YouTube Outlier Video Finder - Breakout Video Ideas

Find the YouTube videos that massively outperformed their own channel - the 3x, 10x and 50x breakouts that show which ideas, titles and thumbnails actually work in your niche. Enter a few niche keywords (or a list of channels) and get every outlier video ranked by outlier score: the video's views divided by the channel's median views.

A video with 2M views means little on a channel that averages 2M. A video with 300K views on a channel that averages 6K is a proven idea worth studying. This actor finds the second kind - no login, no browser extension.

What you get

For every outlier video:

• outlierScore - views ÷ channel median views, to 2 decimals (e.g. 12.4 = 12.4x the channel's normal video)
• views and channelMedianViews - the video's views and the channel's typical views
• title, url, thumbnailUrl, videoId
• publishedAt (ISO date), publishedText (e.g. "3 weeks ago"), publishedAtIsExact
• duration, durationSeconds, isShort
• channelName, channelId, channelUrl, subscriberCount
• viewsPerSubscriber - how far the video travelled beyond the channel's own audience
• baselineVideoCount - how many recent uploads the median is based on
• matchedKeyword - the niche keyword that led to this channel

Results come sorted by outlier score, highest first. Export to JSON, CSV, Excel or Google Sheets from the Dataset tab.

Use cases

• Video idea research - find topics that are proven to break out in your niche before you film
• Title and thumbnail inspiration - study what the 10x videos did differently from the channel's normal uploads
• Competitor analysis - scan competing channels and see which of their videos over-performed
• Trend spotting - set Published within to the past week or month to catch ideas breaking out right now
• Small-channel opportunities - high outlier scores on small channels show ideas that win on merit, not audience size
• Agency and creator reporting - deliver ranked breakout lists for clients in any niche

How to use

1. Enter one or more Niche keywords (e.g. home espresso, budget travel tips) and/or specific Channels (@handle, channel URL or channel ID)
2. Set the Minimum outlier score - 3 (the default) returns videos with at least 3x the channel's median views
3. Optionally narrow Published within to the past week, month, 3 months or year
4. Turn on Include Shorts to also scan Shorts - they are compared only with the channel's other Shorts
5. Run the actor - ranked outlier videos appear in the Dataset tab

How the outlier score is calculated

For each channel the actor reads its most recent uploads (30 by default - adjust Videos per channel), leaves out anything uploaded in the last 3 days (still gaining views), and takes the median view count. Every video is then scored as views ÷ median. The median is used rather than the average so one viral hit does not hide the others. Long-form videos and Shorts get separate baselines because their view counts behave very differently. Channels with fewer than 5 usable uploads are skipped.

For keyword searches, the videos that ranked in search are also scored against their channel's baseline, so older evergreen breakouts show up alongside recent ones.

Input example

{
  "keywords": ["home espresso", "latte art"],
  "channels": ["@jameshoffmann"],
  "minOutlierScore": 3,
  "publishedWithin": "year",
  "includeShorts": false,
  "maxChannelsPerKeyword": 10,
  "recentVideosPerChannel": 30,
  "maxItems": 50
}

Output example

{
  "videoId": "-g3R55KPZ6U",
  "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-g3R55KPZ6U",
  "title": "Struggling with Espresso? This Beginner's Guide Will Change Everything!",
  "thumbnailUrl": "https://i.ytimg.com/vi/-g3R55KPZ6U/hqdefault.jpg",
  "views": 294624,
  "channelMedianViews": 5647,
  "outlierScore": 52.17,
  "channelId": "UCGd5F6fdCbxjrTivAkaeXpw",
  "channelName": "Artisti Coffee Roasters.",
  "channelUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/@ArtistiCoffeeRoasters",
  "subscriberCount": 242000,
  "viewsPerSubscriber": 1.217,
  "publishedText": "1 year ago",
  "publishedAt": "2025-01-16T06:45:00.000Z",
  "publishedAtIsExact": true,
  "durationSeconds": 1602,
  "duration": "26:42",
  "isShort": false,
  "baselineVideoCount": 29,
  "matchedKeyword": "home espresso"
}

Pricing

You pay per outlier video returned. Channels that produce no outliers cost nothing extra, and Max results caps your spend on every run.

FAQ

Why is a video with fewer views ranked above a viral one? The score measures performance relative to the channel's normal videos, not raw views. That is what makes an idea repeatable for channels of any size.

Why is subscriberCount rounded? YouTube shows subscriber counts rounded to three significant figures (e.g. 2.56M) for every channel.

Why was a channel skipped? Channels with fewer than 5 eligible recent uploads (after leaving out the last 3 days and live streams) do not have a reliable baseline. The run log lists every skipped channel.

Can I scan a whole list of competitors? Yes - leave Niche keywords empty and paste up to 200 channels into Channels.