"Very dramatic shift" - Linus Tech Tips opens up about the channel's declining viewership

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.

Fuck Linus.

So many possible reason.

Linus has a history of scummy behavior which turns people off.

Everything gets boring eventually. Especially things that are supposed to be funny.

Google ads are extra obnoxious making the entire platform more annoying to use and most of us will never pay for youtube. Those ads are not even selling products I would be interested in. Investment scams, car accident claim ads, AI voiced robot panda. It just annoying noise.

Nothing lasts forever.

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.

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.

My theory is that we have a limited number of hours a day to view content. We also have a growing number of channels and content in general. Algorithms include new content we kight enjoy, and for every new channel we get hooked on, one of the older ones drops off.

Tv shows rarely (ever?) Last forever. Why should channels?

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.

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.

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.

Viewer bot farms is a thing. Is that a declining business now? And the results starting to show now?

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.

My guess they started accounting for bot visits. Perhaps a lot of videos before were visited by bots. Not just to bump views but could be for training AI.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

They've spent the last several years playing into "The Algorithm", to the point where most videos felt unnatural. Tight posting schedules affecting quality, topic choices, sudden endings, etc.

Not that I care, but I'm curious to see if they will switch to making content they actually care about, or double down and start doing proper brainrot.

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

• https://youtu.be/1hVwUjcsl6s
• https://youtu.be/qPen-cHdYmk?t=1074 (timestamp 17:54)

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.

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 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.

I was never a fan of LTT, or his videos, but I did watch one video, his Pop os one and that immediately confirmed why.

I was never a fan of Linus tech tips. He always seemed like a weird guy. I did watch that video where he totally fucked his Linux installation by being really dumb. The package manager warned him that he was about to destroy his system and made him type something like "Yes, I know what I'm doing". He then reacted like, "why would Linux do this to me!? It's so hard!"

Either a paid shill or an absolute moron.

That must be devastating for the narcissist.

When he returns the cooler block he damaged and stole, I'll stop trying to turn people away from his content.

It's insane he ever had a healthy viewership in the first place.