Being discovered on YouTube can feel like an impossible task in the current landscape of content creation, but YouTube just announced Hype, a new feature designed to help boost creators by featuring them on the platform like never before. Let’s break down everything you need to know about Hype and how you can start growing your channel with this new feature today.
Hype is being rolled out this month to 39 countries, including the US, UK, Japan, Korea, Indonesia, and India. It allows your audience to “Hype” a video, which works like an advanced version of a like.
Hyped videos accumulate points, and the ones with the most points earn a spot on a weekly leaderboard for each country. This leaderboard will live alongside YouTube’s biggest pages such as Trending, Music, Live, and News, becoming a major source of traffic on the site. If you manage to land on the leaderboard your video will also receive a Hype Badge, giving it visibility and credibility beyond just the ranking. Viewers can even filter their Home feed to see Hyped content.
Can anyone get their videos Hyped? Not exactly. Hype is built to support smaller creators. If you have fewer than 500,000 subscribers you’re eligible for the feature. You’ll start to see the Hype button appear alongside your newest uploads, with the option expiring once a video is more than 7 days old. For creators with smaller audiences, YouTube also adds a Hype Bonus, which means your hypes may carry more weight compared to larger creators competing for leaderboard spots each week.
Once you see this feature rolling out, it’s a great idea to start adding calls to action for your viewers to press the Hype button. Fans will also be notified anytime a video they hyped is close to reaching the leaderboard. For community members who are consistently hyping your content, there’s even the chance to earn a Hype Star badge that appears next to their username.
We’re excited to see how this feature impacts creators across the platform. You can track your Hype Points for each video in the YouTube Studio mobile app, where you’ll also find a dedicated Hype Card in your analytics dashboard and a weekly recap in your Studio data stories.
If you have questions about this or anything else on YouTube, feel free to contact us.
