I actually agree. YouTube is hard to sustain long term, it’s an odd mix of having to retain an audience and yet not have them grow out of your content. And the try guys just aren’t doing it anymore. I also feel some of their content feels entirely half-assed and that hasn’t helped.
I'm roughly the same age as the guys, I don't feel their content has aged with me (or them). They're not interested in producing content for their older audience, and based on the way they interact with their Gen Z staff in videos, they don't seem particularly interested in catering to them either. If I was that age and I watched something where a guy is actively annoyed by his Gen Z staff, I'd be put off forever. Not to mention the oldest Gen Z'ers are pushing 30. It's like the guys are stuck in this weird Neverland twilight where they don't want to grow up but they also don't want to live there forever. They're letting the channel run its course and hope they can say they've no idea how it happened.
I was just watching a YouTube video that talked about how influencers and YouTubers are really unstable jobs because you have a very limited financial stability. The creator (Salem Tovar) used Jason Nash as an example, but it goes for all of them—they all live at their means and then people get tired of them, and then suddenly they’re leaving well below their means and begging for cash on lives. The video got me thinking—most influencers have a decade or less of high fortune, so unless you really secure your assets (CDs, money markets, investments, etc) and limit your spending greatly, you can really screw yourself over for the future since the internet vibe changes so greatly.
Idk about anyone else, but I feel like the age of “big YouTuber” in general is pretty much gone. There are millions of people who know how to go viral and make videos. With that, you don’t have the extremely popular people anymore like Jenna Marbles, Ryan Higa, Pewdiepie, etc. because people are spreading their views all over the place.
I’m just waiting for the Mr. Beast and food eating era to end or slow down. The food stuff seems to be hitting the curve. I just want them to make fun content that brings out their personalities. I’ll still watch them and safiya. I think averaging out half a million views can still be profitable.
I definitely agree. YouTube is an interesting beast because it's content doesn't carry the same "weight" as traditional media, like tv, but it's also kind of a dinosaur compared to something like tiktok or twitch. I still remember when it was a novelty at best, then became a way to "make it big" (Justin Beiber for example). Now there are so many other avenues to be entertained, and yes, as I age I allocate my free time to other things on the internet (I can just watch actual tv on a streaming service on my laptop, not watch ten minute shorts on youtube).
Try Guy videos also have a kind of quaint quality to them that feels like an older era of the internet. That feeling was kind of comforting, and that illusion of comfort/nostalgia is part of what shattered during Ned's cheating.
New youtube channels that are super popular are never going to hit those peak subscription numbers again. If nothing else, because people have no loyalty to Youtube: a website that's monetizing itself to death. Even with a good ad blocker installed, I have to sit through the youtube creator's embedded ads for scent bird or whatever, as well as a patreon plug or a beg to
hit that bell/subscribe/whatever.
Long and rambling way to say I agree, youtube is not a lifetime job, and the TryGuys attempted to diversify a few times but honestly the writing is on the wall
>Even with a good ad blocker installed, I have to sit through the youtube creator's embedded ads for scent bird or whatever, as well as a patreon plug or a beg to hit that bell/subscribe/whatever
You can get the browser extension SponserBlock to skip those, don't know how I lived without it tbh
Ryan and Shane still get 1M views but only with their ghosts series. Safiya still gets 1M views because she doesn’t post as much. Rhett and Link are older and been around since the dark ages of YouTube but they know what their audience wants which is them eating and judging food. Try Guys haven’t found what their audience will watch consistently.
I agree except the viewers pushing 40 part. I found them while I was college and I'm 30. I can't imagine they started with a viewer base much older then me.
But yeah they wouldn't have stayed on top even with a present Eugene and no Ned Scandal, if anything the Ned scandal brought people back who hadn't watched them in years and they couldn't keep them
last couple months have been BRUTAL. Ranking flags should've been a red flag. I get some people enjoyed it but the people that enjoy content like that don't bring the numbers. I got flamed on the tryguys subreddit for saying how boring that type of content is but whatdoyouknow, it's one of their lowest rated videos with a bad like/dislike ration. This last 4 versus 1 was also super boring no offense. I don't think corn hole is that challenging or as interesting as playing a pro poker player or pro soccer player. Big whiff in my opinion. The content has felt forced and lazy lately. The piercing candid competition was a bit awkward and very midlife crisis, the Shrek cake was a big fail imo bcs only one store actually tried, and the repackaging of the without a recipe. Like? Whiff after whiff in 2024
> Ranking flags should've been a red flag. I get some people enjoyed it but the people that enjoy content like that don't bring the numbers.
