YouTube introduces Spotify Wrapped-style Recap for yearly viewing trends

YouTube rolls out a new year-end Recap that spotlights top channels, interests and viewing patterns, offering a simple snapshot of how audiences engaged all year

YouTube is rolling out a new end-of-year recap designed to highlight how viewers engaged with the platform over the past 12 months. It compiles top channels, repeated interests and standout viewing patterns to create a snapshot of overall habits. Similar to Spotify Wrapped, it aims to show the kinds of content a user followed most closely, how their tastes shifted and which topics they kept returning to. The recap also assigns each viewer a “personality type” based on watch history.

 

YouTube Recap is currently being rolled out for users in North America. The company has also confirmed that the YouTube Recap is coming for Indian users later this week. 

 

YouTube Recap: What it is

According to the YouTube blog, Recap will appear on the homepage and can also be found under the “You” tab on both mobile and desktop. Recap is designed to give viewers a snapshot of how they engaged with the platform over the past year.

 

The experience uses watch history to surface interests, deep dives and notable moments from the last twelve months. Viewers will see up to 12 different cards that highlight top channels, recurring topics and how viewing patterns changed over time. Recap also assigns a personality type based on overall activity. These personality profiles — such as Adventurer, Skill Builder or Creative Spirit — aim to reflect the kind of content viewers spend the most time with.

 

For those who used YouTube heavily for music, the company said that the Recap extends into listening habits as well. It includes the year’s top artists and songs, along with options to explore preferred genres, podcasts and international music choices through the YouTube Music app.

 

According to YouTube, the goal was to design an experience shaped by viewer behaviour rather than simply presenting raw statistics. The company said that certain personality types tend to appear more frequently, with Sunshiner, Wonder Seeker and Connector emerging as the most common. Others, such as Philosopher and Dreamer, appeared less often, making them the rarer profiles in the system.

 

The cards can be saved or shared, letting users reflect on their past year’s viewing habits or compare trends with others.