Why do YouTube views freeze at 301?

This glitch was finally "fixed" in August 2015, but may it live on in our hearts.
More links & stuff in full description below ↓↓↓

Featuring Ted Hamilton.

This video's view count in January 2021 - 15.1 million

Numberphile pays a visit to YouTube and learns the secret behind one of the website's famous idiosyncrasies - why view counts on new videos often freeze at 301. Subscribe to Numberphile for new videos about numbers every week.

NUMBERPHILE

Videos by Brady Haran

[anotherdayanotherwin]

A round of applause for the YouTube employee who decided to keep the view count to 301 to this day.

[stanbp]

“it goes away after a day”


7 years later:

[cIovekentwell]

“it goes away in one day”
today is the 12th anniversary of this video have 301 views.

[Smartest-Suyash]

I love the fact that YouTube let it be 301 views forever as an Easter Egg for the memory of this glitch😂

[nedwardsedwards]

I wasn’t going to click, BUT THEN I SAW THE NO. OF VIEWS

[gabrielhowell]

2012: “Frozen for maybe a day or two”

2019: *301 views*

[deltatrunefan]

Kinda weird to think his most well known video has the least amount of views

[KeebClack]

"it goes away after a day"


exact 12 years and 1 month later:

[mcdiorr]

it’s literally 7 years from when the video came out
*301 views*

[rodmichaeltubello]

*Earth : Stuck in quarantine*


*This Video : Stuck in 301 views*

[VygoLive]

Man this dude is underrated, 4m people decided to like but only 301 watched 🙏😔

[fantomgod]

"it goes away after a day"
12 years later:

[JGATE]

He: "Maybe one day maybe two days"

Me: "Maybe one decade"

[daisychhabra]

They made a video to explain why videos get stuck at 301 views for a day or two...
*this video gets stuck for 7 years!!!*

[discovers]

12 years later:

4.1M likes
321K comments
301 views

[cripplemoaboutofcontext]

Why did YouTube recommend me this video 12 years later

[zainik]

The 301st guy who must have seen
the video at 2019 must been like:

😐😑😐

[sakurabatatis]

"A day..maybe a half"

His video: *S E V E N Y E A R S*

[VihaanGaming-]

"It goes after a day"
"12 years later💀"

[lembaswafer]

I’m so glad that someone at YouTube was willing to go back and refreeze this at 301 after it got “fixed, ” as per the description.