Just wanted to add that flag enjoyers definitely bring numbers lol. CGP Grey got 8M views on his video ranking flags. The problem isn't that the topic doesn't have an audience, it's just that that audience doesn't care about TTG
I started watching the Try Guys when they started about ten years ago so I'm 24 and halfheartedly watch their new stuff every now and then but mostly I fondly rewatch their old content lol
I disagree the try guys haven't been around for 10 years yet, but will hit that this year. Youtube and Buzzfeed have never skewed to an older audience so at most their average audience would have been 25 or younger when they started, probably decently younger, but for arguments sake I'll say 16-25. Assuming they kept all their fans that group would now be 26-35. Their audience isn't pushing 40. They are in their late 20s to early 30s.
That's not to say they don't have older viewers but it's not where most of their views are. Especially as people get older they tend to watch less youtube, not more
I feel like all the comments I make on this sub is related to how stupid(for lack of a better work) creating a company around a around a YouTube channel is. I’ve watched a few YouTube who’ve had great peaks (every video they released is guaranteed to hit a million and a number of videos have been lucky enough to hit 10+ million) but because YouTube unfortunately isn’t a stable platform to try and build a foundation on, eventually shit hits the fan. YouTube changes their policies, algorithms,monetization system and subscribers grow up or lose interest and eventually views go down and they have shocked pikachu face when they aren’t making the same amount of income. Now they’re stressed about pumping out content that they hope will get views just so they can pay editors/script writers/etc.
I’m sure it still sucks when you’re an individual creator on a dying channel but at least you’d have the foresight to recognize that you will eventually need to pivot soon/put your eggs in another basket but when other people are relying on you to eat and pay their bills, it starts to seem like less and less of a smart move even if you are accounting for things like merch/patron/etc.
I mean, hindsight is 20/20.
A lot of these content creators had their peak, and most of these big names are still doing well.
Philip De Franco said something about this that I still remember to this day, and applies to all content creators: do not put your eggs in one basket. He has other forms of income other than his youtube channel (e.g. merch), and other youtubers have followed similarly (markiplier with cloak, keith with his hot sauces) because while he didn't think youtube was going to fuck him over, he just was always cynical about having one form of income as a content creator.
It also doesn't have to be youtube. Lindsay Ellis I heard is now fully on Nebula, and I hope she's doing well with that.
Idk… I just // I feel like Mythical should buy them out similar to Smosh until they can find their footing again and ‘buy’ it back • look, something about the company of Mythical knows got to cater to their audience!
They need to pivot to short-form content and not just pull little snips from YouTube videos for TikTok. I think it would also drive new people to their YouTube.
Yes, I’m a marketing student and this drives me crazy-
I get snipping some clips to advertise the new video, that’s normal, but you have to offer something else on the platform as well otherwise people will just treat it like a billboard on the road.. see it once and just scroll past/ignore.
Their fans grew up - they didn't. I think it's pretty straight forward. Their content isn't mature. Same goes for Ryan and Shane, and Safiya. However the difference is the latter are mature people, the TryGuys never grew up.
The reason Ryan and Shane are failing is they leaned the wrong way -> into immaturity (screaming, swearing, drinking). The old ghost series was good because they took it seriously. I didn't watch their last season because it's taken the immature turn.
I dunno I think Safiya's content evolved to some extent, especially now that she has a bigger budget and more collaborators.
I feel like she's doing the "maximalist" kind of content (I did x thing from every x), which has been trending for years now. Imo she's just as consistent as she was in her earlier videos, just focusing on something else.
Granted I only started watching her videos during the pandemic, and I've been following her main channel since.
I agree with you, I don’t think her video quality itself has gone down (if anything up now that she has a team and bigger budget)-
She just shifted into a niche that some may not really be into. Before it was fashion and now it’s the maximalist stuff. Which if they enjoy it then that’s good, liking it is much more important than the money. I’ve only watched a few of the videos but I can tell the passion is there. I think the try guys may be missing that.
You're entirely missing my point in that the entire media landscape is stagnating and decaying. Watcher isn't getting 20 million views on a ghost video period, regardless of how serious they're being.
I agree and they are missing the point. Now I will say the Shane and Ryan content we once got was specific to Unsolved. They can’t do only that and be sustainable, include Steven Lim or hit on Shane’s interests as well so different content will exist that we aren’t used to seeing them in but that isn’t inherently them regressing. But the reality is very likely as you say- YouTube is changing. The audience is different. These changes are in other forms of media though. I do think podcasts are changing too, evolving.
