-
Simultaneous MLT YouTube Views
-
Jung, I’ve been watching the
views of Sound of Silence with much interest to see if it has the staying power
to make it to 1M in under 6 months like “Wish You Were Here” and “Please Mr.
Postman”. Although it had a rapid climb
to 150,000, it would need to average nearly 5,000 views per day to hit 1,000,000 by
Jan 11. Unfortunately, it appears to
have already dropped below this. It
seems to be following a similar growth rate as “Nowhere Man” which is at
438,000 after 5 months despite reaching 100,000 on its fifth day of release
(one day faster than “Sound of Silence).The good news is that number of MLT subscribers jumped about a thousand with the release of “Sound of Silence”. I’m still hoping they hit 200,000 by the end of the year although Social Blade doesn’t expect this to happen until March, 2022.
-
Hi Lynn. Thanks for checking the stats. It’s great to see the rapid rise of Sound of Silence, and 1000 new subscribers is great news. It all adds up to the snowballing growth effect of MLT music.
-
After two weeks on the “charts”, the S value for Sound of Silence stands at a sparkling 27. But as Lynn pointed out, the viewing rate has slowed significantly: fewer than 3000 views per day now.
If an S value were calculated just for the time since the video hit 150,000 views, it would only be 6.3. Still very impressive, but no longer on a record pace.
-
The S value for Sound of Silence is 22 after two and a half weeks. I think it can see a postal van approaching in its rear view mirror.
I plan to compile an updated top 20 this weekend, and may finally get around to taking the data for Jung’s idea of an overall S value for all the MLT videos.
-
Okay, prepare for information overload. First an updated top 20, with the changes since the last rankings almost a month ago:
1) Sound of Silence: S = 19.8 (new)
2) Please Mr. Postman / Wipeout: S = 15.0 (-0.7)
3) Wish You Were Here: S = 11.9 (-0.4)
4) Nowhere Man: S = 6.3 (-0.6)
5) Both Sides Now: S = 6.2 (-1.2)
6) You Can’t Do That: S = 5.3 (-0.2)
7) While My Guitar Gently Weeps: S = 4.3 (0.0)
8) Lola: S = 4.3 (-0.1)
9) I’m a Believer: S = 3.5 (-0.1)
10) Drive My Car: S = 3.2 (0.0)
11) Till There Was You: S = 3.0 (-0.1)
12) Africa: S = 3.0 (0.0)
13) Here, There and Everywhere: S = 2.7 (-0.1)
14) If I Fell: S = 2.6 (0.0)
15) I’ll Follow the Sun: S = 2.5 (0.0)
16) Sunshine Superman: S = 2.3 (-0.5)
17) Close to You: S = 2.2 (-0.2)
18) When I’m Sixty-Four: S = 2.1 (0.0)
19) You Really Got Me: S = 2.1 (-1.0)
20) I Saw Her Standing There: S = 2.1 (0.0)
I also estimated an overall S value for MLT’s YouTube channel, using the method I outlined earlier. Taking data from a 24-hour period spanning July 30th, I calculated that about 104 people are simultaneously watching some MLT video on YouTube at any given time. (An aside: on that date there were a total of 35,864 views of MLT videos.) Since this is a more or less current number, dependent on only one day of data rather than being integrated over months or years, I’ll call it the C value (for “current”) instead of the S value.
So how about a top 20 list for C values? This tells you roughly how many people were simultaneously watching a given video on July 30th, independent of the video’s previous history. The C value is a much better indicator of present viewing habits than the S value is, so I may switch to this measure from now on, even though it requires taking data on two separate occasions to calculate it.
1) Please Mr. Postman / Wipeout: C = 9.2
2) While My Guitar Gently Weeps: C = 4.8
3) Sound of Silence: C = 4.3
4) Drive My Car: C = 4.1
5) Wish You Were Here: C = 3.8
6) When I’m Sixty-Four: C = 2.8
7) Nowhere Man: C = 2.7
8) Both Sides Now: C = 2.6
9) I Saw Her Standing There: C = 2.5
10) You Can’t Do That: C = 2.4
11) If I Fell: C = 2.3
12) San Francisco: C = 2.0
13) Africa: C = 2.0
14) I’m a Believer: C = 1.6
15) This Boy: C = 1.6
16) I’ll Follow the Sun: C = 1.5
17) Day Tripper: C = 1.5
18) Till There Was You: C = 1.5
19) Here, There and Everywhere: C = 1.5
20) Lola: C = 1.4
Finally, here’s the raw number of views (V) for the 20 most-watched videos of July 30th:
1) Please Mr. Postman / Wipeout: V = 3231
2) Drive My Car: V = 2112
3) Sound of Silence: V = 1820
4) While My Guitar Gently Weeps: V = 1526
5) When I’m Sixty-Four: V = 1373
6) Nowhere Man: V = 1216
7) Wish You Were Here: V = 1129
8) You Can’t Do That: V = 1100
9) I Saw Her Standing There: V = 1062
10) If I Fell: V = 1031
11) San Francisco: V = 870
12) Till There Was You: V = 791
13) Both Sides Now: V = 768
14) This Boy: V = 665
15) Day Tripper: V = 660
16) You’re Going to Lose That Girl: V = 643
17) I’m a Believer: V = 637
18) Here, There and Everywhere: V = 614
19) Please Please Me: V = 611
20) I’ll Follow the Sun: V = 608
At the other end of the spectrum, there were two videos that on July 30th were viewed just once, which was presumably my “research” view. Those were the lyrics video for Waiting for the Waiter (which is understandable, since the “real” video is right next to it) and the WWT DVD promo with the twins running down the alley in Santa suits (which is not understandable, since it’s a fine piece of dramatic acting).
-
Wow, great work David, thanks so much for doing this.
Yeah the C number, current simultaneous views of a particular video during the month at any given time I think is a valuable stat. Also the fact that approx 104 people were always watching MLTs videos simultaneously at any given time throughout July is quite amazing too. Imagine how many live shows would be needed to reach that many people, to create that many beautiful musical experiences. I also like the raw most watched list of videos for the month too. David, I think the people at Nielsen Ratings would love you! Kudos.
I’ve very happy to see San Francisco still high up there as well as my fave from the live album Please Mr Postman. The many simultaneous views of any MLT song makes me happy!
-
Wow, David! Just wow….. Thanks much for all your research and number-crunching! Maybe the WWT DVD promo vid will do better closer to Christmas. ????
-
Thanks, Jung and Jeffery. The C and V numbers are calculated just for the date of July 30th, not for the entire month, although except for the most recent videos the rankings would probably be comparable. I’m thinking I’ll recalculate the top 20 for today (in less than two hours) to see how volatile the results are from day to day.
For several videos the C value is greater than the S value, indicating an increase in viewing rate, in defiance of the expected decay. Without exception those are all more than seven years old, which suggests that their power source may be the long-term increase in MLT awareness (and overall viewing rate) since those videos first came out.
Update: the C values seem fairly stable over a timescale of one day. All the numbers for July 31st are within 0.4 of their values for July 30th, except for Please Mr. Postman / Wipeout, which jumped by nearly 0.9. I might try a span of a week or so to see if that smooths things out a little.
-
Although I may be phasing out the S calculations, it’s all I can use right now for the newly posted Drive My Car video. Here are some early numbers: after six hours, S = 51. After nine hours, S = 40. After twelve hours, S = 33. After 24 hours, S = 26. After 36 hours, S = 27 (a slight rise!). After 48 hours, S = 24. After 60 hours, S = 22. After 72 hours, S = 20. After 84 hours, S = 19. After 96 hours (four days), S = 17.
I think this is the first MLT song for which we now have two different live performances on YouTube. (Check that: there’s also Twist and Shout.)
-
After collecting data for a week I can confirm that the one-day values for C and V generally don’t fluctuate a whole lot. The averages for the week are pretty similar to the previous one-day results, with no video moving up or down by more than three spots on either list.
