Guides

YouTube video length and views: find the length that works for your channel

By Channel Wise Updated October 29, 2026 3 min read

Group your videos by length#

Sort your long videos into length groups, for example under 8 minutes, 8 to 15, 15 to 25 and over 25. Compare the median views in each group. Use the median because one hit video can lift an average far above what a typical video gets.

Each group needs several videos. With only two or three videos in a group, read the result as a hint rather than a finding.

Read views next to retention#

Median views alone can mislead. A longer video may need its length for the topic. In YouTube Studio, the Engagement tab shows average percentage viewed. A length group with fewer views but a much higher viewing percentage may still be the right format for that content.

Example from a public channel audit#

The sample audit covers Noktalı Virgül, a podcast channel with 80 long-form videos. Grouped by length, with 16 videos in each group, the median views were:

On this channel the middle lengths did worst, while shorter and longer videos did better. The 3 to 12 minute group also shows why the median matters: its average was 12,591 views, far above its median of 3,628, because a few videos did very well.

The audit treats the pattern as a hypothesis to test. It describes one channel and says nothing about yours.

Turn the finding into a test#

Publish your next few videos at the length that did best for that topic. Compare them with your median after a similar number of days, and look at retention to see whether viewers stayed.