The average amount of time viewers spent watching a video. YouTube calculates it from engaged views and their watch time.
Formula
Average view duration = watch time ÷ views
Example
Meera's 60-second video has 10 hours (36,000 seconds) of watch time from 2,000 views. Average view duration is 36,000 ÷ 2,000 = 18 seconds.
How you'll hear it
“Average view duration is 18 seconds on a one-minute video, so most people never reach the product.”
Don't confuse it with
- Audience retention: shows how many viewers are still watching at each moment, as a graph or percentage.
- Average percentage viewed: average view duration as a share of the video's length.
Related terms
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Sources
- Understand your YouTube engagement, YouTube Help