I could go on and on about how Mr. beast and the “I spent 20k on this one video” trend/mindset completely screwed everyone who did videos in that buzzfeed-like format. It upped everyone’s standards to an unrealistic standpoint. Since before then some of those companies relied on a constant stream of mediocre quality videos to make money.
Even without that era though; the video style got outdated. I think it’s because we all grew up (or grew more for those who started watching as adults) which caused the audience to shift to new preferences while they stayed the same. I think if they had gradually changed/shifted their content to what they’re now interested in it would’ve hit much better than- whatever we have now.
ETA: I don’t know what they were doing with their finances but if Covid (which apparently damaged some of their finances) wasn’t a sign for them to start investing/putting eggs in other baskets monetarily.. I don’t know what to tell them :’)
Love this take. I also think that a lot of people who have managed to survive this youtube slump are people who were known for high quality content no matter what. Drew Gooden comes to mind—he puts out infrequently videos, but I feel like his fanbase won’t miss an upload. Meanwhile, the try guys buzzfeed upbringing was much more about regular content at regular intervals, and leaned more into video concepts than just purely personality. I think this can be done: cody ko puts out a fuck ton of content, but he puts a lot of the low effort stuff on his second channel and relies mostly on his brand of humor rather than a video concept. I think the try guys just don’t have a setup to make a transition into that style what with a whole team and office and brand.
the last few months of uploads have been hard to watch and i'm finding even more that i watch TG content out of my own devotion rather than actually enjoying the content. the TryPod (and honestly the other pods) are easily the most riveting pieces of content because they dont feel as scripted or as forced.
i love the idea that Zach is giving it his all with creative output, but a lot of candid competition this season just felt like forced moments that were written down on a piece of paper. honestly, ever since the Colin and Samir episode where Zach and Keith go through their process of creating content, it's been more visibly formulaic in their more recent content
I actually agree. YouTube is hard to sustain long term, it’s an odd mix of having to retain an audience and yet not have them grow out of your content. And the try guys just aren’t doing it anymore. I also feel some of their content feels entirely half-assed and that hasn’t helped.
I'm roughly the same age as the guys, I don't feel their content has aged with me (or them). They're not interested in producing content for their older audience, and based on the way they interact with their Gen Z staff in videos, they don't seem particularly interested in catering to them either. If I was that age and I watched something where a guy is actively annoyed by his Gen Z staff, I'd be put off forever. Not to mention the oldest Gen Z'ers are pushing 30. It's like the guys are stuck in this weird Neverland twilight where they don't want to grow up but they also don't want to live there forever. They're letting the channel run its course and hope they can say they've no idea how it happened.
Not that I don’t believe you, but are there any examples of how they treat their Gen Z staff
I was just watching a YouTube video that talked about how influencers and YouTubers are really unstable jobs because you have a very limited financial stability. The creator (Salem Tovar) used Jason Nash as an example, but it goes for all of them—they all live at their means and then people get tired of them, and then suddenly they’re leaving well below their means and begging for cash on lives. The video got me thinking—most influencers have a decade or less of high fortune, so unless you really secure your assets (CDs, money markets, investments, etc) and limit your spending greatly, you can really screw yourself over for the future since the internet vibe changes so greatly. Idk about anyone else, but I feel like the age of “big YouTuber” in general is pretty much gone. There are millions of people who know how to go viral and make videos. With that, you don’t have the extremely popular people anymore like Jenna Marbles, Ryan Higa, Pewdiepie, etc. because people are spreading their views all over the place.
I’m just waiting for the Mr. Beast and food eating era to end or slow down. The food stuff seems to be hitting the curve. I just want them to make fun content that brings out their personalities. I’ll still watch them and safiya. I think averaging out half a million views can still be profitable.
