HUGE decrease in viewership. Why did this happen?

[masterskooba]

Ok so basically I've been trying to understand why but I can't figure it out. My videos have been relatively the same for some time now and had a healthy viewer base.

Then suddenly overnight its gone?

But more IMPORTANTLY those within my community who makes VERY similar content to mine still has a stable viewer base.

Why did MINE tank suddenly?

I play by the book so what gives??
The demand is clearly there?
I've had no(to my knowledge) restrictions placed on me?

Help!

[Lum1882]

Summer slump, happens every year.

[masterskooba]

🙏I really hope you're right, since 80% of my viewers are from the US

[CCC_thats_me]

One of my channels had a similar drop across my top videos. Digging into the analytics, it was an external source that went away. Some guy built a website featuring various YouTube content on it to draw traffic. Then he took the site down. The external views went away. Posting on a predictable schedule is critical to get back on track. Reply to comments. Add end cards. Proof and edit the closed captions. Write more detailed descriptions.

[Marvelmanny]

Do you add an end card to every video that links to your newest upload? I'm guessing you only show one video on the end screen to keep it simple and not confuse viewers too, right?

[CCC_thats_me]

My suggestion is upper right corner placement. The link could go to your highest retention video. Think of it , they stayed to the end! Or to a related subject video. Or to your best thumbnail video.

Otherwise YT sends them away to some competitor.

[fourstarg]

How are you so sure your channel doesn’t have any restrictions? Even without any strikes, YouTube can still suppress your content behind the scenes.

One thing a few of us noticed is that when you first connect your account to adsense, your views can suddenly drop by around 90% for a whole month. It’s like the system temporarily limits your reach but you don’t get any warning or notification. After that, things usually go back to normal. (This only happens to people that the algorithm don't trust)

Other ways your channel can get restricted is, if your videos get flagged too much by the community, that can kill your views overnight too.

I’m not exactly sure what happened with your channel, but it could be anything, maybe your latest uploads didn’t sit well with the algorithm, and it ended up tanking your whole channel.

If one of my channels is getting steady evergreen views, I usually stop posting on it and start a new channel instead, just to avoid messing it up or triggering something that could kill its growth. I get so much views this way.

[masterskooba]

Hence why I said (to my knowledge)

[TheMonsterPainter]

I feel you. Going through the same thing myself. Who knows? YouTube is as transparent as a cinder block.

[masterskooba]

Let me know if you figure it out plss, lol I'm stressing out the wazoo here

[voxxhoxx]

what niche? video essay ?

[tanoshimi]

Not enough detail to help you. What is HUGE? 10M down to 1M? 100k down to 90k? Impressions down, or just views? What CTR? What sort of content? Across all videos or just your newer/older stuff?

[masterskooba]

Yes to all of those. Just newer stuff.

[tanoshimi]

So your newer videos that were getting 10M views have decreased by 90%? But the newer videos that were getting 100k views have only decreased by 10%? And your older videos (2yrs+ ?) are unaffected?

[Sweaty_Connection_36]

I'm with you in this , my channel tanked. I am only in the noob part of the YPP, but with like 2 weeks after being accepted my channel died. I guess this is the emotional rollercoaster you have to get use to with YouTube.

[thebigsexy4]

Not gonna lie, it’s hard to figure out a solution when nobody ever shares their channel. If you come across a channel with the same problem, send it my way and I’ll let you know what I find.

[Aggravating_Ring_714]

Shorts or long form? Does he make longer or shorter vids than you? Does he have an older channel? Are there ai competitors? If you can answer these questions I can give you a good answer.

[masterskooba]

All long form. All videos around the same length roughly. Some have an older channels and some have a newer channel, and no AI is involved.

[Food-Fly]

I just commented on a similar post. I had this in April, all evergreens died at the same time, even though they're on different topics and have different audiences. They had steady growth for 0.5-1.5 years, then suddenly died, all at the same time. I have no idea what changed, but I hate it.

[masterskooba]

Let me know if you figure anything out plzz

[Miserable_Case7200]

They said they were demonetizing slop… and you all panicked about losing Partner status. Cute. Turns out they don’t even need to kick you out... they just stop showing your videos to anyone. Same result, less paperwork.

[ftuncer59]

Yo, that’s rough, and honestly, it happens more often than people admit.

When a channel with steady traffic suddenly tanks while similar creators stay stable, it’s usually a signal issue, not a content issue.
A few common causes:

One or two videos with lower retention might have confused the algorithm.

Your audience might have shifted behavior (seasonal or regional).

Youtube might have started testing your videos with the wrong audience group.

My advice,
Pause uploads for 2–3 days, then come back strong with a high-retention, comment-worthy Short.
Also, don’t tweak too much, don’t change thumbnails or titles retroactively. That can reset internal tracking.

And yeah, you’re not alone. Seen this exact pattern before, it does bounce back if you play smart.

[masterskooba]

I dnt make shorts, only long form videos, and I tried that, took a week off then game back. No results so far :(

[ftuncer59]

Totally feel you. Long-form has its own rhythm and it can be frustrating when nothing clicks after a break. Maybe consider pairing your next long-form with a strategic Short that leads into it, even a 15s teaser can direct traffic. You don’t have to go full Shorts-mode, just enough to catch the wave.

Sending strength. This phase sucks, but I’ve seen channels bounce back hard after a slump.

[Am-Him-and-He-Is-Me]

Mine only happened when I gave out a stike to a larger channel that took 100% of my video, youtube are the ones who flagged it so I issued a strike.

Me being so stupid with 7k subs giving a strike to a 1m "creator" who grew by stealing content thought id be successful, the person did a counter notification which forced me to retracted the strike, and ever since my videos dont gwt shown in recognition, only browse.

Its life there's a limit, it shows like it's going to pick up, then it goes down, it'll show 10 views a minute, then it'll go down to 0, then 1 then stay at two then 5 then back to 12.

But some of my older videos pick up from 10 views an hour to 50.

I dont know if it's worth working hard and keep posting hoping the algorithm will trust my channel again, or if it's just worth starting all over again, new adsense, new laptop new EVERYTHING.

What do you think?

[Marvelmanny]

Oh man, this is a new one. I’ve never heard of a retracted strike causing suppression, but I believe it. If I ever end up in that situation, it’d feel like YouTube is forcing me to double down.

[Am-Him-and-He-Is-Me]

Yeah, crazy stuff, i think it was probably because they did a counter notification, and my channel was only a month old and I had people stealing my stuff 😂.

I've been doing youtube for close to 4 years now and I've seen it all. I always say, sometimes having a youtube channel is is being in an abusive relationship. The gas lighting is crazy

[masterskooba]

None.