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.
deleted by creator
He will look for answers literally anywhere, except for within.
The tech scene is just not as interesting anymore
He has literally publicly talked about this many times, he is very much aware of this fact and has stated that he’s always looking for things that he can try and make interesting.
and the stuff he specifically covers is even less interesting. But the bigger issue is that everything LMG do is just corporate jank. It was fun when it was home garage jank, with 2 employees, but now it’s just miserable and frustrating
On this part, I honestly don’t quite get it. It’s definitely a bit more corporate now, they are a 100 person company, but when it comes to the videos, I don’t really see what else you’d want them to do? Sure they have some sponsored videos every now and then that are just showcases of a specific product, but even then I typically find them relatively interesting. And they still have a lot of videos where they’re trying to build novel stuff and thinkering. Yeah, sure, it’s typically on a higher level than what the average Joe would be capable of doing in their backyard, but I still feel like there’s a place for it. Take one of the more recent videos, the one with the double-decker table. It’s extremely cool to me, they took a regular table and a sit-to-stand desk, put one on top of the other, and made effectively two desks in one, one for gaming and one for a hobby. It’s not something I’d build for myself, but it’s a really fun concept.
Why is Yahtzee complaining about the same issue? He does games, not tech: https://youtu.be/cpVnx4_yqTo
Tbf games content is also saturated af.
I never considered that the tech scene isn’t interesting anymore, but you’re right. Everything is boring incremental upgrades these days. Things are having the fun squeezed out of them for profits (in app purchases, proprietary lockin, cloud shit that dies or has permanent bugs, etc), lots of stuff just feels like it’s plateaued or is junk.
Don’t forget that most of us are getting priced out of the hobby in general. It’s not fun when you can’t afford to play around in your own hobby. You move on and find a new hobby.
Retro handhelds is mine. At least playing aroundvwith something technology adjacent. Its fun and until the tarrifs came in, very cheap.
Very true. The last decade and a half have just been switching between round and square corners with mild spec bumps. VR was supposed to be it I think, but it just isn’t useful enough.
VR still is it. If you have €€€€
Take the bigscreen beyond 2.
A vr-headset starting at 1300 (incl. taxes/import).
Uhhh yeah.
Not happening for what little VR could offer me in my current situation (and I don’t watch porn).Facebook is the best and worst thing to have happened to VR. The Quest is an affordable headset that basically killed all competition and innovation in VR for years. Still holding out hope that the next Valve headset will come out eventually and shake up the scene again.
Theres leaks about some ‘Steam Frame’ happening.
Might be close.There have been leaks about the Deckard 2 for years now and people always say that Valve will announce it any day now. I’ll believe it when I see it at this point.
Trademark entries are a good indicator there is something nearer than further away.
And all the big “innovations” have been in venture capitalist bubbles like AI, NFTs, etc. or soured by the companies and people behind them. I hear SpaceX has been doing some cool stuff, but all I can see is Musk making a flying Cyber Truck for his ego on NASA’s dollar. One of the reactors at 3 Mile Island is coming back online, the first US nuclear power project in who knows how many years…in order to fuel Microsoft’s AI data centers.
Advancements in tech used to be about pushing the boundaries of what we’re capable of. Now, it’s all about pushing the boundaries of how much money the oligarchs can stuff into a single pocket.
Maybe YT has started to be more aggressive towards viewbots like Twitch? Or has changed something in the algorithm (again) and fucked up (again).
Everyone here is speculating about their content, but the simple answer is YouTube just changed how they count the view number. The change basically happened overnight, so it’s not some slow attrition of views. They said in the WAN Show that while the view count halved, the number of likes hasn’t changed (the view/like ratio doubled), and the revenue they earned hasn’t changed (CPM doubled). All of this points that the same number of humans are watching, but what counts as a view in the “views” number just changed.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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’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.
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
My theory is that we have a limited number of hours a day to view content. We also have a growing number of channels and content in general. Algorithms include new content we kight enjoy, and for every new channel we get hooked on, one of the older ones drops off.
Tv shows rarely (ever?) Last forever. Why should channels?
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.
Yeah, because Linus is kinda shit more and more. Hes wholly turned me off from his content over the years because of how he acts, what he says, etc. And you can ‘trust me bro’ on that.
I really like and appreciate people like Steve. I like what he’s doing and how he’s doing things. He hasn’t become a greedy corpo and hes just a very intelligent and caring person who believes in standing up for what’s right; Even if that means calling out a friend in the industry.
I feel like Linus is out of touch with reality. He’s not at all down to earth anymore.
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.
Don’t care
Problem with their channel specifically, is their hypocrisy, BS, lack of research and just misleading their viewer-base. People remember.
I wonder if it has to do with ad fatigue. Watching YouTube without a block is like going to an orgy with a bunch of ppl with STIs
a bunch of ppl with STIs
Hey man, don’t bash the WRX! It’s a cool car 😉
But yeah, blocking ads is the only way to watch YT. I swore off twitch once uBO stopped working there.
the amount of ads yt pushes, if your not using adblockers people are just toturing themselves. Also i dont login so no subscription for them, because alot of the content creators eventually turn shitheel down the line anyways, or give(non-malicious)misinformation in thier industry.
Eh. I lost any interest I had with Linus after the whole Gamers’ Nexus thing, and I’m definitely staying away after hearing what Louis Rossman had to say about the guy.
i wonder whats his problem
I did too, until many of the accusations, like the Billet Labs thing, turned out to be false later.
