How I Broke Youtube - Youtube Is Perfectly Balanced With No Exploits 

*I Am Watching this whilst sleeping* Also vidiq discount code here for any future youtubers wanting an edge: vidiq.com/spiff

i am watching this whilst awake

Snore... mimimi.... Snoreeeee.... mimimi.... sorry whats up was too busy sleeping instead of watching this video

Turning off autoplay is the first thing I do everywhere where I watch RU-vid. Specifically to avoid the "you forgot to turn it off and now after 100 autoplayed videos your recommendations are completely destroyed"

I've been doing this "sleep whilst watching" thing INTENTIONALLY for upwards of 7 years now. I suffer from extreme sleep-time anxiety and consequentially - insomnia. For many years I would toss and turn all night kept up by irrational fears and worries. However, during the day whenever I would be trying to watch a movie or TV show I would typically unintentionally pass out! With my mind preoccupied by the content I was consuming, I was freed from my worries, and thus, my exhaustion would catch up with me. Realizing this, I thought, "If this is what happens any time I try to watch TV, why not harness it for good?" So, I began putting on RU-vid at night in order to sleep. I pick a youtuber I like and want to support, and their channel becomes THE channel for the night. I navigate to their channel directly and choose my first video of the night from there instead of choosing one of their videos off the recommended tab. This ensures that their videos, and only their videos, will play. This way I'm not startled awake by some screaming streamer or obnoxious music. It's just constant and reliable content that I find soothing and relaxing. Quite purposefully, I choose creators with a calm demeanor and peaceful content variety. I like crafters who make things, artists, life/culture commentary channels, or nature and homesteading channels. There are a few calm gaming channels I enjoy, too, but only if they don't have a penchant for suddenly screaming at the top of their lungs or editing in obnoxious sound effects. As weird as this sounds, it has allowed me to sleep at night for 7 solid years. So whist many would say, "The key to a good night's rest is to turn off all the TVs and distractions!" I couldn't disagree more. I turn on my trusted creators, and allow them to lull me to sleep with their peaceful tone and calm content. Works like a charm. With my favorite creators, I've probably "watched" each of their videos dozens of times. I typically watch them while awake, too, because I actually DO want to see what they do. My sleep watching is just bonus money from me to thank them for helping me sleep!

I'm watching this whilst cryogenically frozen.

Head Exploiter sounds like a C tier comic book villain.

Reminds me of that one time that I woke up to an advertisement playing when I left RU-vid on as background noise before I slept. Wasn't the most unusual thing, but as I laid there for a few minutes, I realized the advertisement was _still_ going. I got up to see why. The entire advertisement was over an hour long. It wasn't even halfway done. It was the third advertisement out of 6. Something about that entire experience irked my soul.

I'm awake, I'm awake. it's 3 AM and I cannot sleep, and I just now noticed this in my notification feed. Also, damn. YOU'RE the reason why my auto-playlist start to get congested by 2+ hour videos.

I was noticed by the preeminent brit of youtube. Truly an honour. Don't tell the adsense advertisers about this exploit though, they might get grumpy.

I get so many comments on my longer (and more popular) videos from people I’ve woken up while they’ve been sleeping to auto-play. I’m basically an alarm clock.

This feels like breaking some kind of 4th wall. 80% of the videos i've seen or see of yours, are before sleep because your commentary is relaxing, and of course i fall asleep and "see" one or two more videos. And now i realize i've been a patient to an experiment, a mouse being put in a maze... and i even get told now!? What a wonderful brit you are Spiff, i feel exploited. Some videos took me several days to finish because of its length and me falling asleep 15 minutes in Good job... you win this time (im literally going to sleep now)

It's crazy hearing about how the algorithm tries to adapt to your preferences at all times yet my recommendations are complete shit 90% of the time.

Awe shucks, the gig is up. Great video though :D, so glad longform content is here to stay

In 10 years: How I broke our solar system - Space Is Perfectly Balanced With No Exploits

This is why i turned autoplay off! I need noise to fall asleep to but was getting sick of waking up to totally random videos. I need consistency. The real stinker is the feature length ads tho, always mixed louder than the videos themselves.

Watching while drinking coffee 😅. Title of this video is genius. I have never been recommended your videos before, but think I RU-vid may have recommended this because I occasionally search for “green noise for sleep”.

you know, I think there's a secondary audience to these sleep videos. People at work. I work in a warehouse, and typically listen to either music, podcasts, or really long video essays to help pass the time (the 8 hour megaman lore video, 9 hour bionicle lore video, and 5 hour Red vs Blue video spring to mind as recent ones)

I was curios why those videos did so well. Now it all makes sense haha! Truly humbled to be featured in your video and grateful to learn more about how the algorithm works.

