YouTube has rolled out its “Hype” feature to 39 countries, including the US, UK, Japan, South Korea, Indonesia and India.
The expanded rollout comes as the platform introduces new ways to help emerging creators gain visibility, while potentially helping it generate additional revenue.
The feature, announced in September, allows viewers to promote videos from creators with fewer than 500,000 subscribers by awarding points to help their videos land on leaderboards. Each user can hype up to three videos per week, with the system favoring smaller creators.
YouTube explained in a blog post: “To level the playing field, hype gives smaller creators a bigger boost. The fewer the subscribers, the bigger the bonus, giving the most authentic emerging creators a better opportunity to get noticed.”
YouTube initially tested the feature in Turkey, Taiwan and Brazil in 2024, and in the first four weeks of beta testing in those markets, users generated more than 5 million hypes across 50,000 channels. The company said it found that viewers aged 18 to 24 comprised over 30% of beta users.
“To level the playing field, hype gives smaller creators a bigger boost. The fewer the subscribers, the bigger the bonus, giving the most authentic emerging creators a better opportunity to get noticed.”
YouTube
The company has enhanced the feature since its initial launch. Videos can now be hyped directly through a dedicated button below the video player, and a “hyped” badge will appear across the platform. Users can filter their home feeds to show only hyped videos, while the most active participants earn monthly “hype star” badges.
For creators, YouTube has integrated hype metrics into its Studio mobile app, allowing them to track performance and view weekly data recaps.
YouTube has hinted at plans to roll out more features for Hype soon. “Soon, there’ll be leaderboards for specific interests like gaming and style, and a way for you to easily share that you just hyped a video to cast an even bigger spotlight.”
Back in September when Hype was first announced, YouTube signaled plans to monetize the feature by allowing users to purchase additional hypes beyond their weekly allocation, creating what it describes as “another revenue stream for creators.”
In April, YouTube’s parent company Alphabet reported a 10.3% YoY increase in YouTube ad revenues to $8.93 billion. That growth was “driven by direct response advertising, followed by brand,” Alphabet and Google SVP and CFO Anat Ashkenazi said on the company’s earnings call.
YouTube saw “strong growth in revenues across ads and subscriptions,” Google SVP and Chief Business Officer Philipp Schindler said on the call.
YouTube revealed in March that its Premium and Music Premium services now have 125 million paying subscribers, an increase of 25 million over the prior 12 months.
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