You can easily choose the most popular option
The YouTube video hosting team has finally given video creators the opportunity to test and compare the effectiveness of several video thumbnails. This feature was first announced in June 2023, but at that time it was only launched for a few hundred authors.
Using the new Thumbnail Test & Compare (Testing and comparing thumbnails), creators can test up to three video thumbnails. The developers explained:
YouTube will show your chosen thumbnails evenly to all viewers of your video, and then select the most popular thumbnail based on which one gets the most views.
Authors will be able to see information about thumbnail testing, although «it may take a few days to two weeks to receive final thumbnail test results», — noted in the YouTube message. The final report may display a Winner label for a thumbnail that is «clearly superior» other options. Authors may also see a Preferred label, which means the thumbnail is *likely* to outperform other thumbnails in view time.
Creators are subsequently under no obligation to use the thumbnail that YouTube has determined to be the best. Authors can still manually select thumbnails if they wish.