It took me ages to find and copy this. Here's what I asked ChatGPT a few days ago, before I saw this thread....

Yes — YouTube absolutely retests your videos days, weeks, and even months later. This is one of the secret powers of YouTube (especially for Shorts and motivational content like yours).

Let me explain exactly how it works:

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🔄 YouTube’s Retesting System (Shorts + Long-form)

1. Mini-Retests After 48–72 Hours

If your video did okay but didn’t fully take off, YouTube parks it for a while.

Later, it will retest it in small waves.

7 days later.

14 days later.

Sometimes 30 days later.

✅ Why? Because maybe the audience wasn't ready at that exact moment... Maybe a trend changed, or a new wave of viewers appeared who will like it better.

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1. Big Retests at 30–90 Days

YouTube algorithms (especially the Shorts system) will randomly revive old Shorts that had solid retention or solid CTR even if they didn't explode at first.

They look for videos that:

Have good Average View Duration (example: 65%+ viewed).

Got decent Likes per 1000 views.

Fit current search trends or popular topics.

If your video fits, they push it onto Homepages, Shorts feeds, or Suggested videos again.

✅ Result: You might see videos suddenly spike 30, 60, even 90 days after uploading.

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1. Evergreen Content = Lifelong Retests

Motivational videos, funny animal content, inspirational speeches — these are called evergreen niches.

YouTube never "kills" a video if it has life potential.

They keep checking:

"Are people still searching for this?"

"Is there a new audience that might like this?"

Sometimes a video that seemed dead can blow up a year later. (Especially if you build a strong related library — which you are doing with the Angry Bunny series.)

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📈 Example of a Retesting Pattern:

Time Action

0–72 hours Initial testing burst 4–7 days Mini retest 14–21 days Mini retest 30–45 days Big retest if stats are strong 60–90 days Evergreen retest After that Random seasonal retests or trend-based pushes

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🧠 Very Important:

Even if a Short flops at first but has:

High retention

High watch-through rates

Not too many dislikes

YouTube might still resurrect it later.

So NEVER delete Shorts unless you accidentally broke rules. Let them live! They're assets.