How Many Views Do You Need to Be Viral?

A few years ago, a video could be considered “viral” if it hit a million views. Now I’d like to propose a more stringent definition, and tell you that President Obama meets the criteria.

A video, I submit, is “viral” if it gets more than 5 million views in a 3-7 day period. So Obama getting more than 6 million views in a week is indeed viral. You are correct, Michael Memoli. However many of your peers talk about videos going viral without really considering the competition… many top YouTubers get more videos in a day than what media considers a viral sensation.

One caveat, however. Part of what makes a video “viral” is not just the views but the degree of discussion online and offline (media). Here we get into a “chicken and the egg” issue, since the video’s viral nature may prompt “coverage,” which inspires even more views (although less than you’d think). Most views are driven by online activity not television or print coverage.

13 thoughts on “How Many Views Do You Need to Be Viral?”

As we approach campaign season Obama is big again –
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlOIy6QEbes

However, in this economy his campaign motto is going to be a little different this time around, i.e. At least he’s not a republican – in name.

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I think there should be a new viral criteria: The Viral to Eyeball Ratio – IOW how many eyeballs there are online in a given month (perhaps week) should be taken into consideration.

I wonder if google could whip up a chart since youtube launched it’s first viral video, setting a standard.

19 minutes long, almost 7 millions views, impressive.

Ugh

It is more the speed at which it spreads now, but I guess it is all relative.

I believe mine is viral.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=seKj9Mquyrk

It gets over 250 views a day now and growing from related videos. Is that Viral?

5 million views in 3-7 days? Thats definitely viral ,but i once had a video which had just over 500 views in about a week,and youtube asked if i wanted to monetize it. Btw,most of my youtube views,over 60%,are from mobile devices. As usual…just sayin!