YouTube conducted an experiment in which it asked some free users to upgrade to a premium account in order to view videos in 4K resolution. The company has now ended this test, most likely due to user outrage.
YouTube confirmed the experiment’s end in a tweet, saying, “Viewers should now be able to access 4K quality resolutions without Premium membership.” This means that all users can now watch videos at the highest resolution without paying for a subscription. YouTube conducted the experiment to determine how users reacted when a specific feature was pushed behind the premium tier. In a now-deleted tweet, the company stated that a user who received a pop-up asking them to upgrade was “part of our experiment to better understand the feature preferences of Premium & non-Premium viewers.”