Competitor Research

The useful unit here is the outlier: a video that beat its own channel's normal by a wide margin. That gap is evidence of real demand for the subject, and it reads the same whether the channel is yours or somebody else's, so work from those rather than from a channel's general reputation.

Ranking rivals by subscriber count misleads as well, since a smaller channel can take more monthly views than a much larger one in the same subject. Sort by views over a recent window to see who holds the attention now. The failure mode is copying the surface. Borrowing a thumbnail style without the idea underneath it produces a good-looking video nobody asked for.