YouTube has launched Hype in India, a new feature aimed at helping small and mid-tier creators break through the platform’s discovery clutter. Rolled out across 20 countries in July 2025, Hype is designed to surface eligible long-form videos through fan engagement and weekly leaderboard rankings.
Viewers can receive three free Hypes per week, which they can use on videos uploaded in the past seven days. Each Hype earns the creator points, and to level the playing field, smaller creators receive bonus points per Hype.
Videos with the highest Hype scores appear on a Top 100 leaderboard, updated weekly and visible under the Explore tab. The leaderboard is country-specific and resets every Sunday, giving newer videos a chance to trend regardless of subscriber count.
India’s launch follows a beta test phase in Brazil, Taiwan, and Turkey that began in September 2024. YouTube reports that over 5 million Hypes were used across 50,000+ channels during the first four weeks of testing.
The company also noted that select creators may receive bonus monetisation tied to their Hype performance though details of payouts remain under wraps.
With Hype, YouTube adds a new layer of fan-powered visibility to its recommendation system giving smaller creators a fighting chance to stand out on one of the world’s most competitive platforms.
