YouTube is a Mysterious Monopoly Published September 8, 2025 --- Summary A recent trend noticed by several YouTube creators shows a significant drop in YouTube video views over the past month. This was first observed by Adrian Black of Adrian's Digital Basement, a retro computer repair channel, and later confirmed by tech YouTuber Jeff Geerling. Key Points Views Declining but Likes and Revenue Stable: Despite the drop in views, likes and revenue have remained mostly consistent. This inconsistency leads to speculation that YouTube may have changed its view-counting algorithm, but there has been no official confirmation from YouTube. Impact on Creators and Sponsors: Many YouTubers rely on sponsor deals that base their remuneration on view counts. A sudden unexplained change in views complicates creators’ ability to justify sponsorship metrics, potentially affecting their income and contract negotiations. Restricted Mode Hypothesis: A vulgar and humorous video by the RedLetterMedia team suggests that YouTube's Restricted Mode—a longstanding feature that can limit content visibility—may have been inadvertently toggled for some users, impacting view counts. However, this is speculative and unconfirmed. YouTube’s Monopoly on Video Content: The author pays for YouTube Premium and acknowledges YouTube as the dominant video platform with few viable alternatives. Services like Nebula exist but remain comparatively niche. The site's near-monopoly status makes it critical for content creators to rely on YouTube, amplifying the impact of such unexplained changes. Challenges for Alternative Platforms: Introducing a serious competitor to YouTube faces significant hurdles, including acquiring a large user base and advertiser buy-in. Such ventures would likely incur heavy upfront losses, making disruption unlikely in the near term. Uncertainty and Frustration Among Creators: Without official communication, creators must share anecdotal evidence and speculate on causes as they see fluctuating traffic and possibly face demoralization. Personal Reflections The author expresses sympathy for creators affected by this issue and continues to support smaller platforms in hopes of eventual disruption. However, given YouTube’s overwhelming market share and the free availability of its content, any meaningful shift in the video platform landscape seems distant. --- Additional Notes The website emphasizes privacy, using no cookies and only anonymized analytics via Tinylytics. The site owner offers social media links to Mastodon and Bluesky, highlighting modern decentralized networks. The post is hosted on a static site powered by Jekyll and GitHub Pages, mindful of energy usage and environmental impact. --- This article reflects ongoing concerns about transparency, user experience, and platform power dynamics in online video content creation and consumption.