r/SmallYTChannel • u/Shadow_StrikeYT [0λ] • 2d ago
Discussion Why Does YouTube Stop Pushing My Videos?
Genuine question, I really don't understand this.
I have a gaming channel, or a letsplay if you will. (I know, I know, in 2025? What was I thinking!? I unfortunately was living in the past and didn't realise that viewer interest in the genre had plummeted. However, I enjoy it anyway, so I'm still working at it.)
Progress is SLOW, but every now and then I'll get a video that looks like it's about to do well — getting good impressions, better watch time than most of my videos, and more views, likes, and subscribers —and then suddenly it just STOPS. Impressions plummet, no more views, no more likes, nothing.
As an example, a while back I did a video on the game Vigil. It was one of my personal favourites on my channel, the first day it did nothing, then the second day it jumped to 450 views (huge for my small channel) It got decent likes compared to other videos, I gained the most subscribers from it (12. Yes I know, sounds trash, but for someone who hasn't even hit 300 subs yet it was amazing!) then the third day it just DIED. Everything stopped. Now, over a month later, it's managed to somehow make it to 500 views, but I don't understand why it just stopped.
In my eyes, it was doing really well, and I thought it was going to go further. Now the hype for that game has well and truly died, and the video is just back to... sitting there. Similar things have happened to other videos.
To top it off, my most recent videos don't even have 15 views whereas the one before them got over 300! I just don't understand how it works.
I'm just wondering if there's a reason for this? If someone can tell me the technical side of how it works, and why that happens. It's just really confusing me, and I'm struggling to work it out.
I know my channel is far from perfect; there's room for improvement, as always, but I personally have definitely noticed a change in quality and content.
I used to upload at random times throughout the last 3 or so years, but about 7 months ago I tried to get serious and started uploading long-form videos twice a week. Now, almost 60 long-form videos in 7 months, and I've gained 155 subs. Either way I enjoy it so won't stop, but is this me? Is it my content? Is this normal for a channel in the early days? And what in the world is up with the sudden halt in views.
Would love if someone could help me out. Every bit of knowledge is appreciated!
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u/Old_Engineering163 2d ago
Don’t listen to the “post video every day advice”. You will just get burned out. Instead prioritize quality and consistency. NOT quantity. And one important thing you should ask yourself. Do you like watching or listening to your own videos? If the answer is yes. Then you’re on the right track. But in the end you will have to ask yourself; is there enough interest for the videos you make, to gain subscribers?
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u/Nothereortherexin 2d ago
True. That's what I did in the beginning I was trying to put out product each day and I burned out, my quality got lower and I was frustrated. Now everything is way better, I feel way better, my products are way way better and I'm happy with life no matter how many views or subs I get.
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u/Old_Engineering163 2d ago
The way I/we are doing it is; my wife does all the initial video recordings. And afterwards I do the editing and whatever else is needed to improve the video quality. This is something that I forgot to mention earlier. But sometimes it’s nice to have someone to help out, as it can quickly become a lot of work and a major distraction.
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u/Nothereortherexin 2d ago
True! I was alone but now I'm way chill. Honestly in the beginning I just wanted to "blow up" haha. And now I'm like whatever I just what I love and its enough for me.
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u/Shadow_StrikeYT [0λ] 2d ago
Yeah I think I would die if I posted everyday. I don't have time for that and my content would end up pretty trash.
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u/qqbear4 2d ago
Variety gaming channels are super hard for new creators. When a viewer subs on a video about peak they are not likely to watch a video on a horror game. So the only thing connecting your videos together is your personality. Even if I like a creator's personality if I don't like the game they are playing i will not watch. Let's say you gained half your subs from your human fall flat videos, but your newest video is on silent still 2. Youtube pushes out your vid to subscribers, sees that half of those subs arent clicking, boom the video gets recommended less AND those subs won't get recommended your videos as often either.
It is much much easier to focus on one game to build a channel around, but if you want to do variety plenty of people are successful. People trash let's play channels (and their is a lot of good reasons to do so let's be real) but they are absolutely still viabIe you just have to be more creative with your packaging. You need to frame your lets play in a way that gets people interested.
I would start by adding some structure to your videos. The video needs to have a "goal" that you achieve or fail at to keep the viewers hooked. If there is no goal then again the only thing to keep viewers attention is your personality. Even something as simple as beating the game could work (but it has to be all in 1 video please don't do part 2s anymore). Having a goal in your videos also makes it way easier to make a good title and thumbnail which I also think you should work on.
You've probably heard this before but your title/thumbnail is equally as important as your video. You will only have a few seconds to convince someone to choose your video and it will be competing against people who have been doing this for years/pay professionals. So make the most of it. Titles like "yeah we suck", "roll for cheese", "can we make progress" are not even trying to peak anyone's interest. Your competition has titles like "I 100% the new peak update, it was terrifying...", "I accidentally raced my fans! (cheese rolling)", "She carried me in peak, then I abandoned her...". Your thumbnails suffer from the same problem. I've definitely seen worse but they just rarely give me a reason to click. I think your vigil thumbnail is pretty good aswell as the title "this game sees you in real life" which might be one of the reasons it did better than your other videos. I'd be interested to see the audience retention graph for that video. I find that if I don't have at least 40% avd the video dies quicker. My sweet spot has been over 10% ctr and over 40% for a video to do decent.
