Why Does YouTube Remove Views?

Have you ever noticed view count on your video drop? Have you ever checked your video view count earlier then later find out that the views have reduced? In addition to that, have you ever seen your YouTube views reduce in number? That’s what are are referring to as drop. Yes that happens. In the morning you can check your video views and then check again later only to find that the view count has reduced. This happens for a few reasons. There are few reasons why YouTube reduces views. By the way when we talk about the drop, in most cases is because YouTube removes the views. So why does this happen? Why does YouTube remove the views? Below are the reasons why YouTube removes views.

1. Bot & Fake Views Removal.

The biggest reason why YouTube removes views is because of BOT generated views. Similarly, many of those views are Fake. Fake in the sense that the views did not come from real people. There are so many BOTs on the internet that can generate the views for you. What they do is click on your video or open your video link and let the video play. When they do that for a long time and for so many times, then you get thousands or millions of views but are fake. YouTube does not like this and will remove them. Yes YouTube will remove those fake views. If you keep repeating the same, it could lead to a penalty. Yes such behavior can lead YouTube to penalize your channel.

2. Repeated Views from the Same User.

YouTube is very advanced. It can tell if one person or the same person plays your video repeatedly. It can tell if the same person keeps clicking the same video and playing it again and again. Even if the person changes the IP Address and tries to play the same video, YouTube will know. There are so many ways of detecting the same user even without the use of IP address. Actually, even if the person changes the browser, YouTube will still know because its the same device. Have you ever heard of things like device fingerprinting? Yes these things are real and can be used to track you. YouTube does not like when people try to cheat the system and inflate their views by repeat watching. You cannot ask your friends to to keep playing your videos in a loop so that you can get many views. YouTube will remove them all.

3. Views from External Sites.

Sometimes, YouTube removes views from external websites. Not all websites but some websites. The thing is YouTube cannot trust some websites. YouTube does not know if some of these websites are genuine or not. You know its the internet and people do whatever they want with their websites. Hence some of these websites has not so good traffic, maybe from POP ads. Pop ads traffic is not good and YouTube does not like it. Some other of these websites use BOTs on their websites to automate certain processes. In addition to that, some of these websites might have certain communities that YouTube does not like like porn. Hence if your views are coming from such websites, then YouTube might keep removing them. Additionally, some of these websites might be doing things that are not so legal. Say for example gambling or selling other illegal things. If your YouTube views are coming from such websites, then you can be sure YouTube will be remove them.

4. Algorithm & Auditing Processes.

YouTube regularly audits views to make sure that their statistics are right. In addition to that, they do the audit to remove the views that are not genuine or do not meet the threshold of being a view. What does this mean? In order for a view to count as a view on YouTube, it has to meet certain conditions like the person watching the video for at least 30 seconds. Hence when YouTube does an audit, it filters the views to remove those that do not meet those conditions. That's why you might see your view count drop. In addition to that YouTube counts the views in real time and it might make mistakes. For example it might over-count the views of a video. Or in other words it might count the same view more than once because it is doing it in real time. Therefore, when YouTube algorithms do an audit, it removes those duplicate view counts. Hence why you see your view count drop.

5. Suspicious Activity (Buying Views, Clickbait, etc.).

Like we have mentioned above, YouTube is always self auditing and improving its quality. Thus if the systems suspect that you are doing some bad things, it will remove your views. Say for example if you buy the views from some unscrupulous seller out there, YouTube will know. It will remove those views from that seller. Another reason why YouTube might remove your views is if you are tricking people into clicking your videos. Yes most YouTubers use clickbaits but in addition to the clickbait the video is actually about the clickbait. However, on the other hand, if your video is just a clickbait and no video to match with that, then that's bad. If you use a clickbait title and clickbait thumbnail but the video does not actually address the clickbait topic, then that's bad and YouTube will definitely remove those views.

6. Copyright & Policy Violations.

YouTube takes copyright issues very seriously. If you violate YouTube copyright and policies, then YouTube will remove those views. Actually not just that but also the video. YouTube will remove the video that violates the copyright and other policies. Thus when YouTube removes the video, it also goes away with the views. Of course the views are associated with the video hence if you remove the video it will remove the views.

7. YouTube’s Real-Time View Verification Process.

The view count on your live video is not the same as your regular count after the live stream. This is because after the live, YouTube does an audit of those views to know which to keep and which to remove. Thus the views after a live stream can reduce. When it does the audit after the livestream it will remove some of those views that do not meet the threshold.

Conclusion.

Now you know why sometimes YouTube might remove your views. Thus next time when you see it happen you will know what is going on and not panic. In addition to that, when you see it happen the next time, then you know what errors to correct. You know what wrong things you need to stop doing.