Why Is the Most-Viewed Gaming Video on YouTube About Cars 2? | Hacker News Reader

Why Is the Most-Viewed Gaming Video on YouTube About Cars 2?

minimaxir.com

53 pointsminimaxir26 comments

This reddit comment by Hyroero:

>It's kids. They literally all have ipads or some other tablet (most of the children I look after even at the age of 1 or 2 have their own tablet...).

>Cars 2 was craaaaazy popular with children, it's the same as how frozen is crazy popular right now.

>That explains a few other entries in the list like Pocoyo which is a popular kids show too.

>These children basically watch the same video over and over and over (not sure if that gives additional views or not) then select what ever looks cool in related videos, rinse and repeat.

>Edit: Just felt like adding another example, one of the children I care for is obsessed with the Lego movie and is often watching random game play from the Lego movie video game as if it were a show. He doesn't understand it's a game, in fact his parents don't play games either so he's had no contact with games.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Games/comments/38xjhp/i_created_a_l...

Yes, it's the only video on the list that I've seen and it's exactly because my 2 and 4 year olds commandeer my iDevices and watch those videos. See this article about one woman making $5 million from reviewing Disney toys and you'll start to understand: http://www.buzzfeed.com/hillaryreinsberg/youtubes-biggest-st...

So advertising on those videos is probably near worthless then?

Those kids also influence which toys daddy will buy.

The linked article seemed to imply that because YT sees grown-up user info when kids use devices that belong to their parents, it will show grown-up commercials, e.g. Target and ATT. That would be worthless, since kids don't care and their parents don't see it.

Which is why advertisers consider the video being viewed, not just what user they think is viewing them.

I don't think people understand how widespread YouTube viewing is for kids.

The Psy "Gangnam Style" video is the most popular video on the site because kids watch it over and over again. (If you ever wondered why it was so popular.. that's why) Same reason why that Disney collector is the most viewed YouTube user.

Kids love YouTube.

My son was a YouTube viewer before he could talk. He is now 2 1/2, and every day he spends 20-30 minutes watching videos. Occasionally more (esp. when his parents are sick.) Sometimes he follows a video stream. Other times he asks us to put specific genres up for viewing.

He will unquestionably be able to type on the iPad long before he can actually write.

It is very much going to change the next generation.

My 4yo nephew will watch youtube vids of tractors until he falls asleep. He can't write and can only read a few words, but he will put characters into the search field and choose the suggestions he recognizes.

I saw a 3~4yo on an airplane once playing on an iPad (some infinite runner game). He would try to buy everything in the store after each round, probably because he couldn't tell how many coins he had or needed. Most of the time the dialog to pay real money for coins came up, and he would close it.

It was just weird to watch him do that so much.

I'm not sure it's so different from the worn VHS tapes played over and over in our childhoods. Although it's definitely subject to much less parental review.

It's all my niece and nephew watch (9 and 11). Clips of Minecraft and parodies of Frozen.

My daughter learnt to speak English and I'd much better than her peers, just by watching and learning from Peppa Pig[1] on Youtube. She was about 3 years then. Quintessential, she also got her quivered accent from that British Series. We have been surprised many a times by the words she used, for her age and that we're not in an English dominant place at all - India.

Ever since I taught her to use the Voice Search, she stopped asking me to search her videos. I just make sure the Filtering is set to Strict.

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peppa_Pig

My 2 1/2 year old niece is OBSESSED with Peppa Pig. She watches the same DVD all week until her mum can't stand it and has to change it.

I see her using the iPad and using YouTube suggestions from where she's previously seen PP. she'll happily re-watch the same clip, so I really wouldn't be surprised by the findings on reddit.

I think you got close to the answer at the end of your article - some videos just hit hard with younger children and the type of children who will love to watch something again and again and again, on near-permanent repeat. Cars 2 is exactly the kind of franchise that would be of significant appeal to that group.

I agree somewhat with that kids' theory, but I'd that were truly the case then there would be other videos like this that had so many views. And the frozen video being so far away in the list makes me wonder.

Could also be that the video is embedded in a site or sites and on auto play?

Frozen won't have anything like as much appeal to young, barely lingual children, who know that they like brightly coloured cars with faces, can probably say "cars" to their parents, and who will watch a video with those cars from end to end and will then immediately watch it again.

Just as young children seem to have an endless capacity to watch the same kids' DVD over and over again.

This is far from the only example on YouTube - there are thousands of simple videos that get staggeringly high view counts, which become "fascinators" for kids. I saw one not so long ago which was literally just someone playing with a Play-Doh set. Nicely shot, no dialogue, just two hands making brightly coloured food-shaped items out of Play-Doh. Millions of views, right there.

"..., since making videos appear more popular than they actually are can help lead to genuine virality."

"genuine virality" is a term I need to think about for a while.

A simplier answer. It's the only cars 2 content on YouTube and it's particularly enjoyable for two year olds. Guessing that many parents show it to their kids.

I'm kinda surprised a Disney children's property has weapons like Gatling guns and rocket launchers.

Yeah, it's weird. My sons (2 and 4) absolutely love the first Cars movie, but they won't be watching the second until they are a bit older. It's quite a step up in menace and violence, sadly.

About how much money has YouTube presumably paid out to DarkZeroTV for this video's 119 million views?

119,000K views * $7.00 cpm = $833,000

i found the average youtube CPM with a google search

It's more like $1-$2, maybe even lower for an audience that is mostly children. Still a lot of money.

In my experience $7 CPM is a vast over-estimate for ads on YouTube.

You forgot to include the fill rate factor.

Not all views include ads.

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