>>51170186>Why watchtime exactly?it is a byproduct of how the average is calculated.
The average of a stream is calculated by taking the area below the curve and dividing by the stream stream length.
To visualize that intuitively, imagine reshaping that area below the curve to make a rectangle with the same area.
The height of that rectangle is the average, meaning it is the number of people that would have to have watched the stream from start to finish for the same area to be produced
To calculate the average of multiple streams, the same process is made
1) the area below the curve for each of the streams is calculated
2) all of those areas are summed
>this is the "hours watched" as used by this thread and other sources3) the area is divided by the total stream time to calculate the average.
Comparing "hours watched" is no more and no less than just that, comparing the sum of the area below the curves. It is not a measure of popularity or even of unique viewership