u/MammothCometh

I have a 3-4 month old gaming channel with 300 subs. Several videos with 2-20k views. Most of my subs come from videos on two specific games.

About 11 days ago i had a video that now sits at 17k views, on one of those two games. Since then i released 3 videos, 2 of those on the same game. One has 70 views, the newest one about 20 views in 14 hours. The other one about something different around 100 views.

I know those numbers are probably more normal for a new channel my size. Might have gotten carried away with so many videos that actually received thousands of views😅

But i am very confused. Especially how the follow up videos on the good one from 11 days ago, are doing so bad. I also get a ton less impressions than usually, compared to the last months.

The only things i changed during that time is actually adding keywords in the settings for my channel, which was something i read about should help. Its the words viewers cant see but supposedly helps the algo to determine your audience better.

Other than that, i have no clue where this drastic shift is coming from. Or can it be that youtube tested my videos in the last months, a lot of them did great, but for some reasons its back to what a channel of my size should normally have?

Any ideas or advice? Anything i could look into?

For context: in february this year i started my gaming channel. I mostly make reviews, previews of upcoming releases, news on the industry and deep lore videos.

I make between 2-4 videos a week. In those 3 months i made several videos that have 2-6k views. A few over 10k, one has 20k, the newest one had 9k in its first night and is now sitting at 13k views. But i also have videos with 100-500 views, especially when i cover some indie games.

I am now closing in on 300 subs, passed the 4000 watch hours after almost 2 1/2 months.

Usually the videos that get high views have a ton of likes and comments. A lot of people praising the channel, the quality, saying that the channel will massively grow soon, even bigger creators commenting on my videos.

That is all absolutely fantastic. But i wonder how i can get people to subscribe more?

I remind viewers at the end to like and sub if they enjoyed my video. Will not do it before i proved to them it was worth watching.

I am curious if you people have ideas how to improve that?

To be clear: i am not complaining. Having a 3 month old variety gaming channel with almost 300 subs, passed the 4k watch hours and 150k views across the channel is amazing for me and i am very grateful.

I also understand that not sticking to one or two specific games makes it a bit harder, but that is something i wont change.

Not gonna beg for subs at the start or in general, i want to earn it and not annoy the viewers.

Are there any other strategies you used successfully? Or is it a case of simply keep going (i have no issues with that, love my journey so far). Wonder if i can improve on something in that regard.

So i am currently facing a tiny dilemma on my channel, a good one actually. But i am not sure how to approach it.

I have a game review ready for release today, i had it planned. Its for a newly released indie game.

Last night i released a video on a completely different game and over night it "blew up". 9k views in 10 hours, tons of new subs and still going strong.

I usually release 2-3 videos per week. But i also released 2 videos in a day once. One was a planned review, the other a spontaneous news video. Both videos performed well, despite being about different titles.

But in this case right now, my new video is on track to become my biggest one yet, it literally has 3-25 views per minute, which is insane to me.

Would it potentially harm the high performing video if i drop a new one today? About a completely different title?

Do you guys have experience with that? How did it go for you if you tried it before?

I always try new things and am not afraid to experiment. My biggest video so far has 18k views over 3 months. But this new release is in its own league and im not sure how to approach the release of todays video.

I released a new video today. It started performing quite poor. I changed the thumbnail early to a much better one. After 7 hours i also changed the title. Generally, i sometimes make changes if i see bad performances and i saved plenty of poor performing videos that way.

After i changed the title, i set up the A/B thumbnail testing with 2 additional ones. Its the first time i am actually trying this. Right now it is still the thumbnail and title i picked after 7 hours. And the video has started performing. As in, really good. I have quite a few videos in the 3-18k views range but this one could get up there if it keeps the trajectory from the last 2 hours. Almost unusually high views, which is obviously great.

Now i am not sure what to do with the A/B testing, since its my first time. Should i cancel it and just leave the current package? Will youtube potentially switch up the package while the video is still performing great?

Any advice/experiences would be much appreciated.