How Trending Formats Finds Outlier Videos
How Trending Formats turns 1,000 YouTube channels into rising title formats: outliers, templates, the 3-channel rule, the Jev check and the limits.
The short version
Trending Formats watches about 1,000 YouTube channels, finds the videos that beat their channel’s normal, and looks for title skeletons those videos share.
Here’s each step, and where it can go wrong.
1. The channel roster
The roster is about 1,000 channels. Niches covered: business, AI tools, creators, marketing, finance, ecommerce, self-improvement, productivity, SEO and fitness.
Only long-form English videos count, so anything over 3 minutes. Shorts and other languages are out.
Data updates daily.
2. What counts as an outlier
Every channel has a usual number of views. An outlier is a video that gets 2x or more that usual figure at the same age.
The “same age” part matters. A video from yesterday is compared with what that channel’s videos usually had after the same amount of time.
Raw views would rank big channels first every time. A channel with 20,000 usual views and a channel with 2 million can both show up, because each is judged against its own baseline.
2x is the line we use. Plenty of videos land at 1.2x or 1.5x on a good day, so anything under 2x shows in the feed as a normal video.
Real examples:
- Ahrefs, “Learn 80% of AEO in 19 Minutes”. 55,440 views, 8.16x. Works out at a usual figure of about 6,800 views.
- A car-modification video in the data: 729,880 views, 0.41x. Huge number. Below what that channel normally gets.
The second one is why we use the multiple. 729,880 views looks like a hit. Against its own channel it’s a below-average video.
3. Titles become templates
Once a video is flagged, its title gets its specifics blanked out. Product names, topics, numbers and time frames become slots.
“Learn 80% of AEO in 19 Minutes” becomes Learn [Amount]% of [Topic] in [Time]. Each skeleton gets a short key behind the scenes, so the same shape from different channels can be counted together.
4. The 3-channel, 2-outlier rule
A format only shows up in the feed when:
- it appears across 3 or more different channels, and
- it includes 2 or more outliers.
Without the first rule, one creator’s signature phrase looks like a trend. Without the second, a popular skeleton that never beats anyone’s average would get in.
Together they filter out most of the noise. They also mean brand-new formats show up a little late, because a skeleton needs a few channels to have tried it first.
5. The Jev check
Matching titles by shape throws up false matches. So an AI model called Jev double-checks that each video really uses the format before it counts.
It only checks whether the title uses the format. Whether the video is any good is a separate question.
Loose skeletons like “Turning [Topic] Into [Thing]” are where a check like this matters. Plenty of titles contain those words. Only some of them use the format.
What it can’t tell you
- English and long-form only. A format big in Shorts or another language won’t appear.
- Small channels look spiky. Take “Turning Marketing Into Community Impact” from Aastro Roofing Company: 841,180 views, 64.77x. That works out at a usual figure of roughly 13,000 views. One breakout on a low base gives a huge multiple.
- Thin samples. A format with three channels can turn over fast.
- Correlation, no guarantee. Two channels used the exact title “How I’d Start a 1-Person Business With Claude AI in 30 Days”. One got 6.2x. The other got 0.55x.
- Titles only. Thumbnail, topic and the video itself all play a part.
What each format card shows
Every format in the feed comes with the same few numbers:
- Rise: videos using the format this period against the period before.
- Channels: how many different channels used it recently.
- Hit rate: the share of its videos that landed as outliers.
- The outlier videos, with each one’s multiple, so you can open them and read the titles yourself.
That last part is the useful bit. The template gives you the shape. The videos show what people put in the slots.
How to use it
Treat a format as a starting point. Look at the outliers, see what went in the slots, then make a video you can back up.
Check the hit rate too. It shows how often the format lands. The channel count alone can’t tell you that.
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