Google is making some changes to how the “likes” and “views” counters on YouTube work. The update will ensure that these metrics refresh automatically when a video is viewed, meaning they will continue to increase and display a cool rolling numbers animation, even if the video is paused or when the viewer switches to another […]

The new behavior was noticed by Android Police, and although there isn’t any official reference to it, a Reddit user named nonotan mentioned seeing the animation back in October. Some users have expressed concerns about the feature being distracting while viewing videos.

It appears that this feature is being tested with a limited number of YouTube users globally. If you happen to be part of this group, you’ll be able to see the number of likes and views increasing in real-time while watching a video on YouTube.