes a little bit,” Dan says. “On a lot of graphs I’ve seen, it’s this steady trickling down as the video goes on. We know if people are leaving in less than one second of a video, there’s a good chance we’re never getting them back.”

So what’s happening in the first 30 seconds? More than anything, viewers are deciding if they’re in the right corner of YouTube. 

They’re determining whether the video matches what they saw in the title and thumbnail.

Viewer drop-off is unavoidable, but there are plenty of ways to decrease it. You can practice getting to the point of your video faster or using pattern interrupters, like images, audio, and different camera angles.

Want more tips to keep viewers engaged? Here are six ways to increase audience retention on every video.

Knowing your audience retention rate is one of the first steps to making better videos. Here are three secrets to unlock the full power of this YouTube metric.

YouTube Audience Retention: 3 Channel Boosting Secrets You Need to Know

Are viewers watching your YouTube videos to completion? Is your audience retention so high that 70% of people are still watching after the first 30 seconds?

If not, you have an opportunity to improve the "stickiness" of your videos. This is a special kind of video magic that stops people from clicking away. Creating sticky videos is about identifying what’s working (or not) to keep viewers engaged.

This simple act will help you flourish on YouTube. The algorithm loves to 

YouTube Watch Time - The Secret Sauce to More YouTube Views and Subscribers

The first step is understanding how audience retention works. Keep reading to discover this metric on your own channel, plus six simple ways to keep people watching.

 shows how many viewers are watching a video throughout the beginning, middle, end, or altogether. The "altogether" rate is shown as a percentage of total views. So for example, if you post a 12-minute video, and people watch for eight minutes on average, your audience retention rate is 66%.

In the YouTube Studio, you’ll see different moments within a video that affect your audience retention, such as:

 where viewers re-watched or skipped certain parts

 where viewers skipped a section or left the video completely

These moments highlight where viewers are losing or gaining interest during a video.

Take a look at the image below from YouTube’s 

 to see what each moment looks like on an audience retention graph.

 is a key retention metric. It’s an estimate of how many minutes viewers watched a video, on average. Increasing this number, as well as other retention metrics, can boost your views on YouTube.

“YouTube’s search and discovery system loves videos that people have found satisfying, and a great way it determines that is audience retention,” creator liaison Matt Koval said in a Creator Insider 

How to See Your Channel’s Audience Retention

Want to see if your videos are truly engaging? Follow the steps below to find out.

 (click your profile image and select YouTube Studio).

Select the video you want to analyze. Choose from the list of videos shown or use the search bar to find a specific video.

Scroll down to the bottom of the page. You’ll see a graph showing the video’s average view duration and average percentage viewed.

This data is from a video of ours, titled “

YouTube’s Discovery Algorithm...Exposed

.” The audience retention graph shows that:

On average, viewers watched the video for 

, a new YouTube metric. It compares videos of similar length on your channel and tells you if the video you're analyzing is performing better or worse than previous content.

Audience retention varies widely. It can change depending on the length of your video, the topic, and the audience. For example, a gaming or education channel’s retention could be low because of 

Young children are intrigued by gaming videos, but they have short attention spans. An adult who watches a video about investing may skip certain parts to find one piece of information. There are many reasons people don’t finish a video, so take your niche, as well as audience behavior, into consideration.

What Is a Good Audience Retention Rate on YouTube?

First, know that there isn’t a golden percentage for audience retention. Viewers have different intentions for watching a video, which leads to shorter or longer Watch Time. That’s not a bad thing at all. It leaves you free to analyze your data and make adjustments without comparing yourself to others.

But if you need a benchmark, our YouTuber-in-residence Rob Wilson has a number in mind.

“If your video is longer than five minutes, and audience retention is above 50%, you’re probably doing a good job,” Wilson says. “If your video is longer than five minutes, and you’re getting audience retention above 70% in the first 30 seconds, then you’ve got your hook on the video and you’re doing a good job.”

Want his full opinion on audience retention (and another important metric)? Watch the video below to hear Wilson explain in more detail:

How to Increase Audience Retention on YouTube

With everything we’ve covered, here are some tips for increasing audience retention:

During the first 30 seconds, hundreds of people will click away from the video. But you can reduce that number by catching viewers’ attention early. Just think: What would intrigue them so much that clicking away is not an option?

 Some people think chapters encourage viewers to leave a video quickly, but that’s not always the case. For example, would you rather someone click away in the first 30 seconds or watch a three-minute chapter that answers their question? You get more Watch Time from the second option, especially if you’re making valuable content.

Give viewers a sneak peek of what’s coming.

 In your intro, tease the juiciest part of your video without giving away all the details.

Use pattern interrupters to keep viewers engaged. 

Create variety by adding graphics, music changes, lower-thirds, and different camera angles.

Make your videos as long (or as short) as they need to be.

If you can cover a topic in five minutes, end the video there. Lengthy segments that don’t add value will push viewers to click away, which hurts your audience retention. If the information will truly help and engage viewers, it’s OK to keep going.

Study your audience retention graphs in the YouTube Studio.

