YouTube is retiring its longstanding Trending and Trending Now in-app lists, moving instead to a system featuring more tailored category charts. The change, highlighted in YouTube’s announcement, is designed to serve evolving user behaviors and enhance niche engagement.
YouTube’s Trending page once offered a single feed of viral hits everyone was talking about. As viewing habits have fragmented into subject-driven communities, visits to the universal Trending list have declined. Starting now, users searching for what’s hot will land on the Charts page—an area focused on popularity within specific content types, including music videos, podcasts, and movie trailers. YouTube also promises more categories will be featured soon.
Here’s what’s changed for discovery:
- Trending and Trending Now tabs are being retired from the mobile and desktop experiences.
- A centralized Charts page now hosts lists by topic, such as music or podcasts.
- The existing Gaming Explore destination remains the hub for game-related trending videos.
- Personalized recommendations in the main feed persist and may become even more influential.
These updates coincide with the platform’s shift toward algorithm-driven suggestions, especially in Shorts and Home feeds. Instead of a one-size-fits-all trend, discovery is becoming more customized—and more dependent on user preferences and platform signals.
Expansion of Creator Support: Hype Feature and Summer Stickers
Alongside its discovery overhaul, YouTube is investing in new ways to support emerging creators and incentivize engagement. The Hype creator support program, initially tested in September last year, has now expanded to 19 markets, including India, Indonesia, Mexico, and select EU countries. Through Hype, viewers can allocate “hype points”—essentially upvotes—at no cost to highlight videos from channels that have not yet gained major traction. The most hyped clips are ranked on a leaderboard, further boosting their visibility. Notably, YouTube automatically applies bonus hype points to smaller creators (based on subscriber count), making it easier for emerging voices to surface and “even the playing field.” Viewers in launch regions can now hype videos from anywhere Hype is available, not just their local market.
In addition, YouTube is introducing limited-edition, summer-themed animated sticker gifts that viewers can send during live streams. With options like a duckling, island, nap, sand castle, and watermelon, these gifts provide new ways for fans to engage and for streamers to monetize. Currently, these summer gifts are available only to creators and viewers in the U.S.
More on YouTube’s evolving discovery and creator support features:
In the context of video analytics, this move complements YouTube’s ongoing efforts to help creators refine their channel strategies. For example, new tools and data, such as those discussed in YouTube Shares Performance Data for Brands, make it easier for creators to understand what content resonates within specific interest groups.
Competing social platforms have also migrated toward algorithm-driven topic feeds and specialized trend hubs. TikTok nudges users toward For You Page hits relevant to their recent watches, while Instagram pushes Reels and Explore tailored to user interaction history. Even legacy lists such as Twitter’s trending topics blend local and personal preferences. These shifts show that trend discovery is no longer about one viral moment, but diverse, ongoing micro-fandoms.
For small brands and content creators, these restructurings—including the rollout of Hype and new discovery interfaces—mean optimization strategies need to target both algorithmic discovery and category charts. Building for universal virality makes less sense when audiences are scattered across interests and verticals. Instead, surface-level data—videos that appear on category-specific charts—can help guide content planning and partnerships. Leveraging features like Hype, particularly for new or smaller channels, can provide a boost toward wider recognition.
Relying on personalized recommendations means creators should focus more on engagement signals: watch time, comments, shares, and Shorts momentum. High-performing content for a specific niche may be routed directly to users who care most, while broad, all-ages virality could be less impactful. Brands maintaining active audience relationships may find it easier to be included in user-curated feeds sparked by interest rather than popularity alone.
YouTube has hinted that it will continue surfacing relevant videos in Explore, on creator channels, and through subscriptions—even as trend displays shift elsewhere. This multi-pronged approach to discovery may allow for new content categories and further developer tools in the future. The recently unveiled AI Analytics Bot for Channel Insights is one example of how YouTube is investing in creator support beyond simple trending metrics.
Expect additional chart categories, expanded Hype support, and new analytic tools to arrive over the next year. In the meantime, creators should review how their content ranks in existing charts, experiment with Hype where available, and track changes in feed-driven discovery and recommendations. For marketers, doubling down on authentic, category-leading content—and using analytics to measure cross-category resonance—will be crucial as YouTube’s public trends become increasingly specialized.
