"Very dramatic shift" - Linus Tech Tips opens up about the channel's declining viewership
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It's the capitalism brain that says: If you are not growing you are dying
I mean, the problem is not lack of growth, the problem is losing the stable sustainable base.
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For example they found out one of their main sponsors Honey were scamming their viewers and essentially stealing from people, they just kept it quiet rather than owning it.
That's one of the things I was referring to. GamersNexus did an expose on the Honey thing and filed a class action suit over it because they were essentially stealing money from creators. Linus was complicit and aware and said nothing.
Let's also not forget the time Linus literally received a prototype cooler from Billet Labs for testing, was supposed to return it after review, and he not only reviewed it poorly (and used it for the wrong hardware), but then basically stole it and auctioned it off, later referring to this as "a small mistake." Supposedly he only offered to pay for the prototype after this was also exposed by GN.
Billet Labs' statement on the issue:
You, the PC community, are amazing. We'd like to thank you for your support, it means more than you can imagine.
Steve at Gamers Nexus has publicly shown his integrity, at the huge risk of backlash, and we have nothing but respect for him for how he's handled himself, both publicly and when speaking directly to us.
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Regarding LTT, we are simply going to state the relevant facts:
On 10th August, we were told by LTT via email that the block had been sold at auction. There was no apology.
We replied on 10th August within 30 minutes, telling LTT that this wasn't okay, and that this was a £XXXX prototype, and we asked if they planned to reimburse us at all.
We received no reply and no offer of payment until 2 hours after the Gamers Nexus video went live on 14th August, at which point Linus himself emailed us directly.
The exact monetary value of the prototype was offered as reimbursement. We have not received, nor have we asked for any other form of compensation.
Dude's just scummy. I've no idea why people will defend him to the ends of the earth.
And the Honey thing turned out to be a dud, the accusations false, and the lawsuit went nowhere. So good on them not to jump on the lawsuit train I guess.
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Probably doesn't help that a bunch of the decent channels were bought by private equity and are now churning out boring, safe and uninteresting content.
https://youtu.be/hJ-rRXWhElI (a yt link, lol).
A brief summary from https://www.dailydot.com/news/youtube-channel-private-equity/
Some channels like Donut Media, Veritasium, and Task and Purpose have been acquired publicly. Others, such as Dude Perfect and Coco Melon, have been acquired more privately, with no public disclosure.
Plenty others. A key giveaway is when a channel diverges their risk. When the front man who is the reason you have watched the channel suddenly has co-hosts and large segments from other channels in their regular content.
Linus Tech Tips is not one of them though. They did receive an offer for $100 million, but refused it to keep their independence.
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I completely stopped watching him after the GPU fiasco. I always thought he might be super slimy, but I think I can reasonably say that he is.
So did I, until it turned out the Gamers Nexus video was an unsubstantiated hit piece. For example it came out that the Billet Lab GPU cooler that they supposedly stole instead of turning back, was never supposed to be returned and Billet Labs confirmed the agreement was that it would not be returned.
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LTT had multiple pretty bad scandals, didn't they? I recently needed to find some technical information and other places had better information. LTT seems to be more of a pop culture tech channel? I don't even really know how to describe what I mean. It's like the reviews are more like fluff pieces I guess? They aren't super duper technical. But I also don't watch them much so maybe I missed something.
Yeah, the videos are entertainment. When looking for actual technical information, they release it in text form: https://www.lttlabs.com/
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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=yF0tmhEtVJEFun 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?
What I've noticed is YouTube recommending me more obscure videos, from very small creators.
I very much appreciate whatever they're doing, regardless of how these bigger channels are being hit by it. Yesterday I got recommended a video by an elderly woman, showing a mug warmer she bought. It was very sweet, had less than 30 views and it was a lovely contrast to the flashy, over edited videos stretching a paragraph to 10+ minutes.
Not saying the big channels are bad, I just personally like the small time channels and appreciate that YouTube has been (at least with the algorithm it has set for me) giving these small channels a shot at getting an audience.
I've connected with a lot of people from smaller channels, joined communities etc. yet this is much more difficult with the larger ones (in some I've been to, over the years, the chatrooms they set up are so huge the moderation sometimes just gives up or doesn't even exist in any practical way). -
And stole an item to auction off! I can’t believe people here defend their ass
wrote last edited by [email protected]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.
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LTT has done bad things and never apologized. For example he copied a gamersnexus script and never acknowledged it.
wrote last edited by [email protected]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.
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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=yF0tmhEtVJEFun 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?
He generates far too much content without any depth, and it's all infotainment.
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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 did too, until many of the accusations, like the Billet Labs thing, turned out to be false later.
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Linus Tech Tips is not one of them though. They did receive an offer for $100 million, but refused it to keep their independence.
But if less people are watching the other big channels because the content quality has slipped, then there is less people spending less time on the platform, so less non-subscribers that might be recommended an LTT video.
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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.
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I stopped watching Second Wind after Frost's video.
Did they ever address it?
No, and considering the timeline, it's not because of it.
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That's was months ago though, and the drop is recent. Why would people leave months after the controversies happened?
It's also suddenly happening to most large YouTubers at the same time, so doesn't seem related to any of them in particular.
This is what happens when people only read the headline and don't actually watch the video. It's quite clearly affecting all content creators.
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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.
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.
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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.
It's not just him though it's lots of channels reporting issues. So clearly no, it's not as a result of the controversies, at least not exclusively.
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it figures you would be OK with that, since you were OK with the sexual harassment. what's a little theft when you've already dismissed unwanted sexual contact, amiright?
the reason I'm still talking with you is because I want to demonstrate to everyone one of the other controversies around LTT, that being the toxic fanbase that's as rabid as Elon's or Trump's. and you played along fantastically, dutifully playing the part of fanboy for everyone to see. so for that, I thank you.
but now that you've done your job and played your role, I don't have any further use for you, so ta-ta and farewell!
Not going to take a side here, but the fact you said "you were OK with the sexual harassment", when the other commenter said nothing as such, does not show that you are arguing in good faith.
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wrote last edited by [email protected]
The one Billet Labs confirmed they were never supposed to return and the whole thing was a misunderstanding (again, according to Billet Labs), that one?
But that's how all drama works, the drama is popular, the later resolution is not seen by many.
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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.
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About the Billet Labs thing, they have shown, and Billet Labs verified it, that the original agreement was that LTT would keep the cooler.
It was only after the bad review they asked for it back, and at that point there was miss communication between the person Billet Labs talked to and the logistics department at LTT, so the cooler wasn't set aside as it should.
I have never heard about this. From the beginning of that situation Billet has always maintained that they wanted the prototype back.
Can you share the source where it says otherwise? Not from LTT, of course.
