YOUR ESSENTIAL GUIDE TO THE BUSINESS OF INFLUENCER MARKETING

News

NerdCubed reports an 80 per cent drop in YouTube channel revenue over the past three years

NerdCubed reports an 80 per cent drop in YouTube channel revenue over the past three years

It's a tough time to be a full time YouTuber right now and the evidence keeps rolling in.

Matt Collins, COO of NerdCubed LTD tweeted today that their channel income is just one fifth of what it was three years ago. NerdCubed, headed by Daniel Hardcastle, is a gaming focused channel with over 2.5 million subscribers.

In addition to that, Collins shared a graph that documented the channel's decline in several areas across YouTube.

Chart showing NerdCubed's traffic referral

According to Collins, the yellow parts of graph represents YouTube searches. The green shows NerdCubed videos appearing on YouTube's homepage, which experienced almost a total drop off after mid 2015. The gap in early 2017 shows where the channel took a small break.

The red line represents NerdCubed appearing in YouTube's recommended videos section, and the blue shows subscriptions.

"Blue and yellow being consistent means people still want to see the videos, however the red and green dropping means YouTube isn't recommending or showing them to non-subscribers, ever." Collins said on Twitter.

Less money, mo' problems

The NerdCubed brand has suffered noticeable loss this year - the company let two of its staff go earlier this year due to financial dips. Losing 80 per cent of your income will do that, though.

Collins pointing out a huge income drop

Fellow YouTuber Hannah Rutherford also noticed a similar drop in her own content after generating the same graph. 

She also said in a recent interview with us that many creators already view YouTube as a secondary monetary source. 

"We recoup our losses from merchandise, brand deals or other platforms. It keeps happening every time YouTube does something else without consulting its users, whether it affects a small group or everyone." Rutherford said. 

 

Get the latest news, interviews and in-depth analysis on Twitter and Facebook.

Editor

Danielle Partis is editor of PocketGamer.biz and former editor of InfluencerUpdate.biz. She was named Journalist of the Year at the MCV Women in Games Awards 2019, as well as in the MCV 30 under 30 2020. Prior to Steel Media, she wrote about music and games at Team Rock.