YouTube has confused millions of creators by releasing “Hype Points” without explaining anything about them. In a very unusual decision, YouTube removed the Top Trending videos and has since replaced that feature with Hype. In mid May 2026, no one really has a clue what Hype means or is.
From our understanding, YouTube accounts have the ability to use “Hype Points” to “Hype” a long form video. We cannot find the functionality to “hype” short form videos as the “Hype” button is not part of the user interface for mobile short form videos.
The interface is very janky on mobile as some long form videos don’t have the “Hype” button visible unless you swipe right.
When clicking the “more information” button on the “Hype” tab, this is what it explains:
How to hype:
- Pick a video you love uploaded in the last 7 days
- Give points to hype it up
- Watch it soar up the leaderboard
Which videos can I hype?
For now, only some channels under 500k subscribers can be hyped. Not all videos are eligible during this test.
What is a small creator bonus?
Smaller creators get bonus points when you hype their videos. The smaller the creator, the bigger the bonus!
How much can I hype?
You can hype three more times this week.
This is a great way for smaller creators to have the incentive to publish more content on YouTube. Small creators can often struggle because having a small number of subscribers likely means it will be hard to trigger the YouTube Shorts Feed algorithm and it is definitely harder to get found on the YouTube home feed.
We will continue to track this test and see if there are any legs to this type of hyping or pushing of smaller creators. For now, it seems that it is a game played by the creators rather than the best videos being discovered and “hyped” to the top. That is not to say that this behavior won’t change, but not many users are actually using the “hype” feature yet.
YouTube Shorts Analytics Shows Hype Points
When looking at the analytics of YouTube Shorts in the YouTube Studio App, there is a location for “Hype” in the First 7 days under the Engagement tab. It is interesting that this location for data is available when there is no way for a user to Hype a YouTube Short video in the user interface.
This is not uncommon for YouTube as you can successfully predict what is going to happen in the months to come based on the YouTube Studio app. This is how we found out, and predicted, that YouTube Image Posts were getting more impressions in the YouTube Shorts Feed.
Expect to see small content creators getting Hype points on YouTube Shorts in the very near future. There are more and more short form video specific channels being created on YouTube. With the “Hype” feature being a way for users to find new creators it would only make sense to really push the hype feature through short form videos even more so than long form videos.
As soon as we start to see data tracking for “Hype” points on short form YouTube Videos, we will update this post with a strategy of how to get more impressions and exposure through the “Hype” tab on the YouTube mobile app. This could be a game changer for smaller creators, but it has to be implemented into the user interface of short form videos on the YouTube mobile app.
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