A lot of Youtube channels are reporting declining viewership lately.
EX1: https://youtube.com/watch?v=cpVnx4_yqTo
EX2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yF0tmhEtVJE
Fun times. Looks like a lot of channels are seeing a decline not just Linus. Hes just the latest to talk about it.
Then I saw this article as well and thought I would share.
Anyone here youtube creators? Are you seeing the same thing, a general downturn in viewership?
So many possible reason.
Linus has a history of scummy behavior which turns people off.
Everything gets boring eventually. Especially things that are supposed to be funny.
Google ads are extra obnoxious making the entire platform more annoying to use and most of us will never pay for youtube. Those ads are not even selling products I would be interested in. Investment scams, car accident claim ads, AI voiced robot panda. It just annoying noise.
Nothing lasts forever.
I’m sure declining viewers has nothing to do with the various controversies such as auctioning off prototypes, rushed reviews with misleading or false conclusions, mistreating staff etc. Channels like Gamers Nexus really laid into him.
Problem with their channel specifically, is their hypocrisy, BS, lack of research and just misleading their viewer-base. People remember.
I’ve noticed this in many of the channels I subscribe to, 5 years ago they had something like 1m views on some videos regularly and now only 300k (or similar decline), all of them. Some of them even made videos about it. My guess, and theirs, is YouTube changed the algorithm and also the introduction of shorts.
This might be another example of over reliance on AI to judge what’s good or not to show users: https://news.clownfishtv.com/p/reddit-asks-did-youtube-break-itself
That must be devastating for the narcissist.
why narcissist?
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I don’t have an hour to spend watching someone talk into a camera, can I get a TLDR?
It’s a detailed account of Linus being awful, his heavy usage of DARVO whenever called out for shit behavior.
I won’t summarize, as Louis has receipts for all of it.
I suspect that Linus and Mr. Beast have an identical capacity for empathy.
Me neither. And it’s probably contributing to þe declining viewership.
ooh, look an Islander 😊
I’ve wondered who had the attention span for hour long videos on youtube or even 10 minute long ones once the algorithm started prioritizing those over short form. Most youtubers just aren’t that good enough to be able to deliver something compelling for a long length of time, which was why short and to the point videos is what I miss about old YouTube.
I regularly watch hour+ videos, and there’s quite a few 10+ hour videos I’ve enjoyed. Just gotta find the right people.
10 hour long videos!? What the hell. What can be that interesting for 10 hours from YouTube? Is it actual full written tv shows or documentary tv series?
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That’s a weird way of describing Linus being shown to be a narcissistic thundercunt, in exquisite detail, with receipts.
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I haven’t seen the video yet either, but that’s not bias, that’s Louis Rossmann. He always speaks like that. He’s not a random tech YouTuber. He’s very provocative and holds a cult-like fanbase (though I haven’t watched enough of his to have an opinion whether that’s warranted; I personally don’t like provocative rage content but that seems to be all the rage).
Also, there’s extensive chaptering with a title for each.
Like doing what? All I see is the most bias video about nothing for an hour long. He is this bias and that’s the worst stuff he can find? I’ve taken dumps that were more offensive. Compared to any other person in the news and this is milk toast bland.
Tl;dr: please, no one watch Linus showing his whole ass.
Are you on his staff or something, or just a fanboy/flying monkey?
Oh the rossman video.
I hate how obsessed on dumb shit he gets. The man is legitimately doing great work usually, and then he takes something minor that an otherwise ally says or does and blows it out of proportion.
This man would have made a great tankie. Unfortunately he made a whole 20 minute video on why AOC is stupid for saying unskilled labor doesn’t exist and then explaining exactly the points she was making.
I legitimately love this mans work and I wanna support him, but man is he petty.
when streamers get super-political, they are no better than the right winger influencers.
Those stupid thumbnails pushed me away
Maybe if he did videos that were interesting again…not like my wife hates our tech at home videos or whatever
Folks here are missing the point blaming LTT for the drop. This has been a sudden drop, too sudden to be fatigue or audience tastes changing.
Also I can see the same on my own channel. About 2 weeks ago views suddenly dropped to a third of the usual views. And even high performing videos have had trouble getting views since. Even videos with a high impression percentage are getting lower than average views.
The same wsd also reported by Second Wind (old Zero Punctuation) and their experience is the same: way too sudden drop to be anything else except YouTube adjusting their algorithm.
If a change in the algorithm hurts, it may be a sign that the algorithm had been helping previously. No one questions the algorithm when viewership grows, but it’s largely to blame for the good and the bad.
True, but a platform where your income is dependent on an ever changing algorithm is not something a business can handle. Changes like that will drive away major channels and make them start to look for alternatives.
I mean you just described every website in the world, and their relationship with Google search engine traffic. Demonstrably, a business can deal with this. An algorithm can inject uncertainty into a business, but if one is entirely and exclusively dependent on one algorithm, is it really a business?
Very true. And it’s very worrying that so much of global online business is literally dependent of Googles good will.
DarkviperAU also mentioned it.
