452
"Very dramatic shift" - Linus Tech Tips opens up about the channel's declining viewership
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this post was submitted on 05 Sep 2025
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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.
Thanks for the analysis. I've got to say. We on Lemmy can be vicious.
Yeah, it's easy to bark at influencer we don't like.
I think his org has consistently done its best and I still tune in across the channels. I know that I couldn't do better with matched resources, without experience and a lot more considerations.
Listening to everyone hate on a whole media group puzzles me a bit.
LTT has done bad things and never apologized. For example he copied a gamersnexus script and never acknowledged it.
And stole an item to auction off! I can’t believe people here defend their ass D:
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.
https://gamersnexus.net/gn-extras/our-response-linus-sebastian
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.
"quick action"
3 years later and only after Linus made vague legal threats to GN about Honey requiring GN to publicize LTT's past bad behavior.
I'm literally quoting GN, who said "quick action" in the email you can see, what can I tell you. You can disagree that it was quick action, but you are not disagreeing with me, you are disagreeing with GN.
They took quick action 3 years after GN publicized LTT's past bad behavior.
According to your source they replied and acknowledged the plagiarism 34 minutes after being notified by GN. I have no clue where you are getting 3 years.
"Plagiarism by Linus Tech Tips of GamersNexus content wherein we previously privately reached out without resolution"
They had privately contacted LTT in the past. LTT ignored it until GN made a public video years later.
Well, if that happened, no such emails are in the GN response.
The quote was from the linked article.
You: Quote
Me: The quote is not backed by any proof
You: The quote is from the article
Where else would it be from and how is that relevant?
So LTT apologized and gave GN credit only after GN made it public and that's not proof?
https://gamersnexus.net/gn-extras/our-response-linus-sebastian#linus-tech-tips-plagiarism
Read the emails. Linus said he'd fix it. GN thanked him for quick action but 3 years later LTT still hadn't done anything.
Yeah, it is proof that Linus acknowledged it. Of course it was too late and he didn't do enough about it, but that was never in question.
All I see in the email is that Linus said he will speak with the writers to not forget citations again and put up a pinned comment, which he did, and GN thanked him for it. I don't see GN requesting any other action in the email. That's definitely not "hadn't done anything". It's not enough, but again that was never in question.
The receipts show LTT plagerized, Linus promised to fix it but didn't. Steve thanked him expecting that Linus would do what he promised but then Linus did nothing.
3 years later after GN publicized the unethical behavior, Linus then, and only then fixed it.
But he didn't. He promised to but never did until 3 years later. That's why Steve called him out.
Please give me some dates because I really can't see where the 3 years are coming from. 3 years haven't even passed yet from when the plagiarism happened
So he did acknowledge it. Which, may I remind you again, is all I'm saying, in response your comment that he didn't acknowledge it. I'm not saying he fixed the issue, all I'm saying is that he said he will, which you seem to agree with, so I really don't know what you are disagreeing with me about.
Your original comment is:
Which I disagree with, because in my opinion it should be:
I don't know why you are saying he fixed it 3 years later when the WAN Clips segment still doesn't even have a pinned comment. He did not fix it then, he did not fix it until now, and I bet it won't be fixed 3 years later, which will pass next week.
"As of January 20, 2025, nearly 3 years later, there has been no public acknowledgement of the plagiarism, nor retraction of the content in the WAN Show upload with 2,000,000 views. The WAN Show upload and LMG Clips videos do not reference or cite GamersNexus either verbally or on screen at any point for the EVGA story. "
https://gamersnexus.net/gn-extras/our-response-linus-sebastian
Sounds correct, he only acknowledged it in private by responding to the email.
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.
They're wrong, my channel has under 4% viewers in the up to 18 year segment, this effect is way bigger than if I lost then completely. Also my channel features no swearing or inappropriate content so, it should not affect it at all if this was the case.
It's not about what your viewers are, it's about what youtube now automatically hides by default. They show it in the video.
Yes, but even if they hid everything I have from teens and suspended teens, the drop would be way less. And that's why I think they are wrong about the reason for the drop.
Tierzoos theory is because formats that were good for the past years (8-10 min videos) are less popular now with the advent of shorts. And people are watching yt on their TVs now.
Demographics are also changing. Wish there were more actual data. Other than the very end result which is views down over many channels all at once.
That also wouldn't have a drastic immediate effect. On the long term this is likely to eat some views of long form content.
I wonder what they’re going to prioritize now
I‘ve noticed the algorithm drizzles a good portion of smaller creators on my front page in recent months and that part is growing. I am talking about videos with just a few thousand or few hundred views that make up roughly 10-15 percent of my recommendations or so.
I think Youtube is diversifying exposure so you don‘t see the same faces you‘ve seen the past 15 years as often and new channels get a chance to grow. I am guessing Youtube doesn‘t want to be too dependent on the same huge channels anymore either.
Of course that means huge creators are calling to the pitch forks and torches because they lose revenue but why should I care? Most of them are rich anyway and don‘t necessarily produce better videos than someone with their phone in their garage workshop or a bunch of college students in their dorms. If anything it feels more like the old Youtube again.
There is a lot wrong with Youtube but I couldn‘t care less about huge channels being forced to slim down or try harder.
Noticed those as well.
Usually the side bar recommends the usual bunch or related content but then there is this totally random video of some small channel with 10 maybe <1000 views doing a let's play or some random content which is completely unrelated to the content I watching at the moment.
In the case of LTT: Not everyone can absorb the cash flow for an ULTIMATE PETABYTE MULTI-NODE STORAGE SERVER BUILD.
I honestly enjoy those as uneducated as some videos are, those infrastructure videos are really enjoyable for the amount of jank.
I'm noticing a lot more ai generated videos myself. Or at least they look like it. Its kinda slop.
I've been getting recommendations for videos with 2 to 10 views. Noticed it about three months ago.
Same. I kinda like it.
Nazi salutes and brotein supplements
AI slop most likely. Well, to be serious, I think the drop is due to them trying to fight AI slop and miserably failing.
yes, ive seen an increase in AI slop + propaganda too, and yt also is allow ISRAEL to make pro-IDF propaganda to flood the site now. 45million$ contract from NETANYAHU.
AI slop trailers, AI bizarre animal injures, GOOGLE veo AI videos.
I hope anything but LTT, a shit clickbait channel that steals things to auction off
If a change in the algorithm hurts, it may be a sign that the algorithm had been helping previously. No one questions the algorithm when viewership grows, but it’s largely to blame for the good and the bad.
True, but a platform where your income is dependent on an ever changing algorithm is not something a business can handle. Changes like that will drive away major channels and make them start to look for alternatives.
I mean you just described every website in the world, and their relationship with Google search engine traffic. Demonstrably, a business can deal with this. An algorithm can inject uncertainty into a business, but if one is entirely and exclusively dependent on one algorithm, is it really a business?
Very true. And it's very worrying that so much of global online business is literally dependent of Googles good will.
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.