I've generated approximately 400,000 views across 6 videos published in total. I haven't done anything besides drive referral traffic + create a thumbnail that

I've generated approximately 400,000 views across 6 videos published in total. I haven't done anything besides drive referral traffic + create a thumbnail that pops out. I believe referral traffic is the trick. YouTube's goal is to keep people on YouTube as long as possible. Your newly published video is an unknown. If you can warm up the engagement data with referral traffic, YouTube will begin showing you in a small % of searchers. As you get more clicks, more watch time, and more comments / likes compared to other videos YouTube could show, you'll begin to be showed more and more often.