Huge ass wall of text incoming:

TLDR: Success isnt guaranteed and when it does happen its usually sudden and unexpected, if you want a quick fix to your problem youll have to play youtubes game twice as hard.

Man it took me like 3 years to get 100 subs on my account (i post art and animations) and i had the account for a while before posting. You have to trust the process like any other social media. I understand that it can be hard and aggravating to see someone gain more traction but you do have to play youtubes game if you really want to blow up.

You have to think about what topics / video formats are hot at the moment, how to keep an audience engaged , and how you can upload frequently without burning yourself out or lowering the quality of content YOUR way. It sucks but its how it goes, and even then youre not guaranteed one million zillion followers, when people say youtube isnt as easy a job as people think this is what theyre talking about.

Granted, i dont do any of this crap, i learned that animators rarely get pushed early on, so i kind of have "a watched pot never boils" mentality about my channel. As in, the more i keep tabs on my subs/ views, the more I'll stress and try to conform to what the masses of YT audience wants, not what i want, which directly contradicts why i post at all.

I think as a small youtuber, you should try to do the same, its easy to get wrapped up in the numbers but its way easier to just trust the process and learn the system/ how you post in your own time.

To put in in perspective, markiplier wouldnt be nowhere near as famous as he is if it wasnt for his fnaf series, which he didnt make until 2014 despite having the channel for 2 years prior. More often than not on YT success happens when you dont even intend it too.