2019 was a bit of a big deal. For us, anyway. The first major highlight was reaching the 1,000 subscriber plateau early in the year. Why is this a big deal?

The channel had previously been monetized through the YouTube Partner Program. However, YT established a new rule for the start of March, 2018. Channels must have 1,000 subs and some amount of watch time (can’t remember what the number is because we’ve always well exceeded it) in order to earn ad revenue.

We hit the 1,000 mark in January and were re-approved for monetization at the start of February. Believe me, it has helped with the costs of travel and gear necessary for the type of videos we do.

A Quick Look At The Highlights

For last year: 2018 YouTube Awards

2018 was a year of great growth. 2019 saw pretty great growth, as well. Total views were up at nearly 502,000, compared to 400,000 in the previous year. Minutes watched was up to over 1.4 million from the one million mark.

Over the year, 13 videos had at least 10,000 views, up from eleven in 2018. Four videos were north of 20,000 views, the same as the previous year. As for the subscriber count, it continued to climb and now sits just below 2,000.

Since we’re not a ‘Vlog’, we rely on individual videos that will hopefully be evergreen in their popularity. Major content capturing campaigns over the year included resort hopping in Cayo Coco, Cuba, a driving tour of the towns and cities in the far southwest corner of Ontario, along with a driving tour through the major cities of Upstate New York and New England.

2019 YouTube Awards

2019 looks a bit similar to the 2018 YouTube Awards when it comes to overall views and minutes watched. We’ve changed up the categories slightly. In 2018, we had the most liked and most disliked videos. Changes in analytics made that too hard to determine. Instead, we added the highest grossing videos, both for 2019 and all-time.

Most Views In 2019

For the second year in a row, this honour goes to ‘Hamilton, Ontario: Driving Around Downtown’. This driving tour video of downtown Hamilton, Ontario, Canada was filmed in November, 2017. For whatever reason, it has risen above all the other similar videos. In 2019, it received 28,359 views.

Most Minutes Watched In 2019

Also for the second straight year, ‘Buffalo, New York: Driving Around Downtown’ is the leader in minutes watched. This video was also filmed in November, 2017. Despite an all-time view count that is well below that of the Hamilton video, people definitely this one longer. In 2019, the video of downtown Buffalo, New York was watched 102,360 minutes.

Top Newcomer (Views) In 2019

For videos published in 2019, the video with the most views was ‘Hotel Playa Paraiso Resort In Cayo Coco, Cuba’. This video was filmed during a Cuban vacation in April. This was the main resort we stayed at but we were able to get footage from a handful of other resorts in the area. This video was watched 7,321 times in 2019.

Top Newcomer (Watch Time) In 2019

Same resort, different video. The video published in 2019 with the most minutes watched is ‘Hotel Playa Paraiso In Cayo Coco, Cuba: Resort Walking Tour. And, it makes sense. This was simply a much longer video. This one was watched 33,258 minutes in 2019.

Highest Grossing Video In 2019

Let’s face it, resort videos are highly targeted to advertisers with big budgets. The highest grossing video on our channel in 2019 was ‘Memories Flamenco Beach Resort: Cayo Coco, Cuba’. This is an all-inclusive resort that is right next to the Hotel Playa Paraiso. We visited this location in November, 2018.

All-Time Awards

Some videos just find themselves stuck in a great position in search results and refuse to move. Our first ‘major success’ and our realization that dashcam style driving tour videos work was a drive down Dundas Street in London, Ontario back in 2013.

Despite the lower quality compared to newer videos and simply the age of the footage, this continues to get tons of views. Because of this, it still dominates the all-time categories.

All-Time Leader Views And Watch Time

‘Downtown London Going West On Dundas’. At the end of 2019, this video had been watched 91,870 times for 197,604 total minutes. It was filmed using an older Panasonic Lumix DMC-TS2.

The camera is actually still in the arsenal, although rarely used. For this video, it was propped on a mini tripod and duct-taped to the dash. I believe, in the editing, I actually sped up the video…

Oh, and this video is the highest grossing of all-time. But, not by all that much. Maybe next year, another video will take over this category…

What’s Ahead For 2020?

Somewhere tropical is on the way. We’re 90% sure it’s Dominican Republic at the start of April. Another express road trip to the U.S. will hopefully happen (Michigan and Ohio?).

There will be more camping. More kayaking. More nature (waterfalls). There will be more trains and airplanes. There will be… There will be more.