This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
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.
Thanks for the analysis. I've got to say. We on Lemmy can be vicious.
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.
What would make me really happy is if viewership across YouTube entirely was down because people were getting fed up with YouTube and shifting to alternatives.
The problem is that there aren't any really viable alternatives. YouTube has three major advantages and all three are necessary. First and most critically it has a viable business model (that is it has a way to earn money to pay creators). It's a shitty business model, but it is viable which already puts it ahead of most services that are coasting on VC funds and hoping they'll trip over a business model before they go bankrupt. Second it has the infrastructure and capital to actually serve content. Running a video streaming service is the single largest bandwidth consumer you could possibly come up with and that means considerable network infrastructure costs, to say nothing of the storage demands. Third it has network effect going for it. Nobody is going to watch videos on your platform if there's only a couple dozen of them total. The sheer size and scope of YouTube means no matter what you're looking for you can find something to watch. It's a one stop shop for AV content.
Every single competitor to YouTube has failed on one of those points, usually the first one, rarely the second. The last service I saw come close to hitting all three was Vimeo, but it flamed out not even a decade after it launched. Twitch.tv is struggling to make their accounting work and isn't even a direct competitor because they're pushing hard for live streams as opposed to pre-recorded videos. Alternatives like PeerTube have no business model and will never attract creators or a mainstream audience. Paid hosting platforms like Floatplane are replacements for traditional video streaming services like Amazon Video or Netflix not really platforms where just anybody can set up a channel and start posting videos.
To paraphrase a famous saying, YouTube is the worst public video streaming service except for every other one. Until someone comes along and figures out how to make enough money to reliably pay creators and has enough capital to actually serve that content reliably and in high quality YouTube isn't going anywhere.
I wanna like Peertube as an alternative, but I can't find any content I like there. And the app is so awkward to use.
Honestly, YouTube is the “least bad” of most commercial social media.
If people go to Twitter or Discord or whatever instead, that would be awful.
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.
I used to watch LTT all the time. I stopped watching some years back after he installed a six figure Wi-Fi system on his "estate." I had enjoyed watching a relatable everyman review computer hardware, and more often than not break things. I didn't sign up to watch a millionaire dick around with exotic tech in his McMansion.
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.
He will look for answers literally anywhere, except for within.
The tech scene is just not as interesting anymore, 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. And thats not even taking any of the interpersonal issues, or legal drama from recent history
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.
Why is Yahtzee complaining about the same issue? He does games, not tech: https://youtu.be/cpVnx4_yqTo
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.
They are using automatic dubbing by default here in France! I was horrified the first time.
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.
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.
The most recent findings from Brodie Robertson were that the vieas to likes ratio skyrocketed, something that LTT also has confirmed on their side in the newer stream, and what seems like similar behavior in DarkviperAU's channel. It seems that the likes are the same or higher, and the actual pay for the ads are basically the same, but the views are reduced. It's as if views were the same but are being displayed lower than usual.
Not that most people here would care apparently, because the majority just wants to shit on Linus above actually having any worthwhile look into any of this stuff
Edit: Some direct links to said videos for whoever is interested
Google is making users/consumers not want to use/consume google things by making those things more difficult, more invasive, less user friendly to use/consume.
That's it. That's all.
If I just want to watch a clip that I could before but now I have to sign in because it thinks I'm a not, NO
If it wants me to watch ads for things I'll never buy and actually forces me to, NO.
If it kills the front ends I prefer to use, or kills the ability to watch via proxy, for my privacy and/or security. NO.
If it feeds me Nazi shit without clicking a single link on a new install on a new browser with no profile on a new IP, fucking NO.
I dunno. Something about the content I think.
A few years back some of their content was fun and interesting. Now lately it's all either "here's a bunch of comparisons of hardware you can't even afford" or "Linus puts some ridiculous tech in his own personal house - thanks for subsidizing his home improvement projects by the way"
I will still watch an occasional video but there are other tech related channels that I enjoy a lot more.
The clickbait titles and thumbnails destroyed most of the interest I had in their videos but at that time, it was clear that they were pivoting to a more typical less enthusiast-level audience. I still found some of their occasional videos somewhat interesting but the increasing hypocrisy and shit they've pulled made me stop watching all together.
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.
I never watched that channel very much, but in the several videos I’ve seen (maybe 10-12 total?), he seemed to know exactly what he was talking about.
I’d be interested in hearing what specific complaints technical experts have with the channel.
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.
Oh, so that is why Veritasium went to shit. That's such a shame. It was a great channel that I was excited about when a new video would drop. Then low quality videos started coming out and I don't watch them anymore. Haven't unsubscribe yet though, maybe I should get around to that.
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.
Lol 90% of comments taking the opportunity to hate on LTT and missing the point of the post. Views are dropping for multiple channels.
Also the LTT hate is mostly "He's so rich and out of touch". LTT is the mass produced TV show for tech YouTube. It's meant to be entertaining and easy to watch for the masses. I like watching most of their videos. Gamers Nexus has its place too but it's a different kind of nerd whose a lil more cynical and obsessed with specs, a lot more niche and it shows in the views.
To each their own.
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.
I'm watching less 'tube in general because youtube is obnoxious as fuck. They devote so many resources to getting you to watch ads, it actually causes the whole experience to suffer even with an adblock.
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.
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
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.
the channel has lost its charm. its just puking out videos, but there is no content. no real hardware tests. only drama and clickbait crap. he has lost the techsavvy part of the viewers on his tech channel with pushing garbage into everyones face.
I came here to see if it was the early signs of the demise of YouTube. I secretly want all these content producers to move to a privacy-respecting platform, especially those who produce tech or privacy related content.
Now, for why I don't watch videos anymore, the medium isn't as easily consumed by me. I prefer text. At home, it's noisy and I get interrupted every 90 seconds. I lose interest quickly and fast forwarding isn't as easy as scanning text for a topic shift. My mind wanders on some topics, internally exploring that topic deeper. With text, i can just stop reading. With video, i need to realize that I'm processing a thought and hit pause, then rewind a bit. I get interrupted a lot. On the bus, I need to remember headphones and I hate when people shoulder surf. That's harder to do with text. Give me a plain text RSS feed that I can read anytime.
Problem with their channel specifically, is their hypocrisy, BS, lack of research and just misleading their viewer-base. People remember.
Maybe at some point we can all stop watching and hence supporting YouTube, that'd be nice.
It's interesting that no one seems to be mentioning the fact that new generation is using TikTok and older generation is watching media less and less. To me it looks like YouTube itself is cooked in the long term, and they brought it upon themselves. Restore the gotdamn dislikes so I can at least navigate the damn platform.
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.
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.
Are people pretending that Youtube doesn't tweedle the knobs and intervenes massively in the al mighty algorithm like it's not just a audience mind puppet but some kind of transcendental meritocracy ?
