Question 1

What is an outlier video?

Accepted Answer

An outlier video is one that massively outperforms the channel's typical video. We track channels over time and calculate a "median views" baseline. A video scoring 10x means it got 10 times more views than the channel's usual content — a true over-performer, not just a big channel getting expected views.

Question 2

How often is the data updated?

Accepted Answer

Our system discovers new channels daily and monitors tracked channels three times per day. It covers 18 topic categories on a rotating schedule and scans over 100 channels every day for fresh outliers.

Question 3

What qualifies as an outlier?

Accepted Answer

A video must have at least 10,000 views and score 5x or higher against the channel's median view count. This means the video got at least 5 times more views than the channel's typical content — a genuine over-performer.

Question 4

Why focus on channel median instead of subscribers?

Accepted Answer

Subscriber count is a poor baseline — a channel with 100K subscribers might only average 5K views per video. By comparing against median views, we find videos that truly broke out relative to the channel's actual performance, not an arbitrary subscriber number.

Question 5

Can I filter by video category?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Use the category dropdown to filter outliers by YouTube category such as Education, Gaming, Entertainment, Science & Technology, and more.

Question 6

How is the outlier score calculated?

Accepted Answer

The outlier score divides a video's view count by the channel's median view count (based on their last 10 uploads). For example, if a channel typically gets 10,000 views and one video hits 500,000, that's a 50x outlier. For new channels without enough history, we fall back to views divided by subscriber count.

Outlier Finder

How to Find Viral YouTube Videos from Small Channels

What Makes a Good Outlier Score?

Use Outliers to Find Content Ideas

Frequently Asked Questions