The only thing that autoplays for me is a pre-approved playlist of hour-long music mixes, with no ads!! Cheers!

Nice SpiffingBrit, RU-vids now gonna add a sleep check...

I will often put on Warhammer 40k lore videos to sleep and wake up to a Spiffing Brit stream from months ago.

YOU'VE HELPED ME SOLVED A MYSTERY IN MY OWN ANALYTICS I DIDN'T UNDERSTAND For the record, I am NOT a streamer, that is not my main form of content. My main form of content is very short these days, though I have plans to return and develop other kinds of long form content. But anyways, I streamed a few times last year, mainly simulcasting the same game my friends were playing at the time (usually visual novel stuff like Ace Attorney or the Sonic Murder Mystery game) You know that audience section in your analytics that tells you what formats your viewers are watching your content? One of of those formats is "live" which, despite me having not streamed anything in a year, has kept ticking upward in viewership. This has confounded and confused me for some time now as to why, but now I understand. All those streams were 4 to 6 hours long. People who watch my regular videos have been falling asleep and AUTOPLAYING TO THAT. THIS EXPLOIT WAS IN FRONT OF ME THE WHOLE TIME AND I NEVER UNDERSTOOD WHY.

Had this happen to me in January 2023 and it made me several thousand dollars (and half a million watch hours). The video was a 4½ hour deep dive livestream discussion of patch notes for a game, aimed at very enfranchised players. It started getting served to people with no interest in the game and had some "how on earth did I end up here" comments. I've done similar streams since but none has taken off like it or made more than a couple hundred dollars.

I accidentally stumbled upon this exploit - I have done several series, ranging from 3-10 individual videos in length, and started combining them just to make things more convenient for my viewers. Then, when I saw how well they were performing, it became a standard practice of mine that, when I do a multi-part series, a few months later I release the supercut. I always thought it was because people enjoyed it, and found the supercut to be more engaging than the individual videos. Not sure how I feel about learning that a good chunk of those views are from people who dozed off 😂

I passed out and woke up to being told to leave a comment that I was sleeping. This whole video checks out.

I mean, I'm at work. That's basically like being asleep.

Yep, I have definitely woken up with youtube still running on autoplay

I started doing compilation videos a couple of years ago because I liked the idea of doing big longform comedy epics, I had no idea I was exploiting sleeping people. And yeah, the "Movie" compilations are still my top earners every month, without fail.

Appreciate the mention! I suppose I’ll add to it by saying that I wasn’t thinking about breaking algorithms by making longer videos. It sort of just comes naturally from the stories I craft from gameplay AND my viewers always ask for the longer “movie-like” videos. The watch time really helps get more eyes on it, so by making the entire video extremely engaging and heavily edited people couldn’t put it down once they started. Like Spiffing Brit said though, I can’t make videos like that every upload. It would burn me out instantly. But this also adds to its authenticity. When people see “A Solo’s Journey” return, they’ll know it’s something special. A rare movie that they HAVE to watch. I’ve created this reputation by always ensuring my videos are quality, for the past 5-6 years. My videos are made with a lot of love, I enjoy watching them myself. I’ve always stood by that. If you’re a creator making videos you wouldn’t watch yourself and you’re just pumping them out hoping that somebody watches, I don’t think that’ll get you very far. Thanks for coming to my Ted talk 😅

Holy shit, THIS is the reason why your streams would ALWAYS be playing when I woke up. I had to start watching playlists to stop you from overtaking my sleep youtube

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="350">05:50</a> whitelight is my go to for sleeping videos lmao

“I’m Sleeping”

Yeah ngl I'm taking this, posting "minecraft clips to fall asleep to" soon

Spiff: Makes a joke about Americans. Me: Grumbles. Spiff: Makes a joke about the French. Me: I knew there was a reason I liked this guy. lol

I'm not awake while I'm not not watching this, dreaming of being asleep while watching myself dreaming

Watching this vid while sleeping

Thumbnail: go to sleep lol Me watching at 4am: no i don't think I will

On the topic of Supercuts: it's the superior way to watch a past series. The RU-vid interface (and algorithm) really sucks at showing series episodes in order. You might get 3 in a row properly, and then suddenly you're shuffled off to someone else's channel. The super cut, single video solves this perfectly

I turned off auto play a month ago after my algorithm switched to 10 hour videos

I watched the video twice. Once while asleep the other while awake.

