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?
Stopped watching this douche nozzle when they were having a big meet and greet to celebrate their new studio. And he looks at the camera guy and tells them inf front of all the fans they’re having a good time with… Overtime tonight guys, we gotta edit this footage and have it online today. Would have quit my job on the spot and as a viewer I quit my part in the bullshit right then and there.
I dunno, I realized a long time ago this is just a business for the people engaging in it.
Of course they’re making more money than they need and are partying as much as possible with it.
May care to link to what you mean?
Can’t remember what you are talking about.
Maybe try not threatening to sue former employees when they come forward about sexual harassment
Reasons I see:
a) the generation that grew up watching LTT is now at age where they don’t watch as much YT as they did before b) increasing amount of things happen which put viewers off c) consumer technology peaked and is now “boring” d) new generations don’t have as much interest in technology altogether
Let’s explain:
a + c) people watching LTT years ago were living in an exiting tech era where it boomed and you had mayor leaps in tech basically on a yearly basis. Moving from floppy disks to CD’s to USB sticks. CRT to LCD displays. 16-bit to 32-bit color. Solitare and Minesweeper to Call of Duty 4 and Need for Speed. Symbian and Blackberry to Android and iOS. Tons of manufacturers, tons of competition, tons of new and exctiting stuff.
Let’s observe the state today: iPhone looks the same for the past half decade. Android is basically just Google and Samsung. Storage is now all in cloud. New games are recycled and upscaled old games. Every new generation of hardware is same thing just 10% better/faster. New OS releases are just refinements without new features. Most changes are done just for the sake of change. Existing hardware can basically be enough for 5+ years. What is LTT realistically supposed to talk about that is interesting? There is simply no more interesting tech.
This ties in into d) - tech peaked, new generations “just use it as it is”, there is no need to tinker with it, prebuilt PC’s are more than fine for years to come. Since AI the IT job landscape seems to be in decline, both in demand and in pay. People do other stuff now that is more lucrative.
LTT is dependent on stuff happening so that they can make videos about it. But, stuff kinda just isn’t happening. Or the stuff that happens is just not noteworthy news anymore.
deleted by creator
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.
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.
Remember when search summaries were just extracts from the top result instead of LLM hallucinations? Pepperidge Farm remembers.
Had a discussion with another creator buddy and they said it appeared that there was a load less scraping going on which inflated their viewer figures for months. I wonder if youtube is finally stopping their whole content being scraped perpetually?
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.
I dont know if anyone has noticed but…
Can we no longer watch youtube without being logged in? Every embedded video i see doesnt work. Every time i try to click on a video it tells me to sign in.
If i have an ad block running it basically blocks the website.I really think its the auto plays and the untracked accounts.
Youtube would rather be able to track every user and make more profit per person than go big tent all audiences.
I literally i watch a YouTube videos, as they are just a waste of time. For a given video on a given topic, the same amount of information can be obtained by a decently written blog or article that can be read in a 1/10 of the time it takes to watch q video filled by nonsense blabbering and sponsored segments for revenues. In some extreme cases, if the topic seems really, really , REALLay interesting, I may ask an LLM to summarize the video for me. People should stop linking YouTube videos altogether.
I disagree with you so you should stop posting your opinions altogether.
There’s a “block” button somewhere in Lemmy’s interface, under my profile. Just use it and go back swallowing crappy YT videos.
Lol they were quoting you bro. Maybe you should stop posting altogether
Thank you, Mr. Obvious. Now you can go back to YT as well.
There’s a “block” button somewhere in Lemmy’s interface, under my profile. Just use it and go back swallowing.
Watch veritasium videos, they are well researched and informative. I have sponsor block and ad block so I don’t get annoyed
Veritasium is not super high on my trustworthiness list after the self-driving car ad incident
I prefer to read books. Thanks. By the way, the fact that you need adblocker an sponsorblock to enjoy a few videos speaks volumes.
You also need to buy books, or borrow them from someone else who did. YouTube videos are free usually.
There’s nothing free in this world. You’re paying with your attention and at least metadata, independently on how many blockers you may use.
