r/YouTubeThumbnailHub

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Mine is the first one the rest are hers
Mine or 2,3,4

Title: Getting rich has nothing to do with Money

It’s basically talking about the real reason why most people get rich is because of what being rich offers like freedom.

First Image is the basic template I use for all my video reviews. I like it very much, I'm not planning on changing it.
While browsing Youtube though I've noticed that thumbnails with the outer stroke (is there a specific name for it?) catch my eye many times, so I was wondering:
Would you consider the 2nd design more clickable? It's just a quick mockup for how it would look.
I kinda... don't like it? Except for the 3D effect, that's cool.
But if it makes the thumbnail more clickable I don't really mind

Option 1
Title: The Factory Team That Shocked Europe (The Fall of BATE Borisov)

Option 2
Title: What Happened to BATE Borisov?

My laptop still isn’t working, I took these photos with my phone of my laptop, is the quality ok??

The titles would be:
It’s time you stop following the norm
It’s finally your time
Or something with “black sheep or outcast” for the it’s your time photo

It’s about being an outcast to society and finding your community and place in the world

Would really appreciate any feedback or additional perspective on this thumbnail theory and more specifically, how compelling the text is/isnt!

Below is our thumbnail theory-crafting and brainstorming for anyone interested haha.

I wanted to provide as much background info on our testing, decision making etc with all these images.

Our goal - Can we maximise the appeal and curiosity of a thumbnail enough to get people who have a passing interest/knowledge of a certain game through the front door, regardless of the video execution - then once they arrive, it's the video's job (based on quality & execution) to get them to stay - hopefully for our personalities haha

The context of the video - fairly laidback discussion video between two friends who have just revisited this game with the goal of determining whether it still holds up in 2026. It's loosely structured as a review, but honestly, we're just here to celebrate games and have fun, we don't want to be viewed like IGN, Gamespot etc. We're going for a personality & shared experience approach.

The bottleneck identified - we've been framing videos like this as a "review" or "does this still hold up?", but my theory is that this framing has been packaged as clinical and authoritative rather than fun, curious or entertaining. Considering this is a 14 year old game, I don't think people would click on a review, however I do think people would click on something that asks a question or presents an angle of the game perhaps?

Our theory

1. a complete stranger most likely needs to either have an existing passing curiosity or awareness of the subject
2. both the title and the thumbnail should aim to stop a scroller in their tracks either via provocation or curiosity, without being misleading
3. the title and/or the thumbnail shouldn't close the curiosity loop aka giving a verdict, frame the delivery, making a closed statement. (e.g. our thumbnail option "Stealth Never Felt So Good" is kind of a closed off statement, and may be our weakest option)
4. the main person/character/mascot needs to be the main subject and clearly framed

Our problem - basically, we aren't strangers to our own content, so it's hard to be objective and figure out if our content is ACTUALLY appealing or not lol. That's why we need fresh eyes and outside perspective! Be as brutal as you want :)

Disclaimer - this is of course all just theory-crafting and I don't believe that this is the case for every video on youtube by any means. This is just our way of trying to create or identify a thumbnail workflow to maximise our series' potential.

And hey, maybe if anyone's interested in more discussions, theory-crafting like this in future, maybe I can share more posts or open up further discussion.

Thanks so very much for taking the time to read through this and share your perspectives. Wishing you all the best with your YouTube endeavours!

Title: the oldest modern christian disease.

short summary: A non condeming take on pornography from a christian perspective. talking head with b roll. Im a small channel (apprx 150 subs).

“Recording Strangers Has Gone Too Far”

This hasn’t performed the best on my channel, I think it was maybe too cluttered of a video idea? But it’s commentary / video essay based on the trend of recording strangers in public, and especially- posting it online.

I go into irl streaming, gym-fluencers, general influencers in public and then meta glasses and recording people without their consent or knowledge.

The first image is my current thumbnail!

But I’m hesitant and wondering if I should change to the different one I made? It’s more “commentary” style I suppose.

Current ctr is 6.1% so it’s okay? But not the best!

Any advice is appreciated, even if it’s something completely different! 😬😬

Title; We played the most TERRIFYING MINECRAFT MODPACK...

Summary; me and my friend playing a Minecraft horror modpack I put together (I attempted to make the scariest thing possible that isn't just "scary because it instantly kills you"/"hacks your computer"

Which one would you pick? Or You didn't like any of those?

Title: Why Italy, Poland, and Japan Dominate Volleyball

Title: The Journey Begins - THE ODYSSEY - Epic Mythology Song.
Summary: It is a 3min long brief intro song to the greek odyssey sung in greek with english lyrics, my audience is global. (The video has 110% AVD)

Title Suggestion for Thumbnail 1: " Claude AI Just Did The Unthinkable"

Title Suggestion for Thumbnail 3:“Claude Just Deleted an Entire Company’s Database”

Title suggestion for Thumbnail 3:"Claude AI agent Did The Unthinkable"

Summary: This is a faceless commentary-style video about AI agents and the risks of giving them too much control. The video discusses how Anthropic’s CEO claimed AI could replace developers in 6–12 months, yet we’re already seeing Claude-powered agents accidentally delete entire company databases.

The video explores why AI agents keep making dangerous mistakes across multiple tools, why it keeps happening, and how we can prevent these systems from causing bigger problems in the future.

The tone is a mix of serious discussion and humor/memes. The target audience is developers, tech enthusiasts, and people interested in AI. So which title thumbnail do you think will be the best ? Do I need to add any text in the first one ?

So my video title is going to be called “they lobotomized our minecraft bro” and the video is about this horror mod called wonderland.jar. In the thumbnail theres an entity with an eye thats from the horror mod and i added him there so it looks more interesting.

Video Title:
What Happened to BATE Borisov?

Description:
An animated video looking at what happened to BATE Borisov, from their rise to success on the European stage beating Bayern & Arsenal, to the reasons behind their fall and struggles on and off the pitch.

Which one would you pick? Or You didn't like any of those?

Title is “Why isn’t comedy a videogame genre?”. It’s about 1h20m and it’s my first one so kinda nervous 😅
I’m also wondering how much to make the text on the left pop, which I changed a little… I don’t want it to distract too much but I think it might add curiosity if someone wants more info before they commit to such a long video?
Also added a bit more shadow in No.3 because the text is the important part but idk if it’s too much.

Any other advice or ideas are much appreciated too!

Thanks!

Title: Biden Plays Zelda: Breath of the Wild

I make videos of ai presidents playing video games, and this is one of them.