When your viewers are on YouTube

The chart shades every hour of the week by how much of your audience was on YouTube during it, drawn from recent viewing activity. It is descriptive, and that is all it claims to be.

The common misreading treats the darkest square as a publish deadline, which loads enormous weight onto one decision. When people are online and when the recommendation system decides to surface your video are separate questions, and distribution accumulates over days and weeks. Use the map to pick a sensible window for the notification, or for a premiere or live start, then judge the video on a fortnight of data.