Some would argue that subscriber count doesn't matter at all. However, those people are rather near-sighted. To a certain extent, subscriber count has to matter ... at least in much the same way that championship wins in professional wrestling matter.
What do I mean by that? Well, consider that wrestling is fake. The outcomes of their matches are pre-determined. They are more about telling a story than conducting a bona fide contest of skill and strength, like UFC does. So ... does that mean that the championships don't matter in the slightest? Heck no.
Wrestlers are booked to win championships based on the promotion's faith in that wrestler to "draw." That's wrestling slang for convincing fans to pay for either tickets or pay-per-views in the hopes of seeing that wrestler triumph (if he's a good guy) or get his butt kicked (if he's a bad guy). Of course, we cannot see wrestling promotions' individual accounting books, just like how we can't see most youtube channels' analytics page unless they show them to us. But a wrestler's championship accolades are a publicly-available statistic that give us a rough estimate of how good that wrestler is at drawing.
A youtube channel's subscriber count is much the same way: Unless you're manipulating the stat using underhanded tactics like sub-for-sub or paid subscribers, then the subscriber count is a publicly available statistic about a youtube channel that provides a rough estimate of that channel's overall popularity and success.
So to a certain extent, subscriber count does indeed matter.
But the question is ... to what extent does it matter? Is subscriber count even a factor in the youtube algorithm whatsoever? For example, if literally all else (tags, watch minutes, etc.) are equal, will the youtube algorithm promote a video from a channel with a higher subscriber count over a channel with a lower subscriber count, or would it just be a toss-up where the tie is broken by RNG?
What do I mean by that? Well, consider that wrestling is fake. The outcomes of their matches are pre-determined. They are more about telling a story than conducting a bona fide contest of skill and strength, like UFC does. So ... does that mean that the championships don't matter in the slightest? Heck no.
Wrestlers are booked to win championships based on the promotion's faith in that wrestler to "draw." That's wrestling slang for convincing fans to pay for either tickets or pay-per-views in the hopes of seeing that wrestler triumph (if he's a good guy) or get his butt kicked (if he's a bad guy). Of course, we cannot see wrestling promotions' individual accounting books, just like how we can't see most youtube channels' analytics page unless they show them to us. But a wrestler's championship accolades are a publicly-available statistic that give us a rough estimate of how good that wrestler is at drawing.
A youtube channel's subscriber count is much the same way: Unless you're manipulating the stat using underhanded tactics like sub-for-sub or paid subscribers, then the subscriber count is a publicly available statistic about a youtube channel that provides a rough estimate of that channel's overall popularity and success.
So to a certain extent, subscriber count does indeed matter.
But the question is ... to what extent does it matter? Is subscriber count even a factor in the youtube algorithm whatsoever? For example, if literally all else (tags, watch minutes, etc.) are equal, will the youtube algorithm promote a video from a channel with a higher subscriber count over a channel with a lower subscriber count, or would it just be a toss-up where the tie is broken by RNG?
