YouTube views and revenue on your Mac

Notch Metrics2 min read

YouTube Studio is a good analytics product and a heavy page. Checking one number costs you a load, a date picker and a scroll.

How do you watch YouTube without Studio?

Notch Metrics puts the figures in the MacBook notch. Collapsed, a thin strip. Hover the camera housing and it expands over whatever you were doing. Move away and it folds back to the shape it had.

What YouTube reports

Ten numbers, the richest connector in the product.

Number What it is
Views Validated views in the window
Watch time Total minutes, shown in hours
Average view duration Watch time over views
Subscribers The channel total, rounded by YouTube
New subscribers Gained in the window, gross
Likes Likes added in the window
Comments Comments added, replies included
Estimated revenue Everything the channel earned
Ad revenue The advertising part alone
RPM Revenue per thousand views

Three things worth knowing up front

Days are Pacific Time. YouTube Analytics buckets everything in America/Los_Angeles regardless of where you are. A view at nine in the evening in London lands on the previous Pacific day, and a figure that disagrees with your sense of when a spike happened by a day is usually this.

Subscribers is rounded. Above a certain size YouTube rounds the public and Analytics totals, so 12,345 reads as 12,300. The widget shows the total without a sparkline, because a sparkline of a rounded series draws steps and reads as though growth stopped and restarted. The change against the previous window comes from Analytics and is exact, so the arrow is right even where the total is rounded. Why that is.

Revenue is estimated and it settles. YouTube adjusts for invalid traffic and advertiser disputes after the fact, so the last few days of any window move and a month finalises well into the following one.

Revenue, split

Estimated revenue is everything: advertising, channel memberships, Super Chat, Super Thanks and Premium watch-time revenue. Ad revenue is the advertising part alone.

Placing both is the useful move. A channel whose total is flat while ad revenue falls is being carried by memberships, which is a different business from the one the total implies.

Connecting

OAuth, with read-only YouTube scope and the monetary analytics scope for the revenue figures. After approving you pick which channel, because an account can manage several. What the YouTube connector asks for.

Nothing is typed in, and the token is encrypted on the server rather than stored on your Mac.

Alongside everything else

Search from Search Console, traffic from Plausible, revenue from Stripe. Every source.

Apple silicon, macOS 14 and later. Seven days with no card, then $9 a month or $49 a year. Download Notch Metrics.

  • youtube
  • creator
  • mac

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Questions

How do I see YouTube views on my Mac?
Install Notch Metrics, connect YouTube over OAuth, pick the channel, and place the views widget in the MacBook notch. Hover the camera housing and the figure is there.
Which timezone does YouTube Analytics use?
America/Los_Angeles, regardless of where you are. A view at nine in the evening in London lands on the previous Pacific day, which is usually why a figure disagrees with your sense of when a spike happened.
Why is my YouTube subscriber count rounded?
Because YouTube rounds public and Analytics subscriber totals above a certain channel size, so 12,345 reads as 12,300. Notch Metrics shows the total without a sparkline for that reason, but the change against the previous window comes from Analytics and is exact.
What is the difference between YouTube estimated revenue and ad revenue?
Estimated revenue includes advertising, channel memberships, Super Chat, Super Thanks and Premium watch-time revenue. Ad revenue is the advertising part alone. A flat total with falling ad revenue means memberships are carrying the channel.
Is YouTube revenue in Notch Metrics final?
No, it is estimated. YouTube adjusts for invalid traffic and advertiser disputes after the fact, so the last few days of any window move and a month finalises well into the following one.