News culture “50% less views”: Dropping stats for the Player of the Attic on YouTube
Published on 11/30/2022 at 11:12
YouTube has long been THE platform on which you had to be to perform and hope to earn a salary. But between the appearance of TikTok, the aging of historical creators, the diversification of platforms and the constraints imposed, some videographers are seeing a drastic drop in the number of views on their channels.
YouTube: a lasting loss of speed due to competition from TikTok?
YouTube is a video platform owned by Google which, for a long time did not suffer from any serious competition. Easy to use, equipped with precise algorithms and offering a whole host of services, it quickly supplanted all the others. It is therefore where historical videographers began, and that the profession of internet videographer has become structured. But in recent years, the platform has faced increasingly fierce competition with, in mind, the course formats carried by Snapchat then TikTok.
Depending on updates and copyright rules, visibility of videos changessometimes putting certain creators in trouble who see their sights crumble, occasionally or more permanently. However, there is a groundswell that shows that views are declining in an overall and lasting way on YouTube. It must be said that creators no longer put all their eggs in one basket, and they can be found on YouTube as well as on TikTok, Twitch, Instagram or even MYM and Only Fan. A way to diversify the content, but also the income and to no longer depend on a single platformwhose rules and usage can change very quickly.
In October, the historical popularizer Nota Bene confided that he had experienced a catastrophic month of October, without really being able to explain why. Some viewers reported that they had a lot more ads than usual, others no longer see the channel in their recommendations, but nothing seems to explain concretely this collapse of views last month.
Half less views than before for the Player of the Grenier, the fault of the lack of renewal?
This drop in the number of views, and therefore in the revenue generated, was also observed by Frédéric Molasknown to many under the pseudonym of Attic Player. A historic player in the French-speaking part of YouTube, he indicated on Twitch that he had noticed a huge drop in views, bouncing off similar statements made by other Youtubers. As an example, he cites its secondary chain, Bazar du Grenier :
I looked out of curiosity, it had been months since I had looked, he continues. I think the Bazaar turns over about 5-6 million a month, which is very little. 2-3 years ago, we were more around 10-11, so we have almost 50% fewer views now.
According to him, the spectators, and in particular theare younger, have generally turned away from YouTube to prefer the lesson formats offered by YouTube. So there would be a lack of audience renewal on YouTube, but the JdG prefers to put his situation into perspective:
There are fewer and fewer people who, in general, go to YouTube. YouTube is a bit like the Facebook of video sites now, people have moved to TikTok. I think the competition from TikTok plays a lot and younger people are more looking for Shorts or content where you click, it lasts a few seconds, and you move on. We have almost no young people, we have 2%, that’s extremely few.
And a channel that does not have a young audience is a channel with an audience that is not renewed. It doesn’t matter, I don’t take it badly. After 13 years, I consider that all the objectives that we would have liked to achieve, or that we would have imagined that we would have achieved, have been achieved. If it ends tomorrow, no regrets.
The story, however, is far from over. YouTube is not on the brink of closure, and Google constantly working on the development of algorithms allowing users to have a relevant experience, and therefore generate funds. However, these developments are sometimes difficult to follow or understand for creators, who must always adapt.