Thanks for the analysis. I’ve got to say. We on Lemmy can be vicious.
Yeah, it’s easy to bark at influencer we don’t like.
I think his org has consistently done its best and I still tune in across the channels. I know that I couldn’t do better with matched resources, without experience and a lot more considerations.
Listening to everyone hate on a whole media group puzzles me a bit.
LTT has done bad things and never apologized. For example he copied a gamersnexus script and never acknowledged it.
And stole an item to auction off! I can’t believe people here defend their ass D:
Which turned out to be false, and Billet Labs confirmed it was always the agreement that they were not supposed to return it, they just changed their mind later when it was already too late.
The email chain was published by Billet Labs after LTT said there were no expectations of returning the prototype. It proved that Linus lied about it.
Never acknowledged it? He immediately put a pinned comment attributing Gamers Nexus when notified of it, and GN thanked him for it, which any reasonable person would take as him being happy with the resolution.
It was a piece of info from GN’s video, not a copied script though.
Yeah, that’s what I’m basing what I said on. You can see GN thanking Linus for quick action, and being understanding that an inexperienced writer could make such a mistake.
I wonder what they’re going to prioritize now
Nazi salutes and brotein supplements
AI slop most likely. Well, to be serious, I think the drop is due to them trying to fight AI slop and miserably failing.
yes, ive seen an increase in AI slop + propaganda too, and yt also is allow ISRAEL to make pro-IDF propaganda to flood the site now. 45million$ contract from NETANYAHU.
AI slop trailers, AI bizarre animal injures, GOOGLE veo AI videos.
I hope anything but LTT, a shit clickbait channel that steals things to auction off
I‘ve noticed the algorithm drizzles a good portion of smaller creators on my front page in recent months and that part is growing. I am talking about videos with just a few thousand or few hundred views that make up roughly 10-15 percent of my recommendations or so.
I think Youtube is diversifying exposure so you don‘t see the same faces you‘ve seen the past 15 years as often and new channels get a chance to grow. I am guessing Youtube doesn‘t want to be too dependent on the same huge channels anymore either.
Of course that means huge creators are calling to the pitch forks and torches because they lose revenue but why should I care? Most of them are rich anyway and don‘t necessarily produce better videos than someone with their phone in their garage workshop or a bunch of college students in their dorms. If anything it feels more like the old Youtube again.
There is a lot wrong with Youtube but I couldn‘t care less about huge channels being forced to slim down or try harder.
Noticed those as well.
Usually the side bar recommends the usual bunch or related content but then there is this totally random video of some small channel with 10 maybe <1000 views doing a let’s play or some random content which is completely unrelated to the content I watching at the moment.Most of them are rich anyway and don‘t necessarily produce better videos than someone with their phone in their garage workshop or a bunch of college students in their dorms. If anything it feels more like the old Youtube again.
In the case of LTT: Not everyone can absorb the cash flow for an ULTIMATE PETABYTE MULTI-NODE STORAGE SERVER BUILD.
I honestly enjoy those as uneducated as some videos are, those infrastructure videos are really enjoyable for the amount of jank.I’m noticing a lot more ai generated videos myself. Or at least they look like it. Its kinda slop.
I’ve been getting recommendations for videos with 2 to 10 views. Noticed it about three months ago.
Same. I kinda like it.
mr beast has always been shady asf, thats why hes desperate as in the type of content he puts out, eventhough he has huge a base and his shitty food company. Like he wants to make a big deal out "paying the " wrestler that got knocked out by an aggressive MMA person. hes like a vulture.
The same wsd also reported by Second Wind (old Zero Punctuation) and their experience is the same: way too sudden drop to be anything else except YouTube adjusting their algorithm.
In their video, Yahtzee said it could be related to Restricted Mode on youtube suddenly turns on by itself. Or at least that’s their hypothesis, since they checked that if that mode is on, a lot of their videos vanished from their channel.
They’re wrong, my channel has under 4% viewers in the up to 18 year segment, this effect is way bigger than if I lost then completely. Also my channel features no swearing or inappropriate content so, it should not affect it at all if this was the case.
It’s not about what your viewers are, it’s about what youtube now automatically hides by default. They show it in the video.
Yes, but even if they hid everything I have from teens and suspended teens, the drop would be way less. And that’s why I think they are wrong about the reason for the drop.
Tierzoos theory is because formats that were good for the past years (8-10 min videos) are less popular now with the advent of shorts. And people are watching yt on their TVs now.
Demographics are also changing. Wish there were more actual data. Other than the very end result which is views down over many channels all at once.
That also wouldn’t have a drastic immediate effect. On the long term this is likely to eat some views of long form content.
I’ll echo that I have felt an algorithm change. I watch a lot of leather crafting videos and a lot of Adam Savage videos. In the past week I’ve been getting Adam Savage working on leather videos and I’ve been thrilled to discover these. As someone who’s been watching both Adam Savage and leather crafting videos for months or maybe years, I should have already seen these, but somehow missed these until this past week. Now YouTube shows me video after video of Adam Savage working on leather, which I love.
youtube is probably gearing the algorithim for other content than influencers that draws in more views or revenue.
