YouTube views aren't unique; replays and views are counted in the watch count. You can see the number of unique viewers on your YouTube analytics dashboard. Repeated views on YouTube can count toward total views. While not all repeat views will count as a total of overviews, YouTube understands that its users may watch a video and want to watch it several times or show it to people in their social circles, so multiple views can occur from one device or account and activate new views that will be added to the total.
YouTube wants to make sure that its video views and engagement metrics come from legitimate viewing by real people. Its algorithm counts a view when a user intentionally watches a video, not those that come from bots or are automatically played on external websites. It's important to note that YouTube videos will continue to receive new views only if they meet YouTube standards. To make things more confusing, view counts can vary between the video watch page, the search page, and your analytics, meaning you could see two to three different numbers.
Your own views will count if you play your YouTube video only once or twice and not when you refresh your page. YouTube uses the device's IP address to determine that the view comes from a user who wants to watch a video. On the other hand, if you keep updating your YouTube page, the algorithm will consider it unnatural and will not consider them views. YouTube doesn't mention how it counts organic views in its engagement metrics, channel performance, or other support pages.
When the count is thawed, the count may increase as views are validated, or it may decrease if YouTube detects a problem. Like all YouTube videos, the only prerequisite for live videos on YouTube is that they must comply with community guidelines in order to remain on the platform. But YouTube makes things more confusing by showing different numbers on the watch page, the search page and in the analytics. Because, even if you meet the condition of at least 30 seconds of viewing time, a view that comes from the same IP address makes YouTube suspicious of you.
Nor will they depend on the YouTube recommendation engine responsible for more than 70% of the views on the platform. Although YouTube's watch count isn't unique (because it considers replays as views), you can't send spam or increase the viewing hours of your video. Therefore, such paid fake views would simply remain ornamental to dress their public view number and aid their perceived popularity. These and other bot-like actions will not go through YouTube's automated scanning to legitimize as seen.