 Follow the directions in this post so you can check your audience retention for every video. As you investigate, pay attention to the percentage of viewers watching after the first 30 seconds. Is that number low? Maybe you need a better intro or a juicier sneak peek. Next, identify what’s happening in the rest of the video. Are there spikes where almost no viewers clicked away? Replay those portions and try to understand what made people stick around. Keep doing what’s working, and experiment with new pattern interrupters when your audience retention starts to dip.

Boosting your audience retention is smart, but there’s one step to conquer before that.

You need viewers to see your thumbnails and click them to start watching your content. Here are six solid tips to improve your click-through rate every single time.

Want to boost your YouTube audience retention? Here are six ways to improve that metric and keep viewers watching for longer.

Getting a good click-through rate (CTR) on YouTube is a big deal. That helps you solve a major problem, which is getting YouTube to recommend your videos to viewers. 

If you’ve been on YouTube for a while, you know the algorithm won’t suggest any old video. It serves 

 with proven success. Creators who supply such content are likely to get more views and grow their channels.

That’s why you need a good CTR. When YouTube knows you’re getting thousands of clicks, it 

 to recommend your content. It’s like creating the perfect resume for your channel.

Plus, your click-through rate helps you identify winning strategies. If your CTR rises when you use a certain thumbnail template, that’s worth knowing. If it drops when you use a new titling format, that’s also something to evaluate.

Want to learn more about getting a good click-through rate? Just keep reading.

, your click-through rate is “how often viewers watched a video after seeing [its] thumbnail.”

Here’s the click-through rate formula: 

number of clicks / number of impressions x 100 = CTR

So if 30 people clicked on a video, but 1,000 saw the thumbnail overall, you’d have a click-through rate of 30%.

How to See Your Click-Through Rate In the YouTube Studio

Before you try to increase your CTR, figure out what your current percentage is.

Next, you’ll see a graph showing impressions, impressions click-through rate, views, and unique viewers. Select 

Adjust the period selector (seven days, one month, three months, one year, or the lifetime of your channel).

Here’s what the CTR graph looks like. It shows your rate over time, and you can hover over the play buttons to see which videos produced certain rates:

The graph above is from the vidIQ channel. As you can see, our CTR is 5.1% for the last 28 days. 

Scrolling down further reveals a chart showing how many impressions we received in that period.

At one point, YouTube stated that “half of all channels and videos on YouTube have an impressions CTR that can range between 2% and 10%.” 

Is your CTR within this range? If so, don't set wild expectations for yourself. YouTube's general range for CTR is just extra information; if you're at 2%, don't fall in love with idea of reaching 10% anytime soon. Slow and steady improvements will take you where you need to be.

Also, be careful about how you interpret YouTube's general CTR range. If you’re a small creator getting 100 impressions per video, it only takes a consistent 20 viewers for a 20% click-through rate. Compare that to a large channel with 150,000 impressions and 10,000 views. That’s a 6.6% click-through rate.

No matter what the numbers say, put your CTR into perspective:

 because YouTube is showing your content to 

 viewers? That could mean you have more impressions but fewer clicks as you reach a new audience. New viewers will need more convincing before they click.

Ready to get more video clicks? Here are six ways to boost your CTR on YouTube:

 (so YouTube can give you a realistic CTR).

 based on your current or all-time CTR. This is your starting point from which you'll slowly increase over time.

 YouTube is counting thumbnail views as impressions, but getting an actual “click” is important for your CTR. Make the thumbnail simple but interesting, with text that quickly explains the video’s value.

 Your video’s title is right next to the thumbnail, which gives you another chance to elicit a click. Do some keyword research to add relevant or trending phrases to your title.

 Make sure it’s relevant and reinforces the title for search pages; descriptions are highly visible in this area.

 In some areas of YouTube, viewers can see the length of a video overlaid on its thumbnail. Imagine a viewer coming to YouTube for a quick answer to one question. Will they click your video if it's an hour long?

What Every YouTube Creator Needs to Know About Custom Thumbnails and Click Through Rate

One note about setting a CTR benchmark: how you do that is totally up to you. Our CTR on the vidIQ channel is 5.1% right now. But across the lifetime of our channel, it’s 6%. In that case, we might make 6% our true benchmark – which means we’d need to first meet and then exceed that rate.

A good click-through rate is ideal, but it’s not the only signal YouTube uses to grade your videos. Here’s a handy guide on 

how YouTube recommends your content to viewers.

Does your click-through rate on YouTube need a boost? Here's how to get more clicks on every video.

Getting a Good Click-Through Rate on YouTube: 6 Powerful Tips

Of all the new viewers on your YouTube channel, how many return to watch more videos? If a large number of people keep coming back, that’s a good sign. On the flip side, having thousands of unengaged subscribers means you have some work to do.

This year, YouTube is helping creators bridge the gap. The platform has released a new feature that tracks both new and returning viewers to a channel. With these metrics, you can gauge long-term growth instead of temporary wins, such as going viral.

Are viewers returning to your YouTube channel to watch more content? Here's how to find out.

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