Algorithm, Search & Distribution
Traffic source
Also called: traffic source types, where views come from
Every view arrives from somewhere, and YouTube Analytics sorts those origins into traffic source types. Browse features covers the homepage and subscriptions feed, Suggested videos covers the sidebar and autoplay, YouTube search covers queries typed on the platform, and External covers links from other sites and apps. Mixes differ by channel and by format, so another creator's split tells you very little about yours. What it is good for is comparison against your own baseline: one video that suddenly draws far less browse traffic than usual is worth a look at its packaging before anything else gets blamed.