Yes exactly. They provide a service, you pay for it by watching ads and facilitating personalised advertising.
In comparison, some of the books I’ve bought have cost more per book than a month of YouTube premium, so the value isn’t THAT bad on YouTube.
Only if you don’t value your time.
I feel the same way. I can read really fast and get to the juice of an article faster than it takes for the YouTube video to go through the introduction, sponsors, etc.
Youtube has seen exactly the same slowdown as everything on the internet. Plenty of people have less time to spend watching videos and being more worried about money (lack of it) whilst also spending more time on other things.i cannot blame one single thing but I have noticed that the complaints about AI being literally everywhere are at the foreground when people moan to me!
Some other analysis: https://www.jeffgeerling.com/blog/2025/youtube-views-are-down-dont-panic
Because of short videos?
I haven’t watched YouTube much since they broke the search. And that’s far from the only thing they broke, it’s just what stopped making the site very worthwhile to me. I’m sure I’m not the only one who’s significantly cut down or stopped using it.
Google is now expecting users to watch ads that are sometimes a full 25% of the viewing time, or slowing access and requiring logins when adblock is being used. And even if you wade through all that, watching Youtube tech and info videos has become a lot like looking at online recipes. The majority of what you find is fluff and filler for only small amounts of useful content.
I used to go to Youtube daily for research and entertainment but now I avoid the site completely whenever possible. It seems we’ve finally reached an enshittification tipping point.
It’s about time.
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.
Yep agreed.
It’s downright disgusting to browse youtube without premium or an adblocker.Sadly I need premium simply because I am watching on an Android TV and I am not trusting third party clients with my google account.
Too much stuff is associated with it (monetary)They are using automatic dubbing by default here in France! I was horrified the first time.
I hate them for auto translating the video titles and descriptions with no way to turn them off, I even installed an extension to restore the original titles but YT broke it again intentionally or unintentionally with their unending tweaks.
After some time it “learns” you don’t want it.
But what grinds my gears instead are auto-translated video titles.
Because I am watching maybe 70-80% english content I decided the lesser evil is to just set the language to english instead.
Annoying as fuck but managable.Because I am watching maybe 70-80% english content I decided the lesser evil is to just set the language to english instead.
Google has always made it extremely clear that they don’t believe it’s possible for the human brain to know more than one language, and that anyone who claims to know more than one is a liar and a witch and has no place in their platforms.
This honestly doesn’t surprise me, because English proficiency in France is below that of Spain, Russia and even Italy, which says a lot.
It horrifies me as a German. They also get titles, descriptions and comments wrong all the time. It legitimately doesn’t work.
I have premium through a page that makes family groups and you pay a lot less. From time to time there is an issue with the group and you spend like two days without premium until it is fixed.
During those periods YT is unwatchable and I skip using it until the issue is fixed
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.
Useful idiot mentality. They’re charging you that money to maximize profit, not because it’s necessary to provide the service.
You’re “fivers” are paying for their nicer campuses, executive bonuses, and lavish business trips/vacations. Analysts also use it as an excuse to charge more, since the data shows that people like you are “happy/proud” to get ripped off.
I wish proles were smarter and a bit more mean so they could better recognize how they’re being taken advantage and how often they support their oppressors.
Too many of you go along with getting taken for a ride because you want to fit in and avoid conflict. Businessmen take advantage of that mentality every day.
Yes, large scale video hosting is notoriously free to provide.
YouTube the service absolutely has a cost to it. It’s been born by the owners at first and then people who watch ads. It got profitable when they started showing more ads. Premium is a way to get out of watching ads. You and I use adblockers and it’s fine but if a significant share of people did, the cost for paying users would have to keep increasing.
thus the continued war on ads…
It must be exhausting being this way.
Ignorance is bliss, I tell ya h’wat.
for Android (TV): smart tube next
For a browser (Firefox): ublock origin.
Have not seen an ad in years, and i have not paid a cent to youtube.