Not impossible. The best revenue for Google would be if they could ai generate all the content themselves.
It’s insane he ever had a healthy viewership in the first place.
His videos have always seemed like long-form advertisements for various tech products
I learned about him right before his whole PopOs thing. I couldn’t believe that people would take computing advice from someone who also doesn’t read what’s on the screen in front of him. I expect this from my users I do tech support for, but not someone that bills himself as something as an expert.
Scrapyard wars and secret shopper are fun
I think it’s a loss of talent and shuttering of shows across his company’s channels that are leading it. I can only watch so many “reporting verbatim the benchmark results of new tech product” or “I made my family a sleeper desk” or “dark horse home theater for my kid” videos. I’d much rather watch the highly produced “Mac Address” videos with Jonathan or retro gaming systems and setups videos with Anthony but they aren’t a part of LMG anymore.
Riley is doing well on tech linked but he’s talented enough to get a real job and after that, what’s the last interesting thing that LMG has? WAN show clips?
The more interesting part for me, that they mentioned on the WAN show, is that while viewers dropped significantly, the revenue basically hasn’t changed. They’re more or less making the same amount of money from half the amount of reported viewers.
Viewer bot farms is a thing. Is that a declining business now? And the results starting to show now?
Some pretty serious things going on in the world today that need our support and therefore attention. I consume less entertainment as a byproduct.
I just don’t get suggested his content anymore. Then again I just found out every channel I’ve ever subscribed to is under a seperate category and usually not under the main YouTube page…
Basically I’m blocking every channel I’ve subscribed to without ever realising…
This is now the second time in a short period of time that I stumble across someone who didn’t know the subscriptions page existed. Or at least that is how I interpreted what you said.
I always thought it was obvious that the main feed is for discovering new stuff based on watch history and the ol trusty content can be found in the sub box. It is always fascinating to see how differently people use software I use daily while thinking it is how everyone does it
The subscribed view has shorts filling most of it, it became useless
I just use RSS to track my subscriptions instead
My subscribed has 1 row of shorts no matter how far I scroll, never adds more.
I have to go to my subscribed channels just to see what they’ve posted now. YT definitely changed up their algorithm and it’s useless for me now. It doesn’t present anything I’m interested in.
do you have the “important” tab at he top of subs now? it shows me videos i have already watched and I have no clue how it works or how youtube decides what is important but it’s unnecessary and annoying.
before, if I clicked on a new video it might show me a few videos after that which fit the same theme/category. Now if I watch one fucking video it completely floods my algorithm with the same shit back to back. I have different accounts on every device I watch something on (like in the kitchen when cooking, etc) and they’re so fucking drastically different in the feed it’s insane.
Its because theres too many “dead subscriptions”. The algorithm punishes channels that have subs that dont interact with saud channel.
This is such a strange concept. Like fundamentally a subscription is just a mechanism to allow a viewer to easily keep track of new content on a channel. By viewing the channels contents you’re engaging in 100% of the interaction you should be expected to have with a subscribed channel. If Google really wanted to address the problem of old subscriptions people are ignoring they should just prompt people to unsubscribe to channels that they haven’t watched any videos from in a long time. Instead they’re fucking with view counts because that saves them money. The whole thing is fishy, but Google has always treated being inscrutable and capricious as if those were virtues.
i never login so, its nice to not see the same person/influencer(often ragebait, propaganda when you close and open youtube again.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QEJpZjg8GuA&t=18
Just use the subscriptions tab (yes, this video does talk about it).
I guess the point is channels are seeing a dropping viewership across the board. Or at least two different creators of VERY different videos have had the same experience so far. And the reddit thread behind this has more people (assuming they are telling the truth) confirming the drop.
It seems like YouTube is doing something where they don’t consider views to be actual “views” anymore. I saw one creator reporting that you only get credit as a view if you also leave a comment on the video because I guess Google thinks this will somehow hamper bots? Sounds like a bunch of bullshit no matter how you look at it. Personally I think Google is just trying to avoid paying creators so they’re only crediting them for a fraction of the views they get, but you just know they’re charging those advertisers for every single view whether they’re paying the creators or not.
You might be right.
What a moronic move. I almost never post comments but I watch plenty of content.
Commenting on YouTube videos is just shouting into the void
Same, but it depends on the goal. If the goal is to have an excuse not to pay creators while still cashing paychecks from advertisers it seems like a pretty smart move. A dick move certainly, but seems to be working exactly as intended.
This I believe.
Way back in the day I was making $500 a month with AdSense ads on my sites. And then one month I started making $250 a month. I hadn’t changed anything. It’s a risky thing to rely on.
most influencers cant rely ads from yt anymore, so they switch to brand deals, promotions, thats where they get thier money from. and sometimes patreon.
youtube seems to be pushing alot more AI garbage than normal lately as well. they just made a contract with Israel to allow them to flood the site with pro-zionist propaganda.
youtube is also part of the problem, as many videos is made using googles AI video generator.
