"Very dramatic shift" - Linus Tech Tips opens up about the channel's declining viewership
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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.
How does that even work? If someone viewed the video then they viewed the video. Are they simply not counting people who basically clicked by accident or who only watched the first 30sec before deciding that they didn’t actually want to watch the video?
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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?
I think the biggest channels I watch have under 4 million subscribers, and most of my channels have less than a million. I've never watched the big channels, so I don't really care.
A while back, YT asked me about turning on my watch history, but I didn't know it was off. I don't know what that was about--I think they changed something--but my knee-jerk reaction is to NOT do what they want me to do, so I left it off. Now I just watch whatever is new from my subscriptions, and don't have any suggestions cluttering my front page, which is a much better way to use YT, imo. So, thanks, YT.
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YouTube is hostile to viewers unless you pay them £20 a month.
It’s like 15 ads per 2 mins screen time with 2 being unstoppable and 1 being 3 minutes long.
Slightly exaggerated but not far from the truth. It’s horrible. And they slow everything down too, the main video fake buffers whereas when you’re in premium it doesn’t.I didn’t mind paying a fiver but had to do it via the moon to get it cheap but now they have stopped that.
I only pay them because I watch a stupid amount of YouTube. Hours a day, many more hours when not working.
If those ads come back while I'm paying though, the flag flies.
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I always hated his "oh no i hope i don't drop this expensive thing that you peasants can hardly afford... Oh i dropped it' schtick. People cheered him on like aome village idiot. At some point he said he feels like he's pushing expensive unnecessary stuff to people who can hardly afford it and he wants to stop doing it. But he never did. He's doing tech reviews and i assume a podcast, because everyone has a podcast, and his studio is ABSURD. I watched some other video where they needed something from the LTT studio and they even commented on how fucking big his operation is. He had rooms there he didn't even know existed. I stick to the opinion that he's just a slimy rick man, nothing else.
It's a business with over 100 employees, if it wasn't huge where would the employees be? His dropping thing always existed, he just got rich in the meantime.
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How does that even work? If someone viewed the video then they viewed the video. Are they simply not counting people who basically clicked by accident or who only watched the first 30sec before deciding that they didn’t actually want to watch the video?
wrote last edited by [email protected]Even before this drop in views, the rule was you have to watch a video for at least 30 seconds before it counts as a view, as a way to combat clickbait where people instantly bounce from a video. Maybe they have changed this further? Or they change some kind of bot detection?
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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?
wrote last edited by [email protected]I stopped watching LTT years ago. His channel is crap. He's a tech personality who seems to barely understand technology, so most of his videos are just over the top bullshit and stunts. Not to mention his awful annoying vocal fry. He's like the male Fran Drescher.
Plus, Linus has been a complete asshole to GamersNexus, one of the best channels for investigative journalism in tech. As far as I'm concerned, Linus is your typical business entity, and lacking ethics.
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Even before this drop in views, the rule was you have to watch a video for at least 30 seconds before it counts as a view, as a way to combat clickbait where people instantly bounce from a video. Maybe they have changed this further? Or they change some kind of bot detection?
I wonder if it has something to do with how they count users with ad blockers.
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I was never a fan of Linus tech tips. He always seemed like a weird guy. I did watch that video where he totally fucked his Linux installation by being really dumb. The package manager warned him that he was about to destroy his system and made him type something like "Yes, I know what I'm doing". He then reacted like, "why would Linux do this to me!? It's so hard!"
Either a paid shill or an absolute moron.
can be both, yes and i also noticed wierd vibes from. cant understand the fans shilling for this pseudo-tech person that thinks hes jack of all trades.
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It may not be what that person meant, but, I kinda agree it might be a factor. The free experience has done nothing but become more and more terrible on youtube. The ads have become truly insufferable, and the UI is actively working against you. TV app in particular is borderline unwatchable.
I have always watched YouTube for free, and I am at a point where I am considering ditching the thing completely, because I am not paying another (quite expensive) subscription for it. I haven't yet, but it has certainly slowed down how much I watch.
It's so bad it's even questioning some uses I had for the platform. I used to watch a video while I eat, stuff like that. What's the point if I barely make it out of the initial ad tunnel just before dessert? And when I pause for just a minute to get something, I am immediately hit with another ad break as I resume?
and youtubes gross obssesive push with AI/propaganda videos too.
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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.
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Doesn't help he has actually gotten dumber over the years.
He very clearly has fallen out of touch and basically is just a personality at this point.
So your not even watching a tech enthusiast millionaire dick around with things.
Your just watching a rich white dude dick around with tech and his company.
sounds like he got Lazy and just let his, lower- level plebs manage the channels where he just comes in and "promote" product and leaves kind of person. i was subscribed to another channel that did that, they just wanted to "not be present" while channel is declining because its still doing well, now its not doing well(they had several issue arise that caused it.) no interest in change with the times.
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I always hated his "oh no i hope i don't drop this expensive thing that you peasants can hardly afford... Oh i dropped it' schtick. People cheered him on like aome village idiot. At some point he said he feels like he's pushing expensive unnecessary stuff to people who can hardly afford it and he wants to stop doing it. But he never did. He's doing tech reviews and i assume a podcast, because everyone has a podcast, and his studio is ABSURD. I watched some other video where they needed something from the LTT studio and they even commented on how fucking big his operation is. He had rooms there he didn't even know existed. I stick to the opinion that he's just a slimy rick man, nothing else.
last i heard his company is worth 10+million, yea hes definitely just sitting back and not really advancing his channel/.
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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.
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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.
youtube is probably gearing the algorithim for other content than influencers that draws in more views or revenue.
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I stopped watching LTT years ago. His channel is crap. He's a tech personality who seems to barely understand technology, so most of his videos are just over the top bullshit and stunts. Not to mention his awful annoying vocal fry. He's like the male Fran Drescher.
Plus, Linus has been a complete asshole to GamersNexus, one of the best channels for investigative journalism in tech. As far as I'm concerned, Linus is your typical business entity, and lacking ethics.
wrote last edited by [email protected]His complete lack of self awareness and ability to own up and apologise when they've dropped the ball put me off the channel entirely. 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, and Emily was the best thing about the channel and she left so..
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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?
Maybe at some point we can all stop watching and hence supporting YouTube, that'd be nice.
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I think the biggest channels I watch have under 4 million subscribers, and most of my channels have less than a million. I've never watched the big channels, so I don't really care.
A while back, YT asked me about turning on my watch history, but I didn't know it was off. I don't know what that was about--I think they changed something--but my knee-jerk reaction is to NOT do what they want me to do, so I left it off. Now I just watch whatever is new from my subscriptions, and don't have any suggestions cluttering my front page, which is a much better way to use YT, imo. So, thanks, YT.
i watched a ton of animal channels from not so big content creator, i feel like they were the most genuine. or other sci related channels.
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How does that even work? If someone viewed the video then they viewed the video. Are they simply not counting people who basically clicked by accident or who only watched the first 30sec before deciding that they didn’t actually want to watch the video?
wonder how google is considering what count as a view? you have to watch it a certain number of minutes? you must be exposed to ads for X amount of time?
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I wonder if it has something to do with how they count users with ad blockers.
wrote last edited by [email protected]thats probably it, the influencers always remind people adblocking or not subscribing hurts thier channel. plus if your adblocking you arnt exposed to multiple ads in a single video.
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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.
Ugh yeah and they had to interview the owner of Noah’s Arcade and he did an awful rap