For anyone following the smart tube next tutorial on github you don’t need to do anything after installing the “kutt.it/…” Download. You do not need to transfer an APK from your phone or computer. Literally just download the downloader, and type the beta or stable package address and install, also make sure you have developer options enabled beforehand.
Also, probably a great time to turn updates to your OS off, as Google is taking away the ability to sideload (well, kinda). It’s a whole story. Highly doubt that SmartTube Next is gonna get a licence to allow signing of their app.
How do I do that on my android tv?
Settings > devices prefs > about > turn auto update off
On broadcast TV, a 30 minute timeslot had only 23 minutes of actual content and 7 minutes of ads.
That’s what we’re heading back to. 20% of the watch time is ads.
And then there is the occasional 30 minute to an hour infomercial that comes on obvious stuff people watch to go to sleep! I wanted someone softly talking about outer spacey things, not you’re shitty product I give so much little of a fuck about that I didn’t even look at what was being advertised. I hate you so much I will not even remember your name to give you free advertising by birding about you online!
Or you use adblock
I would but I primarily watch on my tv
I assume you’re using a “smart” TV.
Those things only exist to take power away from you. You should hook up a PC or laptop to your TV with a wireless keyboard and mouse so you’re not being herded by techbros.
I’m quite happy with my Apple TV and Plex
Instead of using those, you could be using a free streaming site. You’ll get more content and it’s easier to set up.
Just type in the URL, and search for what you want.
Here’s one of the best sites I’ve found: https://hydrahd.io/ I guarantee they have significantly more offerings than either apple tv or your plex.
Free streaming sites are awful. I prefer my way thank you.
And I don’t mind paying for things, just not getting ripped off.
I buy things on 4k that are special, then on iTunes for in between and then high seas everything else. I have a decent home server.
Free streaming sites are awful.
No they aren’t, lol. But whatever floats your boat.
I’ll be over here enjoying more things for a cheaper price and helping others do the same.
I have the same setup as you and just pay the Premium. One thing I would recommend is getting isponsorblocktv on your server. It skips the ad reads within the YouTube content and works on Apple TV. Every year or so I look for a tracker doing YouTube or a sonarr YouTube fork. The instinct to hoard data is strong. But none have worked consistently for me.
Yeah fuck using a keyboard and mouse at 5 meters away. You really should roll a custom Linux box with a remote control setup and Plasma Bigscreen. Custom YouTube client too, for better visibility
Don’t listen to this person. He’s trying to make things unnecessarily complicated because he doesn’t know any better.
We don’t see people using keyboards for their TVs, instead we see them slowly type with on screen keyboards. A remote control is not going to alleviate this and will make setup significantly more complicated.
I’m going to block this user now, so I won’t get to see his reply. I’ve been on the internet long enough to recognize people like him for what they are and move on.
Lol you’re the one plugging a super inconvenient solution as if it should be the default, I just took it farther to ridicule yours. It’s great that you can’t stand criticism of your questionable ideas and have to block others. Means your ideas aren’t too be taken seriously.
Have you considered that the average TV user sits down after a hard day and doesn’t want to troubleshoot a wireless mouse, nor boot a computer separately from turning on the TV? The world out there is rough, your TV is supposed to be the one thing that just works and numbs it down for you so you can pretend things are fine.
get SmartTube Next if it’s an android TV
Sadly not. Apple TV
ah. i have the same issue on my iphone. I just don’t watch youtube on my iphone because fuck ads.
Get the ublock origin lite and on for safari, had worked an absolute treat for stopping YouTube ads on my iPad.
aha thanks. I just installed it, and no ads!
Another tip; Orion, the browser developed by Kagi can install proper Firefox extensions. You can have the real full uBlock Origin extension in the browser.
Edit: I believe it can handle Chromium extensions as well but who cares about those?
Look up SmartTubeNext. If you’re tv doesn’t support it, you can always get a cheap firestick for you tube.
And God forbid you enable captions on the video or something - it’ll disable itself every time an ad plays.
How do I turn that feature on?
I keep turning off captions off, and every few days they are automatically turned back on.
“That’s the neat part: Fuck you >:(”
- Youtube
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.
