My Channel is Dead, Where Do I go from here?

[TheFlightMike]

Hello All, I stumbled upon this thread after googling what to do now that I have a dead channel and have decided to seek your help. I started my YouTube journey in 2010 and was able to grow my 1st channel to 8000 subscribers until a copyright strike caused me create my new channel in 2012. On my new channel I was able to successfully reach 112,000 subscribers, the peak of my success came a year ago where I was being flown out to work with gaming companies and capture exclusive content. Immediately after last July, I released an exclusive video on my channel (I was lucky enough to be one of the first few to capture Madden 17). The video did very well, but 2 months later my videos started declining heavily. The previous year I would easily get at least 8-10,000 views on my Madden 16 series, that lead to a steep decline in Madden 17 where I was seeing 1000 views-3000 views. As this continued forward I got worried and eventually took a leave of absence. Upon my return my channel is in a worst state than ever. My videos get about 400- 800 views now, and I don't know whether to start over or continuously pivot until I find something that engages my audience. I've tried everything from Football documentary style content to Mobile gaming, nothing seems to engage my audience.

 

[darksmokeyt]

I'm not a sports fanatic by any means, but maybe something you should ask yourself is "how many people come to YouTube to watch sports news/games."

Something I have learned by watching many dying channels is that gaming is VERY VERY hard. Not only is the competition huge, but games die. Games die, which makes it difficult to see if YOU are the problem or the game. My recommendation is to switch to a more popular and trending game, or even move away from games entirely.

Good luck!

 

[Courtney Candice]

Don’t give up on your channel, try a playing a game that is popular at this moment and then see what happens

 

[spartanfit1]

I have found that channels that only cover one game tend to fall off after awhile especially if a new release for that game is absolute crap. Channels that cover many different games tend to hold onto subs better because the videos are always different.

 

[TheFlightMike]

So I tried to latch onto other games, I attempted a lets play of the new assassin's creed game but that was a colossal failure, it got 200 views per episode.

 

[Courtney Candice]

So I tried to latch onto other games, I attempted a lets play of the new assassin's creed game but that was a colossal failure, it got 200 views per episode.

You might have to try a few other games to see what works with your audience

 

[Hirudov]

I've tried everything from Football documentary style content to Mobile gaming, nothing seems to engage my audience.

Have you tried livestreaming on YouTube?
When you live stream your most engaged fans will come even if only to say hi. Then you can ask them what they like and dislike about your current state of the channel and the video, which games they would like to see played, what they hate and they love. Listen to their suggestions and eventually you will be back to what they really want. Sometimes you don't even need to ask. People will just post what they want to see, because people love having their opinion spread.

 

[EVO]

Diversify mate. Run a few series at the same time and see what sticks.
My guess is that you need to put in a lot of time and effort to get it back but will be worth it.

 

[Stike96]

Hello All, I stumbled upon this thread after googling what to do now that I have a dead channel and have decided to seek your help. I started my YouTube journey in 2010 and was able to grow my 1st channel to 8000 subscribers until a copyright strike caused me create my new channel in 2012. On my new channel I was able to successfully reach 112,000 subscribers, the peak of my success came a year ago where I was being flown out to work with gaming companies and capture exclusive content. Immediately after last July, I released an exclusive video on my channel (I was lucky enough to be one of the first few to capture Madden 17). The video did very well, but 2 months later my videos started declining heavily. The previous year I would easily get at least 8-10,000 views on my Madden 16 series, that lead to a steep decline in Madden 17 where I was seeing 1000 views-3000 views. As this continued forward I got worried and eventually took a leave of absence. Upon my return my channel is in a worst state than ever. My videos get about 400- 800 views now, and I don't know whether to start over or continuously pivot until I find something that engages my audience. I've tried everything from Football documentary style content to Mobile gaming, nothing seems to engage my audience.

With your audience size you should be able to get a lot of data on them, (retention times, watch time, etc.) so it would probably be good to look into which videos people watched loads of recently and do more of those. Watch time is a lot more important than view count now.

Also why not just make a video with a poll in it asking people what they want to see, with your audience size you can really make this interactive and ask people exactly what they want.

 

[PictureFIT]

You went from "EARLY RELEASE," and talking about trending sports topics to let's plays. <--- That's the problem.

Either try to get yourself ahead of the pack with more early releases, talk about big sports topics, or try something else other than Let's Plays. Most people probably didn't subscribe to you to see you play a game that's already been played through by other YouTubers. They want scoop and opinion.