My boyfriend is sleeping with this playing on his phone. I overheard it from his side of the bed and decided to leave a sleeping comment for him like a good wifey would.

The best part is that the way I found this channel is genuinely after I woke up and realized I had left RU-vid on autoplay.

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="120">2:00</a> i wonder how many people know about that computer, because I do and i'm 19 lol. i am also watching this whilst I am half-asleep

The long videos of kids animés stacked together is soooo rentable 😆

Spiff is exploiting my narcolepsy.

RU-vid doesn’t always recommend “episodes” of a series in the right order, or even the next episode at all, so I have to dig to continue watching. A supercut just saves me frustration.

I never sleep view, but I have noticed that if I'm listening to music in a background window at work, I gradually get pushed longer collections of songs, rather than single songs.

I'm not sleeping but sleeping content I've seen full swing for YEARS 😂

I saw this video on the front page, clicked on it and went to bed. No autoplay involved. Don't remember any part of it. Actually watching-watching it now.

RU-vid asked me if I enjoyed this video, put 5 stars, liked, checked all the reasons. It works!

I honestly really appreciate when a series gets a "super cut" because It usually means that I can enjoy the entire thing at once without seeing the intro/outro in between every episode. Something that might be worth noting is that youtube pushes long videos to everyone after periods of nonactivity. This happens regardless of if they're signed in or even if there's any watch history cookie save data to pull from which means that even if premium users never sleep watch the videos, ad revenue from the slotted in ads would still accumulate off literally anyone who falls asleep watching. I say all that because it doesn't hurt anyone and could potentially help content creators earn more back on making more time consuming content (like full series/live steams) with some minimal editing even if views slow down on later episodes.

RU-vid in the near future: *asks for webcam permissions to make sure you're awake while utilizing it*

Thanks to this video, youtube will start putting in 'Are you still watching" prompts, which means that I'm going to start getting interupted in the middle of my long form playlist pods

I genuinely woke up at <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="390">6:30</a> am with this video playing with spiff explaining that most of us might be alseep currently watching the video. Definitely threw me for a loop for a second.

Im here almost asleep in an armchair listening to this guy saying hes making content exactly for me, im so baffled that i have to pick up my phone to leave a comment, youre riding the algorithm raw, no harnesses no nothing.

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="281">4:41</a> fuck, just woke up and ur video was playing.... only joking lol

RU-vid didn’t need Spiff to break it. It breaks itself CONSTANTLY.

I fkin knew it. Its been months, *months*. Sometimes i forget to put a timer for my notebook to shutdown, and if I do, next morning is always spiffing with a 4h+ video. I was like, is this possible? I watch a shit ton of channels and its always spiffing? Is this dude doing something to show up with such consistency?

Fell asleep watching a Kyle Hill video around 11pm, woke up with this video playing around 2 AM.

Heyyyyy!!!! I love Blooprint! And all the rust bois! I actually watch those all the way through. Cool to see him getting talked about here, where I come for the science of breaking things. Lol

RU-vid can't outsmart me. I watch longform videos while awake to keep me company while I work or play on the side. Truly a perfectly balanced strat

No exploit escapes this meddling British man for long... he's on to us

Dont forget to be excellent, and drink yorkshire tea! I was going to say something about sleeping, but i was on the fence; i didnt want to be flagged as a bot message. Then, RU-vid decided to treat me like a first time twitch commenter, amd show me rules for commenting on Spiffing Britt's channel! My coirse of action became clear from there.

videos keep playing while im sleeping but somehow when im listening to music yt stops to ask if im there every minute

That's actually insane. I generally fall asleep to youtube videos, and more often than not when I awake im 5 hours into one of your long ass videos. Your exploits have reached meta levels. There's no escape from you, not even in our dreams. Can't hate the player, hate the game.

This is precisely the reason that I never have auto-play enabled. It's very frustrating to wake up to a completely different recommended feed and have to wait days for it to get back to normal. I just find a slightly longer video than normal, and fall asleep to that.

I do tend to fall asleep sometimes watching your shit and have woken up at <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="180">3:00</a> in the morning watching a 5-hour live stream of yours

I did fall asleep, but i don't have the "auto play" so i just rewatched the whole video AGAIN in the morning

I love longer videos, I usually skip over the 8-10 minute ones unless they’re from someone I absolutely love. I have RU-vid going while I work so I hate stopping and scrolling every 10 minutes.

