YouTube has rolled out its “Hype” feature across 39 countries, including the U.S., U.K., Japan, South Korea, India and Indonesia. The feature lets viewers support creators with under 500,000 subscribers by “hyping” their videos, which earns those videos placement on a fan-driven leaderboard in the Explore tab. Viewers can hype up to three videos per week, and creators with fewer subscribers receive a larger boost per hype to level the playing field.
How to use “Hype”
A “Hype” button now appears directly beneath eligible Shorts, allowing fans to spotlight videos they enjoy. Hyped videos display a “Hyped” badge, and users can filter their Home feed to show only those videos. Once a hyped video is close to reaching the leaderboard, YouTube sends a notification to fans who contributed the hype.
Frequent supporters can earn a “Hype Star” badge for their activity. On the creator side, YouTube Studio (mobile) now includes a Hype card and weekly recaps showing performance by hype points.
Created to help creators gain more visibility
Initially launched in 2024 in Brazil, Taiwan and Turkey, Hype was created to help emerging creators get discovered through community support. During early testing, users hyped over five million videos across more than 50,000 channels, with users aged 18 to 24 representing most of the activity.
Hype is designed to complement instead of override YouTube’s recommendation algorithm. YouTube also plans to introduce category-specific leaderboards, such as gaming or style, and expand sharing tools in future updates.
YouTube is using Hype as a tool to democratize visibility and help lesser-known creators gain reach through their fan base. Analysts note that, for creators still building an audience, Hype adds a direct way for fans to boost their content without paid promotion. YouTube has not disclosed exact figures for feature adoption but plans to test monetized hype options in Brazil and Turkey before expanding them further.