Reaction videos are killing my channel! Heelp!
Hi everyone, I’m having trouble with reaction videos based on my content. I operate in a niche where many streamers upload clips of their content to YouTube. My channel is a "faceless" one where I provide narration; I tell documentary-style stories about events within that specific niche. I use supporting clips, images, plenty of motion graphics, and so on, but the core of the video is my narration. Each video takes weeks of research, sourcing footage, recording, editing, etc. I started a few months ago and managed to monetize; my videos consistently gather views over time as YouTube finds the right audience for them. The problem is that whenever I upload a video, the very next day, five other channels upload reaction videos covering it. They upload the whole thing from start to finish, adding only occasional commentary. While they do interrupt the video, these interruptions are often infrequent or insignificant—for instance, in a 40-minute video of mine, they might only contribute 10 minutes of commentary. Even so, their audience doesn't go on to watch my original video after seeing the reaction because they’ve already seen the whole thing. At first, it didn't bother me because the channels involved didn't get many views (between 1k and 10k), but for my latest video, a channel with 15 times as many subscribers as mine reacted to it. I noticed my metrics plummeting; their video almost matched the view count of the original. The reality is that I feel like I'm competing against my own content. When they react, they always mention my channel, send support and shout-outs, and ask their community to like and subscribe to me, but it doesn't really help much. When their followers hear I've uploaded a new video, instead of watching it directly, they wait to see it on the streamer's channel because they know a reaction video is coming. Honestly, I don't know what to do. It bothers me to see my videos on other channels, but the worst part is that I feel it ruins my metrics—especially my CTR. I know a lot of people say it’s free promotion, but I’m not so sure about that; I’ve never seen a huge spike in views after a reaction video—which makes sense, since the people who watched the reaction have already seen the full video. What do you think I should do? Do you think reaction videos actually hurt you? I’d like to ask them to stop reacting to my content, but I’m worried I’ll get a ton of hate and end up with ten streamers badmouthing me in the community. Still, it’s really discouraging knowing that every video I make is going to get a reaction video made about it. Has anyone been in a similar situation? I’d love to hear your thoughts—I’d really appreciate any advice! Thanks!!