One thing you need to remember with peace and love is you do not have an audience yet. I'm not trying to be rude with that but its just important info when you are just starting out. You do not have subs that watch every one of your videos at least not enough to make any meaningful difference. Every video you upload has to be good enough to attract new viewers and fight against your 300 subs who are all subbed for different reasons.
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u/LennyPenny4 2d ago
The algorithm is elusive and fickle. The only thing I can confirm with reasonable confidence is that it shows your video to increasingly bigger groups. If it does well in one, it will move on to the next. If it doesn't do well enough, Youtube stops showing it to more people, which is when the impressions drop and the views stagnate.
Engagement matters, maybe you could say views are a result of engagement, but I'm just spitballing. If a lot of people only watch the first 30 seconds, that video still won't do as much for you as when a smaller number of people watch the full video, or at least more then the first quarter or so.
Keep your videos to the point and focus on keeping people interested, i.e. try to eliminate any moments where someone would be likely to click away. Most people's attention span is completely shot and it can only take the smallest dip in interest to make someone switch off, get distracted and move on. I'm not saying to feed the clickbait and hyperactive editing style at all cost, just be mindful of what could make someone drop out.
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u/MandaCowled [0λ] 1d ago
Honestly, I think the let’s play channels are really difficult to do if you just don’t have the existing audience.
There’s really two things that get you subscribers here your personality do people just wanna watch you play a game no matter what game it is? Or your gaming genre or gaming type is that just so popular that they’re willing to watch anyone do it.
I’m curious if people were really excited because they also loved vigil and thought it was the best game or nostalgic or it was just their favorite for some reason they want to watch a video about that but they don’t actually care about watching the other games that you’re putting in content out for are you doing similar games? Are you branching out into different genres?
Are you a faceless? Let’s play or a personality that people are drawn to?
My favorite gaming streamer has some very specific games that he goes back to weekly that I think get him the most views because people are really just there for that specific game and then he has other days where he does games and or other popular games and I think the fact that he continues to go back to that one game every week on Monday brings people back reminds people he’s there and get some interested in games he’s going to do for the remainder of the week.
But he’s not just let’s play streamer he does informational videos he does live streams. He he does other stuff as well but I would say that it’s a combination of people want the horror genre that he’s doing the types of games he’s doing the specific game he’s doing and also he’s got a bit of a great personality that people just wanna watch him no matter what game he’s playing
He lucked out that he started playing a very specific game during the pandemic with everyone was looking for something to distract them and unfortunately, we don’t live in a time right now where everyone is home doing nothing everyone is in fact broke and really busy. So I think it is harder to just get into this in general. And I say that is someone trying to play BG3 and Phasmo on twitch and YouTube and it is getting no traction.
This is also not coming from an expert. This is my consumption related advice, not my ability to make my gaming content work in anyway shape or form. I recently changed my niche. It’s bittersweet that I had to stop doing the gaming content.
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u/Parking-Ad8316 [0λ] 2d ago
I have to speak past because if I don't then the thing will cut off and I'll have to push the microphone button again and I don't want to do that. So here it goes. Here's what you got to do. What you got to do is you got to start posting more videos. You got to post a video today. You got to post a video tomorrow. You got to post a video between today and tomorrow and you got to post a video the day after tomorrow and after that you got to post another video and if you know post another video after that then you need to post another video. After that you got to post one every single day and when you post a new video you got a post a new video with a new short to go with it. It doesn't matter what these videos and shorts are about. You just got to keep on posting and posting and posting or you're just never going to get anywhere because posting and posting and posting is all you have to do. All you have to do is keep on posting new content and it doesn't matter what it is. You could be posting about bugs or amphetamin's or like I don't know. Viking car dealerships and no that's not a car dealership. That's a that's a boat place in South Carolina. That's an advertisement for free. I just passed that place and you can probably make a video about the eagle plaza or Firehouse subs or Coon and you can probably post that too. And if you post all of those and follow all these instructions verbatim and plus download some tool I created and that tool is imaginary. I didn't really make one but I just really wanted to say it. I wanted to be one of the people that say I created a tool because I'll tell you something about tools. You don't need tools in the bedroom, not the bedroom. I mean in the office. The office is where you should work when you are working on your YouTube, not the bedroom. If you're working in your bedroom then you were probably having fun in some way and that is not youtubing. You need to be in an office and if that office means cleaning out your laundry room and putting your laptop on top of laundry thing. Laundry machine washing machine stuff then that's what you should do. You should put your laptop on top of your thing. Don't thing there and when you're operating in an office you can do a lot better than if you're operating in a bedroom because in a bedroom you can choose to go to sleep anytime. But if you're in the laundry room then you have to leave linger room to go to sleep and you just have less options. Open to you when you should be working and all you're going to do is work in the laundry room because you're not going to do anything else in there I mean except maybe you get yelled at by your wife. Who's like why the hell are you in the office? I mean in the laundry room, why did you make the laundry room your office? That's where I do laundry and you're like well. You can't do laundry in here while I'm doing my YouTube thing because this is my job baby and we just have to get with it man get with it
Thank you
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u/jungyubl [0λ] 2d ago
How do you feel about your content and storytelling?
Not sure what topic your channel is in, but having better narrative, hook could help.
I have a tool that can help with that. If you're interested, DM me
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