Watch Statistics — Personal Video Analytics

The Video Controls Plus watch statistics dashboard turns your watch history into honest personal analytics — hours by week and month, average and peak playback speed, platform distribution, the channels and topics you spend the most time on, and the time-of-day pattern you actually watch (versus the time-of-day pattern you think you watch). The /stats page itself is public marketing surface; the personal stats view appears after sign-in. Most users find the dashboard slightly uncomfortable in week one because it shows real numbers rather than aspirational ones; that discomfort is the point.

Use cases

Setting and verifying real screen-time goals

Aspirational goals like "watch less YouTube" are useless without a baseline. The stats dashboard gives you the baseline; the goal becomes specific ("from 14 hours/week to 8 hours/week") and the progress is visible.

Catching the patterns that drive your watching

Many users discover they watch more on Tuesday evenings or after a stressful meeting. Once you can see the pattern, the prompts to break it become much more concrete.

Adjusting playback speed strategically

Average speed across all your videos surfaces in one number. Users who watch at 1.0x for everything often discover that 1.25x default would save 5–10 hours per month with no comprehension loss.

Reviewing learning ROI

For paid courses (Udemy, Coursera, LinkedIn Learning), the stats dashboard shows hours invested per platform. Useful at the end of a course to verify the time matched the value.

How it works

  1. Watch normally. No special setup — every play registered by the extension feeds the stats dashboard. Uses the same data the watch history is built on.
  2. Open /stats. The dashboard renders the current week first, with toggles for month, quarter, year, and all-time.
  3. Read the at-a-glance summary. Total hours, average speed, top three platforms, top three channels — all in the first card.
  4. Drill into a metric. Click any number to see the breakdown — for example, total hours by day or top channels by minute count.
  5. Export the report. Settings → Export → Stats. Outputs JSON for further analysis in a spreadsheet or BI tool.

Examples

  • A user audits the past month. Discovers 60% of watch time was YouTube essays at 1.0x. Shifts default speed to 1.5x; estimated savings ~6 hours/month.
  • A user tracks a self-imposed YouTube limit. Set limit at 5 hours/week; stats dashboard shows actual at 4.2 hours/week after one month. Goal works because the data is honest.

Frequently asked questions

Is the data shared with anyone?

No. Stats are computed locally from your own watch log. Nothing is sent to a server unless you opt into cloud sync, and even then the data is yours and only you see it.

Can I exclude work-watching from the personal-time view?

Yes. Site-exclusion rules (Settings → History) apply to the stats dashboard too. Excluded sites do not appear in the totals.

Why is my average speed lower than I expect?

Most users overestimate their average. The dashboard weights by minutes watched, so a single 3-hour 1x viewing dominates many short 2x viewings.

Can I get hourly resolution?

The "Time of day" view bins watching into 24 hourly slots so you can see when you actually watch. Daily granularity is also available.

Will the dashboard track me passively?

No. Only actual playback events register. Background tabs and idle pages do not affect the totals.

Is there a yearly review?

Yes — every January, the dashboard renders an end-of-year summary card with the year's totals, top channels, and peak weeks.

Tips

  • Look at the "Time of day" view first — most users find a surprise pattern there that reframes the rest of the data.
  • Use exclusion rules to keep work content out of personal stats; the dashboard becomes much more actionable.
  • Set a weekly hours target. The dashboard shows progress against the target, which is the simplest accountability mechanism that actually works.
  • Export annually as JSON if you want a long-term record outside the browser.

Limitations

  • The stats are only as good as the watch log behind them — sites the extension cannot reach (DRM-locked players that block content scripts) leave gaps.
  • No comparative benchmarks ("average user watches X hours/week"). The dashboard is yours alone; community benchmarks are a roadmap item and would require shared opt-in data.
  • The /stats page itself is public marketing surface; the personal dashboard appears after sign-in.

Last updated 2026-05-06 by Ahsan Mahmood, maintainer.