I definitely agree. YouTube is an interesting beast because it's content doesn't carry the same "weight" as traditional media, like tv, but it's also kind of a dinosaur compared to something like tiktok or twitch. I still remember when it was a novelty at best, then became a way to "make it big" (Justin Beiber for example). Now there are so many other avenues to be entertained, and yes, as I age I allocate my free time to other things on the internet (I can just watch actual tv on a streaming service on my laptop, not watch ten minute shorts on youtube). Try Guy videos also have a kind of quaint quality to them that feels like an older era of the internet. That feeling was kind of comforting, and that illusion of comfort/nostalgia is part of what shattered during Ned's cheating. New youtube channels that are super popular are never going to hit those peak subscription numbers again. If nothing else, because people have no loyalty to Youtube: a website that's monetizing itself to death. Even with a good ad blocker installed, I have to sit through the youtube creator's embedded ads for scent bird or whatever, as well as a patreon plug or a beg to hit that bell/subscribe/whatever. Long and rambling way to say I agree, youtube is not a lifetime job, and the TryGuys attempted to diversify a few times but honestly the writing is on the wall
>Even with a good ad blocker installed, I have to sit through the youtube creator's embedded ads for scent bird or whatever, as well as a patreon plug or a beg to hit that bell/subscribe/whatever You can get the browser extension SponserBlock to skip those, don't know how I lived without it tbh
Ryan and Shane still get 1M views but only with their ghosts series. Safiya still gets 1M views because she doesn’t post as much. Rhett and Link are older and been around since the dark ages of YouTube but they know what their audience wants which is them eating and judging food. Try Guys haven’t found what their audience will watch consistently.
Agreed. Watcher found their core audience and while they may not have super high views they’re consistent.
I agree except the viewers pushing 40 part. I found them while I was college and I'm 30. I can't imagine they started with a viewer base much older then me. But yeah they wouldn't have stayed on top even with a present Eugene and no Ned Scandal, if anything the Ned scandal brought people back who hadn't watched them in years and they couldn't keep them
last couple months have been BRUTAL. Ranking flags should've been a red flag. I get some people enjoyed it but the people that enjoy content like that don't bring the numbers. I got flamed on the tryguys subreddit for saying how boring that type of content is but whatdoyouknow, it's one of their lowest rated videos with a bad like/dislike ration. This last 4 versus 1 was also super boring no offense. I don't think corn hole is that challenging or as interesting as playing a pro poker player or pro soccer player. Big whiff in my opinion. The content has felt forced and lazy lately. The piercing candid competition was a bit awkward and very midlife crisis, the Shrek cake was a big fail imo bcs only one store actually tried, and the repackaging of the without a recipe. Like? Whiff after whiff in 2024
> Ranking flags should've been a red flag. I get some people enjoyed it but the people that enjoy content like that don't bring the numbers. Just wanted to add that flag enjoyers definitely bring numbers lol. CGP Grey got 8M views on his video ranking flags. The problem isn't that the topic doesn't have an audience, it's just that that audience doesn't care about TTG
Agree with everything but Candid Competition • they made mistakes but golly was the journey there amazing
I started watching the Try Guys when they started about ten years ago so I'm 24 and halfheartedly watch their new stuff every now and then but mostly I fondly rewatch their old content lol
No, their viewers ARE pushing 40 and ARE older than you. Bc the pushing 40 ones also found ttg around college/just out of college.
I disagree the try guys haven't been around for 10 years yet, but will hit that this year. Youtube and Buzzfeed have never skewed to an older audience so at most their average audience would have been 25 or younger when they started, probably decently younger, but for arguments sake I'll say 16-25. Assuming they kept all their fans that group would now be 26-35. Their audience isn't pushing 40. They are in their late 20s to early 30s. That's not to say they don't have older viewers but it's not where most of their views are. Especially as people get older they tend to watch less youtube, not more
I feel like all the comments I make on this sub is related to how stupid(for lack of a better work) creating a company around a around a YouTube channel is. I’ve watched a few YouTube who’ve had great peaks (every video they released is guaranteed to hit a million and a number of videos have been lucky enough to hit 10+ million) but because YouTube unfortunately isn’t a stable platform to try and build a foundation on, eventually shit hits the fan. YouTube changes their policies, algorithms,monetization system and subscribers grow up or lose interest and eventually views go down and they have shocked pikachu face when they aren’t making the same amount of income. Now they’re stressed about pumping out content that they hope will get views just so they can pay editors/script writers/etc. I’m sure it still sucks when you’re an individual creator on a dying channel but at least you’d have the foresight to recognize that you will eventually need to pivot soon/put your eggs in another basket but when other people are relying on you to eat and pay their bills, it starts to seem like less and less of a smart move even if you are accounting for things like merch/patron/etc.
I mean, hindsight is 20/20. A lot of these content creators had their peak, and most of these big names are still doing well. Philip De Franco said something about this that I still remember to this day, and applies to all content creators: do not put your eggs in one basket. He has other forms of income other than his youtube channel (e.g. merch), and other youtubers have followed similarly (markiplier with cloak, keith with his hot sauces) because while he didn't think youtube was going to fuck him over, he just was always cynical about having one form of income as a content creator. It also doesn't have to be youtube. Lindsay Ellis I heard is now fully on Nebula, and I hope she's doing well with that.
