YouTube eliminates the decade-long standing "trending" feature from its platform
YouTube Introduces Thematic Charts to Replace 'Trending' Section
In a significant move, YouTube has replaced its 'Trending' section with thematic, category-specific charts as part of an effort to improve content discovery and cater to diverse user preferences. The change, announced in July 2025, is designed to provide users with a more personalized and organized browsing experience.
The old Trending page, a static, manually curated universal list, was becoming ineffective given YouTube’s massive and diverse global audience of over 2 billion monthly users. A single trending list failed to represent different languages, regions, cultures, and niche interests accurately.
To address this issue, YouTube has introduced genre-based charts that focus on specific content categories such as Trending Music Videos, Weekly Top Podcasts, Popular Movie Trailers, and a Gaming Explore Page. These thematic charts are more targeted and relevant to users' interests and regional preferences, unlike a broad trending list.
The Explore tab has also been revamped to include intuitive, dynamic categories where users can find content by thematic areas like fashion, science, health, and local updates. This makes the discovery experience more responsive to individual tastes and emerging trends.
The shift aligns with broader industry trends where platforms use AI-driven personalized discovery and interest-based feeds, helping smaller creators thrive by highlighting content that matters to specific audience segments rather than focusing only on broadly viral content. This also increases watch time and strengthens creator-viewer connections.
The new thematic charts are more convenient as viewers already search for videos in this manner on YouTube. They are expected to provide a more organized and efficient way for users to discover popular content on YouTube.
It's worth noting that in February 2025, YouTube altered its rules for mid-roll advertising, with ads now appearing at more natural moments such as between scenes or after the logical conclusion of an episode. This change is intended to make ads less intrusive for viewers.
This development was reported by Variety and Vechernyaya Moskva. YouTube's new thematic charts are expected to be rolled out in the coming weeks, marking a significant step forward in the platform's mission to provide a more personalized and engaging user experience.
[1] YouTube Blog, "Introducing Thematic Charts and Revamped Explore Pages on YouTube," July 2025, https://youtube-global.blog/2025/07/introducing-thematic-charts-and-revamped-explore-pages-on-youtube/
In the revamped Explore tab on YouTube, users can find content categorized by thematic areas such as entertainment, which includes Trending Music Videos and Popular Movie Trailers. This shift towards thematic charts aims to provide a more personalized and organized browsing experience for social-media users.
