How the Viewershift Score works
Formula v1The score is a percentile: 80 means a channel is ahead of about 80% of comparable channels. It describes how a channel is doing against its peers on three signals. It is not a judgement of quality, and it is not a prediction.
The three measures
- Momentum40% of the score
How fast the channel's views are growing recently, relative to its size.
Needs: At least a month of recent view history.
- Consistency30% of the score
How regularly the channel has uploaded over the past year.
Needs: At least 12 uploads in the past year.
- Engagement30% of the score
How many viewers like a typical video.
Needs: At least 20 videos with 100+ views and a public like count.
Each measure is turned into a percentile within the channel's peer group. The score blends the measures a channel has, weighted as above, and is then ranked again within its peer group so the final number is a true percentile. A channel needs at least 2 of the 3 measures to be scored; with less, we show “not enough data” instead of guessing.
Who a channel is compared with
Only channels with at least 10,000 subscribers are scored. Peers are channels in the same subscriber band (10K–100K, 100K–1M, 1M–10M, 10M+). The comparison group is the first of these that applies:
- Channels in the same category and subscriber size range
- Channels in the same subscriber size range
- All channels with 10M+ subscribers, across categories
A category and size group is used when it holds at least 100 scored channels. The 10M+ group is always pooled across categories because few channels are that large.
Labels and confidence
Labels are only given to high scores: Exceptional at 99 and above, Strong at 90 and above, Solid at 70 and above. Below that the number is shown on its own.
- High confidence: All three measures and a same-category comparison group.
- Medium confidence: All three measures, compared with channels of a similar size.
- Low confidence: Two of the three measures.
Limits you should know about
Scores are refreshed regularly, and each score shows the date it was calculated.
Some eligible channels don't have enough history for a score yet. We show them as such rather than give a guess.
When the formula changes, the version number changes with it, so a score is always tied to the rules that produced it.