Remember we explained why some YouTube videos get stuck at 301 views for a period of a few hours and then jump to their true view count?
Well, that issue is gone. Google finally resolved the issue and announced on Google+ We're saying goodbye to 301+ and hello to more up-to-date video views."
The image above explains the old versus the new process in simple terms. But in short, Google didn't want fake views to inflate the impressions so they paused it. Now, it seems, YouTube is better determining real views in real time.
I wonder if they enlisted the help of the search quality / spam team for this?
Forum discussion at Google+.