YouTube has announced the launch of a new feature called Hype in India, aimed at helping small and mid-sized creators gain visibility and grow their audiences. Designed for creators with between 500 and 500,000 subscribers, Hype enables viewers to actively endorse new content during the first seven days after a video is published. This move represents YouTube’s latest step in supporting the discovery of fresh talent within the platform’s rapidly growing creator ecosystem.
Hype is positioned as a community-powered tool that allows fans to champion their favourite creators. Viewers can “hype” up to three videos per week at no cost. Each hype contributes points to a video, and the most-hyped content appears in a Top 100 leaderboard within the Explore tab. These videos may also receive greater placement across YouTube’s homepage and gain a special badge to signal their popularity. YouTube has included a built-in multiplier that benefits creators with fewer subscribers, ensuring that visibility is not skewed in favor of those already enjoying a larger following.
The feature is not entirely new to the platform. YouTube had previously tested Hype in markets like Brazil, Taiwan, and Turkey, where it saw over five million videos hyped across 50,000 channels. The early feedback from both creators and viewers was overwhelmingly positive, with many describing it as a more democratic and meaningful way to participate in a creator’s success. Unlike passive engagement tools like likes and subscriptions, Hype invites viewers to actively influence what rises to the top.
The launch also comes amid a broader evolution of YouTube’s discovery ecosystem. Earlier this year, the platform began phasing out the traditional Trending page in favor of more tailored, category-specific charts. It also introduced an “Inspiration” tab within YouTube Studio that uses AI to help creators identify rising topics and formats.
