"Very dramatic shift" - Linus Tech Tips opens up about the channel's declining viewership
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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.
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I agree with most of your points, but vocal fry?!
That's such an asinine thing to care about.
I also don't hear any, and neither does Fran Drescher have one? I mean my ears were ringing too much from all the fapping to notice it on The Nanny.
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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).I only get these types of videos in shorts. In all the other stuff is like "we see you watched one video on this topic so here is 400 more"
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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.
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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).What we, as users, desere is transparency in the algorithm and significant input into how it works for us. Do you like big channels, small channels? etc. The problem is when people opt-out of sponsored content, but also refuse to pay. Transparency in the cost of delivery of service and the income from advertising would help there too, except if the service provider is wanting obscene profits.
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It is part of that, but youtube is consumed more on tvs than other devices now worldwide. Now that means that the people who now watch YT are less likely to watch LTT because that is not their focus. I mean shorts are a huge part of YT yet most people seem to dislike them.
youtube is consumed more on tvs than other devices now worldwide
Where do you get this from?
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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?
It's not about Linus specifically. Many other channels (with actual good content) have been experiencing the same. Creators are assuming it has to do with restricted mode, but I'm not sure it's convincing, it probably has more to do with algorithmic changes youtube has made.
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LLMs are doing things like summarizing videos and then using the summaries to answer queries that before would have been a search result with monetization.
Google's executives are unconcerned about the declinibg incentives to create YouTube videos having been sold on the lie that the future of the internet lies in Ai generated content. In other words robots will make the internet.
Robots which hallucinate constantly.
This hurts review channels and similar but it wouldn't hurt other kinds of video (unless people want summaries of fun videos?)
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Okay, but what are you still even watching on YT? The only media I even occasionally consume is Well There's Your Problem, the occasional FoundryVTT HowTo, and the odd clip I get sent from friends.
Yeah, NewPiped screens out all the shitty ads. But so much of the core content is some Mr Beast style slop, I've got little reason to look at my front page.
Good content won't be recommended to you unfortunately.
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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.
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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.
Billet Labs explicitly said in the email that "you could keep it". They changed their mind later. So what's the lie? The emails confirm Linus's version.
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This hurts review channels and similar but it wouldn't hurt other kinds of video (unless people want summaries of fun videos?)
Even fun videos get search traffic from random queries. A video about robots fighting each other will get traffic from people interested in "robots fighting", "robots wars", "robowars", "armored core", "Gundam series"
When there are ai summaries for informational or navigational queries there will be fewer clicks because Google will pirate listicle sources of "best robots fighting each other articles". This means they are stealing from older lists and newer videos will not get mentioned in the ai summary.
This is because ai technology can't judge the quality of a video.
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It's not about Linus specifically. Many other channels (with actual good content) have been experiencing the same. Creators are assuming it has to do with restricted mode, but I'm not sure it's convincing, it probably has more to do with algorithmic changes youtube has made.
The way restricted mode works is by effectively shadowbanning any content that isnt for kids
You wouldn't notice it unless you go side by side on an account with restricted mode and look at the list of videos on a channel to directly compare what shows up on vs what is unavailable on the restricted account.
A creator like linus who exclusively makes content "for the algorithm" would know if it was just an update to the blackbox. He is also deliberately ignorant of politics and the world around him so it would be significantly LESS surprising if he didnt know about restricted mode or that it would affect his "non-political" content.
The political youtubers I've seen have made posts about entire playlists being unavailable on restricted accounts. Its actually a pretty big deal, honestly.
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No, and considering the timeline, it's not because of it.
wrote last edited by [email protected]I don't think their recent drop is because of that video. Just personally curious, whether I should try to watch again as I did enjoy some of their output.
But if Nick leaves it unaddressed I guess I won't.