You have actually done this to me multiple times. I don't often fall asleep watching youtube, but sometimes I do, and when I do, I usually get woken up in the middle of the night by an enthusiastic British man playing CIV.

to be honest, long form works so well because of how annoying YT is to search out good new content. Having something going in the background while I game or work is pretty much engrained in my routine. Sometimes gaining knowledge, sometimes having something funny/entertaining as atmosphere. Even when not asleep, I am usually looking for long form videos or playlists from channels I either like, or can potentially not scream at at least. So I dont have to tab out of whatever I am actually doing every 15 secs and spend an hour trying to find something not infuriating to have creating atmosphere

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="415">6:55</a> ok that makes sense. I would get more podcasts around <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="180">3:00</a>pm. Something for me to pop in my ear while i commute home. I'm not even handling the phone to get distracted. I don't get any RU-vid ads for the most part. Like about 99% of my commute I don't get an ad. But as soon as I get home I do seem to get one.

You gotta make, "RU-vid is perfectly balanced THE MOVIE"

This is why I keep autoplay turned off.

I've never felt so personally called out.

This explains how so many ads end up on videos when RU-vid auto-adds them. A streamer recently made a community post about it because they got a lot of complaints, and it turned out RU-vid stuck an ad in there every 3 minutes.

yeah, sounds legit, i've woken up to your livestream vods, LTT WAN Show vods and streams of 4 year old congressional hearings countless times.Perfectly balanced

Technoblade used to talk about his live streams and how they got crazy watch times making him think that some people watching them were asleep.

I have very much noticed this from a viewer standpoint, as when I got to bed, I love putting on longer gaming videos from challenges etc. And frankly I love it. Gives me something to relax and sleep to, it gives creators money, and I frankly wish more creators will take advantage of it. Becuase everyone wins in it and doesn’t hurt anyone

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="266">4:26</a> yeah WAN show moment

I remember dystopian stories on how in the future we are going to hear ads even in our sleep. But I did not expect spiff of all people to do this to us.

The fact that i got this recommended after months of not seeing your channel in my feed is yet another proof your algorithm tactics are working.

I'm in fact not asleep, but I was looking for a video to fall asleep with, and... Here is where I landed..

RCE has been taking notes

"Provided you are watching videos on the platform that means you are watching adverts or have RU-vid Premium" bold assumption, my friend

I regularly fall asleep to your longer Elder Scrolls videos. You speak calmly, don't shout, and are soothing to listen to. But hey - let this comment be evidence that I watch your stuff while awake too! :D

“If a RU-vidr uploads the same video over and over again, the viewers won’t like it!” *Iwilldowhatimustyouwilltrydaily has entered the chat*

Something is seriously wrong if RU-vid considers the best viewer to be one who is not watching

You didnt get me this time, spiff. I VOLUNTARILY FILLED MY FEED WITH YOUR VIDEOS SINCE I'VE BEEN SLEEPING WITH THEM FOR OVER A YEAR! I just took a playlist with your videos, shuffled it up and went to sleep, the algorithm then just did its job and recommended me more of what i already watch 😅 I call it the "infinite sleep glitch"

One HUGE annoyance I have for youtube in a similar topic... If I am listening to music in a playlist while driving somehow RU-vid seems to know and ALWAYS puts up some stupid ass 5 minute long ad. Bugs the HELL out of me!

I‘m (almost) sleeping

As a premium member, I'm going to start intentionally letting my phone stay on throughout the night just to distribute more watch time.

I think it’s funny that i don’t watch this channel, but every so often, he will still pop up in my recommended out of nowhere with a video about a RU-vid exploit. Clearly it has worked.

I honestly have an alt account that only subs to "sleep" channels, and you are one of them 😅 Soothing voice, long form, and no sudden loud noise, just hit all the right places

God i hate the forced recommendations, i just want the pure chaos that youtube originally was.

Also 212k subs being "smaller" hurts my head a bit since I'm definitely a small RU-vidr, and getting to 40 times my size seems to get me 2 more letters. Er.

I'm indeed sleeping.

I absolutely love this, im a long haul truck driver and i love extra extended long form content. You got a 7 hour lore breakdown of the armored core series? Great im listening to the entire thing lmao

I’ve definitely woken up to your Skyrim vods