YouTube Rolls Out First-Ever Recap Of Videos You Watched

YouTube is launching its inaugural annual Recap for the main app, offering viewers a personalized look at the videos they’ve watched, the creators they came back to and the topics that captured their attention. The experience is like those music rewinds gone viral, but it was created specifically for the world’s biggest video platform and made to share.

The new YouTube Recap compiles up to 12 dynamic cards that highlight your year on the video streaming service, such as top channels, featured interests and how your watching changed over time. It even gives viewing a “personality,” with watch history morphing into an instantly digestible story that you can share across social feeds.

What The YouTube Recap Shows About Your Viewing Year

Central to Recap are themed cards: your most-watched channels, breakout topics and streaks showing when and how often you tuned in.

Personality labels add color. “Skill Builder” appeals to viewers who prefer tutorials and how-tos; “Sunshiner” speaks to those attracted to cheering, life-affirming content; “Trailblazer” reflects a taste for original, norm-challenging videos. Other archetypes are “Wonder Seeker,” “Connector” and “Dreamer.”

The cards are editorial but data-driven. You should see real creators emerge and not just generic categories, with examples that make the profile feel like a good reflection of you even if you’re only an occasional viewer. YouTube tells me it fell heavily on the latter, testing more than 50 concepts before ultimately pushing this design.

How To Find Your YouTube Recap on Mobile and Desktop

Recap shows up on the YouTube homepage and under the You tab, and is accessible on mobile as well as desktop. For the music listeners among us, this aligns seamlessly with YouTube Music’s own version of Recap, a dedicated feature that goes even deeper on stats for songs and artists. You’ll still see your top tracks and performers in the main YouTube Recap, but it’s all about viewing videos.

YouTube is beginning the rollout in North America with global expansion to follow. Like other end-of-year roundups, you can expect share cards well-suited to stories, feeds and messaging apps.

Why This Matters For Viewers, Creators, and YouTube

YouTube commands enormous attention. The company has said viewers watch more than a billion hours of video a day, and Pew Research Center says over 80% of adults in the United States use it. A recap feature does more than feed curiosity — it contributes to the social loop where friends compare, post and re-engage, often pulling friends back toward the content that informed their year.

For creators, recaps become these soft endorsements. When fans pass around cards featuring individual channels or niches, it nudges discovery outside of paid promotion. The timing is strategic too. Other streaming services lean in on this seasonal moment as well, and YouTube wants to see its mostly video-first identity have a seat at the table alongside all of those music rewinds cluttering up people’s feeds.

Privacy And Controls For Your YouTube Recap Experience

Recap is based on your Watch History. If you stop or clear watch history, your recap will indicate that, or may be truncated. (Viewers who regularly use Incognito or private browsing within the app will have fewer insights appear for them.) In practice, YouTube says that Recap is an opt-in experience since it’s built using data you already control in your account settings.

For anyone who is worried about sensitive viewing popping up in shareable cards, there’s always the risk-averse option: Review and prune watch history, rather than sharing the entire set of screenshots.

Trends And Leaderboards From YouTube’s Year-End Recap

Recap was accompanied by trend charts from YouTube for top creators, podcasts and songs. MrBeast continues to lead creator rankings as The Joe Rogan Experience dominates podcasts. On the music front, Bruno Mars and Lady Gaga’s Die With A Smile pulls off the highest song placement — a fittingly bipolar split that reflects (probably) both platforms’ hodgepodge of mainstream star power versus algorithmic velocity.

These lists give them a frame of reference for their own year: whether they went along with the crowd or followed a niche path. They also offer social hooks that help maintain a lively conversation on YouTube beyond the video page.

Competitive Timing With Music Services’ Year-End Recaps

YouTube’s move comes as music services run their own year-end recaps. Apple Music has its Replay and Amazon Music offers something called Delivered, while Spotify’s Wrapped is usually what serves as the hook in the cultural moment. Institute the routine of opening your main app for a recap (YouTube is positioning itself as the home of all video viewing, so it’s only logical given its scale and creator-powered fandoms.)

Early Takeaways From YouTube’s New Annual Recap Feature

The utility, they suggest, is straightforward but powerful: make your personal data delightful, visual and shareable. Should Recap drive even minor re-engagement from YouTube’s humongous user base, the ripple effects will be significant. Look for creators to encourage fans to post their cards, challenges underpinned by personality types and brands favoring recap-driven campaigning.

For you viewers, it’s a mirror up to a year of curiosity — what you learned, who you listened to and which rabbit holes were your happy place. And for YouTube, it’s a neat way to transform watch history into a story worth hearing.