The one anomaly was the “MonaLisa Twins Interview 2016” video, which now appears at #17 on the C list. The strength of this video for C purposes is its great length rather than its number of views. It turns out that the number of views was unusually low on the date that was used for the previous list, and the week-long average places it considerably higher. (It was only an increase from 89 views per day to 103, but percentagewise that makes a big difference.)
Then there is the issue of what to do with the new video of Drive My Car. Since it appeared during the past week, C and V are both evolving pretty fast, so average values don’t mean a lot yet. Using just the data for the last 24 hours, both numbers would rank second behind Please Mr. Postman / Wipeout.
-
Thanks for the information overload. Appreciate all the time you put into this. These numbers intriguing. All those smiles.
Thanks David,
JP
-
Further down the list is “Hotel California” with a V around 410. It passed 990,000 views yesterday on its slow climb to 1 million. It should hit that mark around the end of August. I’ve thought of asking the Twins to post that video on FaceBook just to see if it avoids the ban that YouTube has on it in the U.S.
-
Just a quick mid-month update on the top 20 videos with regard to the current number of simultaneous views (C) and the average number of views per day (V), based on activity from August 15-17.
C and V numbers overall are slightly up relative to two weeks ago, but there have been only a few notable changes in the rankings.
I’m a Believer and I’ll Follow the Sun have both dropped out of the top 20 in both categories. Both Sides Now has descended the farthest, down to #14 for C and missing the top 20 for V. The new version of Drive My Car, which I didn’t rank last time because it was so new, just missed the top 20 for C and is at #15 for V.
On the other hand, Africa has risen quite a bit, to #9 for C and #14 for V, and the 2016 MLT interview has reached #13 for C. Also, Bus Stop has entered both lists at #20.
I don’t see much rhyme or reason for why these particular songs moved so much; perhaps it’s just random fluctuations. I’ll take another look at the beginning of September.
-
Thanks, David! I’m still impressed at your dedication! Random fluctuations don’t surprise me. It truly is a mad, mad, mad, mad world we live in. So much tragedy in the world….thank God we have the MLT Club to escape into.
-
Tracking “I Bought Myself a Politician” on YouTube is going to be interesting. It’s not a cover of a well-known song, but the title and image are intriguing enough that it might get an unusually large number of views for an MLT original. We’ll see how it goes.
I’m going to modify my technique a little for this video. I’ll calculate S values in the standard way (for comparison with previous new videos), and then do an “instant” C value based on just ten minutes of data following each S calculation. These C values will probably fluctuate a bit, but they’ll still give a more accurate reading of the current state of viewership than the S values do.
After two hours, S = 109 and C = 73. After three hours, S = 96 and C = 69. After four hours, S = 87 and C = 59. After five hours, S = 80 and C = 56. After six hours, S = 74 and C = 44. After thirteen hours, S = 54 and C = 42. After nineteen hours, S = 58 and C = 64. (C has increased by 50% since the last tally, consistent with JP’s observation below.) After 22 hours, S = 58 and C = 25. (That big swing in C might be at least partly an artifact of how many times the view totals are updated in any given ten-minute period.)
After 27 hours, S = 57 and C = 32. After 30 hours, S = 54 and C = 12. After 37 hours, S = 47 and C = 26. After 41 hours, S = 45 and C = 25. After 46 hours, S = 44 and C = 18. After 50 hours, S = 42 and C = 13. After 54 hours, S = 41 and C = 25. After 66 hours, S = 36 and C = 10. After 77 hours, S = 32 and C = 7.8. After 88 hours, S = 29 and C = 4.1. And after 99 hours, S = 29 and C = 26. (Lots of variation in C for short sample times!)
Overall, of the four videos I’ve tracked from scratch since developing this S scheme, I Bought Myself a Politician has the second-highest early simultaneous viewing rate, trailing only Sound of Silence.
Log in to reply.