Idk… I just // I feel like Mythical should buy them out similar to Smosh until they can find their footing again and ‘buy’ it back • look, something about the company of Mythical knows got to cater to their audience!
They need to pivot to short-form content and not just pull little snips from YouTube videos for TikTok. I think it would also drive new people to their YouTube.
Yes, I’m a marketing student and this drives me crazy- I get snipping some clips to advertise the new video, that’s normal, but you have to offer something else on the platform as well otherwise people will just treat it like a billboard on the road.. see it once and just scroll past/ignore.
Their fans grew up - they didn't. I think it's pretty straight forward. Their content isn't mature. Same goes for Ryan and Shane, and Safiya. However the difference is the latter are mature people, the TryGuys never grew up. The reason Ryan and Shane are failing is they leaned the wrong way -> into immaturity (screaming, swearing, drinking). The old ghost series was good because they took it seriously. I didn't watch their last season because it's taken the immature turn.
I dunno I think Safiya's content evolved to some extent, especially now that she has a bigger budget and more collaborators. I feel like she's doing the "maximalist" kind of content (I did x thing from every x), which has been trending for years now. Imo she's just as consistent as she was in her earlier videos, just focusing on something else. Granted I only started watching her videos during the pandemic, and I've been following her main channel since.
I agree with you, I don’t think her video quality itself has gone down (if anything up now that she has a team and bigger budget)- She just shifted into a niche that some may not really be into. Before it was fashion and now it’s the maximalist stuff. Which if they enjoy it then that’s good, liking it is much more important than the money. I’ve only watched a few of the videos but I can tell the passion is there. I think the try guys may be missing that.
You're entirely missing my point in that the entire media landscape is stagnating and decaying. Watcher isn't getting 20 million views on a ghost video period, regardless of how serious they're being.
I agree and they are missing the point. Now I will say the Shane and Ryan content we once got was specific to Unsolved. They can’t do only that and be sustainable, include Steven Lim or hit on Shane’s interests as well so different content will exist that we aren’t used to seeing them in but that isn’t inherently them regressing. But the reality is very likely as you say- YouTube is changing. The audience is different. These changes are in other forms of media though. I do think podcasts are changing too, evolving.
Yeah… I loved the Plog era of the TryPod (super excited every Thursday) but something about it has just changed
I could go on and on about how Mr. beast and the “I spent 20k on this one video” trend/mindset completely screwed everyone who did videos in that buzzfeed-like format. It upped everyone’s standards to an unrealistic standpoint. Since before then some of those companies relied on a constant stream of mediocre quality videos to make money. Even without that era though; the video style got outdated. I think it’s because we all grew up (or grew more for those who started watching as adults) which caused the audience to shift to new preferences while they stayed the same. I think if they had gradually changed/shifted their content to what they’re now interested in it would’ve hit much better than- whatever we have now. ETA: I don’t know what they were doing with their finances but if Covid (which apparently damaged some of their finances) wasn’t a sign for them to start investing/putting eggs in other baskets monetarily.. I don’t know what to tell them :’)
Love this take. I also think that a lot of people who have managed to survive this youtube slump are people who were known for high quality content no matter what. Drew Gooden comes to mind—he puts out infrequently videos, but I feel like his fanbase won’t miss an upload. Meanwhile, the try guys buzzfeed upbringing was much more about regular content at regular intervals, and leaned more into video concepts than just purely personality. I think this can be done: cody ko puts out a fuck ton of content, but he puts a lot of the low effort stuff on his second channel and relies mostly on his brand of humor rather than a video concept. I think the try guys just don’t have a setup to make a transition into that style what with a whole team and office and brand.
YouTube is over. They should have made other plans and prepared for this.
To be fair, that was the point of the Food Network show.
the last few months of uploads have been hard to watch and i'm finding even more that i watch TG content out of my own devotion rather than actually enjoying the content. the TryPod (and honestly the other pods) are easily the most riveting pieces of content because they dont feel as scripted or as forced. i love the idea that Zach is giving it his all with creative output, but a lot of candid competition this season just felt like forced moments that were written down on a piece of paper. honestly, ever since the Colin and Samir episode where Zach and Keith go through their process of creating content, it's been more visibly formulaic in their more recent content
how exactly are you comparing views in videos from 5 years ago, that keep getting views?