po polsku
illustration: DALL-EYouTube has introduced a major update to its analytics system, shifting away from the long-used “returning viewers” metric. Instead, the platform now categorizes audiences into three distinct types, providing creators and brands with a more nuanced understanding of their community. The change, rolled out in YouTube Studio, aims to spotlight viewer loyalty and long-term engagement over fleeting success or raw view counts.
According to YouTube’s new model, viewers now fall into three categories:
- New viewers: Those visiting a channel for the first time during a selected period.
- Casual viewers: People who have watched content from a channel irregularly over the past year - between one and five months.
- Regular viewers: The most valuable group, made up of those who have watched content from the channel for at least six of the past 12 months.
This reclassification marks a strategic pivot toward understanding not just how many people a video reaches, but who keeps coming back. Brands, advertisers, and creators can now assess a channel’s true community impact, instead of relying on subscription numbers or one-off viral spikes.
Loyalty, not virality
In the words of Borys Marushchak, Performance Manager at Harbingers, the change allows marketers to “precisely assess audience loyalty” and differentiate between genuine community-building and short-term reach. For companies looking to partner with creators, the share of regular viewers may now matter more than subscriber counts.
See video: 7 facts about news on social media
To support creators in building viewer loyalty, YouTube has updated its platform recommendations. The new suggestions include:
- Maintaining a consistent upload schedule
- Using the Community tab for informal posts and polls
- Actively engaging with comments
- Hosting livestreams and video premieres
These practices aim to turn casual or new viewers into regulars. A signal not just of creator success, but also of sustainable channel growth. Example: A cooking channel with 100,000 subscribers but only 3% regular viewers may be less attractive to brands than a niche channel with 20,000 subscribers and 25% regular engagement. The latter suggests a tightly-knit audience that values the creator’s content long-term.
| Viewer Type | Frequency of Visits (12 months) | Engagement Value |
|---|---|---|
| New viewers | First-time visits | Discovery |
| Casual viewers | 1-5 months | Moderate |
| Regular viewers | 6+ months | High |
This detailed breakdown enables more informed content strategy decisions. Creators can now track whether their videos fail to convert first-time viewers into loyal followers - and adjust accordingly.
Before the update, the single "returning viewers" metric grouped casual and loyal users together. Now, the distinction reveals whether a channel’s success relies on novelty or lasting impact.
Social video dominates news and trust
The move also reflects broader industry shifts. According to the Reuters Digital News Report 2025, 30% of internet users identify YouTube as their primary news source. Social video consumption has soared, growing from 52% in 2020 to 65% in 2025.
- 52% → 65%: global increase in social video news consumption
- 55% → 72%: Americans watching news videos weekly
- 61%: viewers prefer platforms like YouTube over traditional news sites
- 67% → 75%: global growth in any kind of video news viewing
These numbers show why platforms like YouTube want better tools to measure true influence. Brands investing in creator partnerships care less about viral hits and more about stable audiences.
After all, according to a trust study by IBRiS, YouTube is also the most trusted social platform in Poland. Nearly 25% of respondents declared trust in the platform, and only 3% said they didn’t know it. Meanwhile, 41.6% of global users still judge content credibility by popularity - likes and views - a concerning insight from UNESCO`s Influencer 2024 Report.
This behavior emphasizes why metrics like regular viewer share are so important. They reflect real relationships between creator and audience, not just algorithm-fueled attention.
In the new YouTube ecosystem, engagement is currency. Viewers who return month after month now speak louder than subscriber milestones or trending appearances.
COMMERCIAL BREAK
New articles in section Media industry
Children and artificial intelligence. The generation of a global experiment is growing
Joanna Sokołowska, UNICEF Polska
A UNICEF analysis based on new data from 10 countries shows that at least 20 million children have already used artificial intelligence (AI). Many of them are ahead of adults, adopting these technologies at a pace more than three times faster.
New generations and the end of traditional news. Reuters Institute report
Krzysztof Fiedorek
Traditional news media are losing touch with the youngest generation of audiences, who grew up in a digital environment. Young people aged 18 to 24 spend time online continuously and expect publishers to take a fresh approach to presenting reality, according to a report by the Reuters Institute.
TVs in Europe, the USA and China. What and how we watch on them
Paweł Sobczak
The Living Room Study shows significant differences in video content consumption across different regions of the world. This is the result of diverse media ecosystems shaped by decades of local broadcasting, channel availability, and strong cultural factors.
See articles on a similar topic:
How artificial intelligence misrepresents the news. PBC analysis
Sylwia Markowska
In news summaries generated by the most popular models in Polish, as many as 46% of responses contained at least one significant error, 27% had serious issues with sources (missing, misleading, or incorrect), and 19% contained hallucinations and outdated information.
Social Media and Relationships. Interesting Research from Palestine
KFi
What does love look like in the digital age? Does technology bring people closer or push them apart? In an era where Facebook and Instagram replace dinner table conversations, social media has become a new space for marital relationships. Researchers from An-Najah National University examined how technology can build bonds but also sow uncertainty.
We Trust AI-Generated Fake News More Than Human-Created News
KrzysztoF
Generating and spreading misinformation with AI can negatively affect various areas of life, including global healthcare. To examine how AI-created text impacts the comprehension of information, researchers from the University of Zurich analyzed tweets generated by GPT-3.
New Individual Mass Media (Mass Self Communication)
Grzegorz D. Stunża
In the latest issue of "Le Monde Diplomatique," there’s an article by Manuel Castells titled "Individual Mass Media." The author points out that media, once subjective and often party-affiliated (as with newspapers), only briefly moved away from one-sidedness when under various pressures.
