my best video has 8k views, coming in at between 100-1000 per month depending how many impressions the algorithm decides to allot to me.
It happens when your video reaches the frontpage of Youtube.
I honestly have no idea, but I doubt it reached "the front page of YouTube" like the sibling post suggested or it would have millions.
Somehow it must've got suggested to a few people and maybe it had a high engagement rate (likes and comments?) which was somehow taken positively. I'm purely guessing though.
It really isn't an impressive video though it does have a 99% like ratio. I'm a bit embarrassed to self promote here so I'll email you based on your HN profile site contact page.