
Nevertheless, that’s a significant number. Viewers watching it as a regular video accounted for less than 150,000 views. But before it was that successful, most of the views came from users watching it as a YouTube Short (around 80%). “How to Make a Map in Minecraft 1.16.3” has already surpassed 1 million views. It only shows up when people are watching outside of the YouTube Shorts player. To understand how vital these thumbnails are, take a look at " How to Make a Map in Minecraft 1.16.3." It's a popular YouTube Short from Dan, our gaming expert.ĭan optimized the video for two viewing experiences by creating the thumbnail below. How Many Views Will You "Lose" Without a YouTube Shorts Thumbnail?

And as we mentioned before, regular videos can display custom thumbnails.

If you see viewing percentages from the traffic sources above, your Short has reached the "regular" side of YouTube. You'll know when this has happened because the video's analytics will show the following traffic sources, in addition to "YouTube Shorts." Or, as we mentioned before, viewers can watch a YouTube Short on channel pages or watch pages as a regular video. When a video is randomly featured there, you can expect it to get hundreds or even thousands of views. This featured display area lets viewers cycle through videos of 60 seconds or less in a TikTok-style fashion. The most common place to watch a YouTube Short is the Shorts player itself. Viewers can watch a Short in multiple areas of YouTube, so it makes sense to optimize the video for different viewing scenarios. It depends on the content you're creating, but we'd say yes. Read More: How to Enable Custom Thumbnails On YouTube Should You Create Thumbnails for YouTube Shorts?Ĭreating a YouTube Short on your phone and then grabbing a laptop to add a thumbnail is a hassle. Keep in mind that you need to verify your YouTube account before you can upload custom thumbnails. Here, YouTube gives you the option to add a custom thumbnail to your Short. Click the pencil icon to edit your video's details.

However, two areas of the app will display a YouTube Shorts thumbnail:
