Find your YouTube outlier videos, compared like for like

What is an outlier video?

An outlier video is an upload that performs far above what is usual for its channel. The word only means something with a fair yardstick: the same kind of video, measured over the same days since release.

A tutorial from two years ago has had two years to collect views. A Short is watched differently from a 15-minute video. And on 31 March 2025, YouTube changed how Shorts views are counted, so a Short from before that day isn’t comparable with one from after it. Rank your channel by total views and you mostly learn which videos are oldest. To find what really broke out, compare like with like.

How CoProd decides what broke out

CoProd compares each public upload with up to 10 uploads of the same format published before it, over the same window, and uses their median as your usual value. It needs at least 5 of them.

Every number comes from YouTube’s complete report for that window. An upload still inside its window waits until the window ends rather than being compared early. Alongside views, CoProd notes whether viewers watched more or less of the video than usual, and lists up to four observations at one and a half times usual or more, or two-thirds of usual or less.

Thumbnail click-through rate always covers the first 7 days, whichever window you choose, so every upload is compared over the same days. CoProd weights each day’s rate by its impressions rather than averaging the daily percentages.

What you see for each upload

Select an upload in Channel → Video Evidence and How it compares opens beside it.

• A side-by-side table of YouTube’s numbers for the upload and its earlier uploads over the same window: views, average percentage viewed, watch time, subscribers gained, comments, likes and shares.
• Retention beside YouTube’s relative retention, where 0.5 is typical for videos of similar length. For a video CoProd produced, the chart marks its chapters.
• Traffic sources for the same window, so you can see whether a breakout came from suggested videos, search or your subscribers.
• CoProd’s calculated card, outlined with a dashed line and labelled “Calculated by CoProd from YouTube data”: the multiple of your usual views, the tier, the watching and clicks tags, the observations and the launch click-through rate.
• Take forward, for the one thing to repeat or change next time.

A published production’s performance memo links straight to its comparison with See how it compares.

Find your outliers in CoProd Premium

1. 1

   Connect your channel, read-only

   Open Channel and choose Connect YouTube. Google sign-in grants read-only access to your channel and its analytics, and CoProd fetches your latest uploads. You can import a YouTube Studio CSV export instead.

2. 2

   Confirm each video’s format

   In Video Evidence, Confirm formats checks every unconfirmed upload at once. CoProd suggests a Short for anything three minutes or shorter, and you confirm each row, so long-form videos and Shorts never share a comparison.

3. 3

   Pick a window and sort

   Choose the first 7, 28 or 90 days since release, then sort by Newest or Most views. With YouTube’s approval in place, × usual sorting and an Outliers filter join them.

4. 4

   Open How it compares

   Select an upload to see it beside its earlier uploads in one table of YouTube’s numbers, with its retention against YouTube’s relative retention and its traffic sources for the same window.

5. 5

   Take one lesson forward

   Write a takeaway of up to 280 characters about the packaging, the opening, the story, the audience or anything else, then choose Create follow-up topic to save it as an idea for a new video.

From a breakout to your next video

An outlier shows that something was different. It doesn’t say what. CoProd keeps that distinction: observations describe a difference, and the explanation is yours to write and test.

A takeaway is a note of up to 280 characters about one upload, labelled as packaging, opening, story, audience or other. Active takeaways join the evidence CoProd uses when it suggests topics. With remote analysis turned on in Strategy, packaging takeaways also guide titles and thumbnails, and opening and story takeaways guide the narrative, the script and the story of your next production. Create follow-up topic turns a takeaway into a topic idea without an AI call.

When the question is where viewers left rather than what broke out, the retention dip view links a dip to the script passage and the scene behind it.

YouTube’s numbers and CoProd’s calculations

YouTube’s API policies treat numbers an app calculates from YouTube data, such as a multiple of your usual views, as derived metrics. Apps may show them only when YouTube has approved their API project under its derived-metrics policy.

CoProd keeps the two apart. YouTube’s own numbers appear as YouTube reports them, with no approval needed. Everything CoProd calculates is outlined and labelled, and appears only where approval applies:

The fictional sample channel in Premium shows the full view, calculated card included, so you can explore every part before connecting your own channel. If you sign in with your own Google Cloud project and YouTube has approved it, you can record its approval reference in Strategy to turn the calculated comparisons on for that channel.

Your channel data stays on your Mac

Channel analytics signs in with read-only YouTube and YouTube Analytics access, keeps the grant in your Mac’s Keychain and stores reports in your library on your Mac. You can also work from YouTube Studio CSV exports without connecting. CoProd’s launch click-through totals are kept for at most 36 months, and only while approval applies. Channel notes and takeaways reach your AI provider only when you turn on remote analysis in Strategy. The app privacy policy lists every item.

Availability

The outlier view is part of CoProd Premium’s channel analytics and arrives in the next Premium update. The free, source-available edition doesn’t include channel analytics. Premium is a one-time purchase (US$50 for the first 50 buyers, then US$159 until the end of 2026 and US$249 after that), includes two years of updates and covers one creator on one Mac. Compare the editions.

Questions about YouTube outlier videos