YouTube 'Views Drop' question for Nepal based content creators.

[astra]

Hello Nepalese YouTubers,
I have a genuine question and please reply me with the genuine answer.
I run travel vlogs on youtube and mostly walkthrough videos. I got decent subscribers like 1K+.

Recently one of my videos got views about 15K plus within a week.
But afterward the viewscount suddenly dropped to 9k.

Do you face similar drops?
Is it normal to have viewcount drop/rise fluctuation?
---

On my YT studio the views count has been fluctuating.
And i noticed the the traffics were from "Suggested Videos"

What is your experience?

 

[astra]

++
is it true that if users stay on the video for less than 10seconds, the 'view' is not counted as 'view' as per the YouTube algorithm?

 

[YTExpert]

Not exactly. Let me break it down:

On YouTube, a "view" is typically counted once someone intentionally plays your video and watches it for at least ~30 seconds (on most types of content). That’s why creators often stress making the first 30 seconds engaging—it’s literally the “view qualification zone.”

So:
If someone bounces in under 10 seconds, it still can count as a view if they clicked play intentionally, but it’s a low-quality view. YouTube will see it as a “click-off” or poor retention.

If they leave before 30 seconds consistently across many viewers, YouTube starts treating your video as less engaging → lower recommendation and search push.

Think of it like this:

10 seconds = “Okay, someone peeked in.”
30 seconds = “Alright, this was a real view.”
50%+ video completion = “This video slaps; let’s recommend it.”

Instead of worrying about the technical cutoff, your real KPI is retention curve.
If 50% of viewers don’t make it past 15 seconds, YouTube will never push that video, regardless of whether the view counted.

Try this for your next video buddy.