What we measured
We took the sponsored videos of 16 brands, from AG1 to Zocdoc, and compared two readings of each video's views, at least 90 days apart. Every video's own text says the brand sponsored it.
| Age at the first reading | Videos | Gained views | Median gain | Median days between readings |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Under 6 months | 1,138 | 1,138 | 15.1% | 190 |
| 6 to 12 months | 323 | 322 | 6.5% | 189 |
| 1 to 2 years | 406 | 405 | 1.6% | 136 |
| 2 years or more | 340 | 339 | 0.4% | 101 |
The older groups had fewer days between readings, so their gains read a little low. The drop is still far bigger than that gap explains.
Source: Our own count, sponsor_deals_per_deal and channel_videos, readings from November 2025 to October 2026
Some old videos keep growing, most barely move
Of the 340 videos two years or older, 15 gained 5% or more, and 257 gained under 1%. Here are six from the two ends. We picked these by hand, so read them as examples.
| Video | Channel | Sponsor | Posted | First reading | Second reading | Days |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Can The Faraday Paradox Be Solved? | The Action Lab | LMNT | February 2024 | 2,237,836 | 2,465,486 | 101 |
| 6 Animals That Are About To Go Extinct | Forrest Galante | AG1 | April 2024 | 2,752,039 | 2,975,725 | 121 |
| 5 Tofu Recipes I'm Obsessed With Right Now | Sarah's Vegan Kitchen | AG1 | July 2023 | 893,351 | 956,061 | 98 |
| life updates, 2022 goals, & new hair! | Kristin Johns | Ritual | February 2022 | 199,955 | 200,138 | 95 |
| Record Heat Wave Creates Big Problems at the 5 Acre Pond! | BamaBass | HelloFresh | July 2023 | 805,390 | 806,009 | 94 |
| The END Of Bobby Kotick | Bellular News | AG1 | August 2023 | 166,923 | 166,926 | 123 |
A science question, a list of animals and a recipe are still worth watching next year. A life update or a news story mostly isn't.
How to spot the videos that last
Dennis calls these evergreen videos: the topic doesn't expire, so people keep looking for it. YouTube works more like Google than a feed. Someone has a problem, types it in and finds the video.
A review of a product that's trending this month is the opposite. It gets its views and stops.
To compare channels, try this:
- Pick about ten channels you like.
- Copy each channel's recent video titles into ChatGPT.
- Ask what percent of those videos would still be relevant a year from now.
- Compare the scores with each other. The number only means something next to the other channels you tested.
What this means for your budget
- Judge a creator on the sales from the first few months, since that's when most new views come in. Treat the later views as a bonus.
- Ask for a read inside a full length video, then keep the code or link working, so a viewer who finds it later can still use it.
- A view of the video isn't always a view of the read, because people can skip ahead. That's why what the read says matters.
- One old video adds very little, but they stack up. Those 340 older videos gained 3,863,720 views between the two readings, with no new fee.