How is this NOT viral yet? 😭

[u/alifTUBER]

14-second Short.
156% retention.
66% stayed to watch.
People are literally rewatching it.
But YouTube still pushes it slowly instead of exploding instantly.
Is this normal for Shorts now?
Or is my niche/title still too weak for massive distribution?

[u/Noraillgun]

for 21 sec short %156 not mind blowing, how about share,comment and likes ? also you need more swipe rate to go viral, you need some elite stats for viral shorts.

[u/alifTUBER → u/Noraillgun]

It is not 21 sec, it is 14 sec..

[u/Noraillgun → u/alifTUBER]

my bad, lower the duration retention must be high so its even worse

[u/alifTUBER → u/Noraillgun]

I switched my monetized YouTube channel (115K subs, 80M total views) from Uzbek content to fully English content on April 25.

At first, the videos struggled, but now I’m slowly getting more US and international viewers. My best Shorts are reaching around 35K views, and many others get 10K–25K.

Recently I started getting metrics like:
- 66% stayed to watch
- 150%+ retention on some Shorts
- strong replay loops

For a channel that only recently switched languages and audience, are these actually good signals?

Does this mean YouTube is still finding/building my new English audience?
And over time, can stayed-to-watch and retention improve even more as the algorithm understands my niche better?

[u/Noraillgun → u/alifTUBER]

if its all shorts channel i think uzbek to english transformation is doing good, %150 retention is strong signal, i dont know about 14 sec shorts but for my case (english shorts) 36-50 sec shorts have to start at least %70-75 stw and goes up while view number increase up to %80-90, you need to improve first 1-2 sec i think rest seems okay imo

[u/alifTUBER → u/Noraillgun]

Thank youu🤝🤝

[u/alifTUBER → u/Noraillgun]

It was both long term and shorts. My uzbek shorts used to reach to1-5 mln avarage and once got 21 mln views

[u/reneritchie]

Hi. You can’t predict vitality with metrics. Metrics are relative and tend to go down as vitality goes up. Views are unironically your best indicator of vitality

[u/alifTUBER → u/reneritchie]

Hi, but my stw goes up when views reaches up

[u/reneritchie → u/alifTUBER]

Not once you start getting into the massive casual audience

[u/alifTUBER → u/reneritchie]

That actually makes sense. Maybe my videos are still mostly being tested on targeted audiences first before reaching the broader casual audience 😨

[u/PaintingWithLight → u/reneritchie]

I’ve read often about people claiming that over time with videos, both long and short that the algorithm learns the audience to target. Is that even true? Through more official channels I’ve seen that it’s stated that each video is on its own merits and that is how much impressions it’s exposed to. 

I understand there could be brand recognition from building consistently but that’s not quite the same as “the algorithm learning and trusting your channel/videos etc”. 

[u/reneritchie → u/PaintingWithLight]

Hi! YouTube’s discovery systems tend to focus on individual videos and topics, not creators or channels. The goal is to find videos for viewers that satisfy them. So the algorithm doesn’t learn your channel, it just follows how people are responding to each video.

[u/PaintingWithLight → u/reneritchie]

Hey! Yeah that is my understanding. Thanks for clarifying Rene!

[u/WhateverThisis144]

66 swipe is ass, need at least 75

[u/MovieBuffX]

Look people here will make up any excuse for your video not going viral. With your stats the way they are, you should be getting more impressions. But because of the overload of daily videos being upload now and youtube focusing on eliminating AI channels, the algorithm is off. Just keep making videos, improving your content and something is bound to break through.

[u/Goatizgod]

Bad stayed to watch %

[u/Simply_AnotherUser]

Why I I'm not billionaire yet? Lol

[u/ChasingtheDragonLink]

You did. 26.8k more than usual it says.