View Inflation Index

Why it surfaced

The site tracks hourly view accrual across 302 channels, 12 categories, 16,000 videos, and 346,000 rows, while plainly admitting that its estimate has no control group. Its sharpest practical consequence is contractual: brands and agencies pricing deals against public views may need to distinguish those counts from the engaged views tied to earnings and eligibility.

An independent measurement of how YouTube’s planned 24 August view-count change could inflate public view totals without changing creator payouts.