Are Subscribers Overrated?

CalijaVG

CalijaVG

I've Got It
So after watching one of PewDiePie's videos I asked myself the question, are subscribers overrated?

Let's use Felix as an example, he averages roughly between 2-4 million views a video which is about 10% of his 32 million subs, so where are the other 90% of people?
Now I know that not every single subscriber is going to watch every video because people are subbed for different content and have their own reasons but surely you'd think that more than 10% would?

This isn't just for Felix though, you can go to any YouTuber and however many followers they have on Facebook / Twitter is more often than not fairly close to the amount of views they get per video.
So going back to the original question are they overrated? I think they are.

I think that people get so caught up in wanting subscribers that they sometimes forget that they really don't count for all that much to be honest, they don't earn you money, they don't give you anything other than the satisfaction of knowing that someone was kind enough to click a button so that you'll pop up on their feed. Now don't get me wrong I'm not saying that they're bad and that I wouldn't mind an army of 32 million behind me but what I am saying is that sometimes people look at subscribers like an all powerful force to be reckoned with when in fact any sensible person would prefer 32 million views a video and only 2-4 millions subs.

I know this is going to be a controversial topic and spark some debate so let's hear it down below :)
(This may belong in the debate section I wasn't sure so feel free to move it)
 
10% is about the normal subscriber view rate but subscribers are the ones who watch your videos full length (and YouTube ranks by retention rate) and buy merch.
 
No they're not because people subscribe to keep up to date with your content more easily, whether they actually do is another thing, this same question can be applied to followers on Twitter.
 
the answer is simple subscribers are people and if youtubers use them as market cows then that cow will go away, so i think they are important. on the topic of views not matching subscribers, 80% are bots/new accounts/tricked people.
 
But here in lies the argument, if they do subscribe to keep up to date like RedFox said but then never actually watch any of your content (which obviously most of them do) is it really counted as success?
 
It honestly depends on the genre of the channel. For example, subscribers are less important for those who specialise in viral easy-searchable content. :)
 
I judge subscribers as how enjoyable your channel is and how satisfying it is to them. If they subscribed to you, obviously you have fulfilled their satisfaction. More subs mean that your channel/videos does a good job in satisfying your viewers. However, I get around 200-300 views a video even though I have over 12,000 subs.
Why?
Well because my channel has so much variety that obviously not all 12,000 of my subs will be interested in watching it.
 
CalijaVG said:
But here in lies the argument, if they do subscribe to keep up to date like RedFox said but then never actually watch any of your content (which obviously most of them do) is it really counted as success?
Click to expand...

Define success, your success and my success are 2 different things, I can get a couple of thousand subs and around 500-700 views a video and consider that success.

Things like that are going to happen all the time, there are over 32k members on YTTalk but do you think even half of them are active? Hundreds of millions of PSN accounts but only a fraction are active? It is going to happen, whether only 10% are inactive or 90%.
 
CalijaVG said:
So after watching one of PewDiePie's videos I asked myself the question, are subscribers overrated?

Let's use Felix as an example, he averages roughly between 2-4 million views a video which is about 10% of his 32 million subs, so where are the other 90% of people?
Now I know that not every single subscriber is going to watch every video because people are subbed for different content and have their own reasons but surely you'd think that more than 10% would?

This isn't just for Felix though, you can go to any YouTuber and however many followers they have on Facebook / Twitter is more often than not fairly close to the amount of views they get per video.
So going back to the original question are they overrated? I think they are.

I think that people get so caught up in wanting subscribers that they sometimes forget that they really don't count for all that much to be honest, they don't earn you money, they don't give you anything other than the satisfaction of knowing that someone was kind enough to click a button so that you'll pop up on their feed. Now don't get me wrong I'm not saying that they're bad and that I wouldn't mind an army of 32 million behind me but what I am saying is that sometimes people look at subscribers like an all powerful force to be reckoned with when in fact any sensible person would prefer 32 million views a video and only 2-4 millions subs.

I know this is going to be a controversial topic and spark some debate so let's hear it down below :)
(This may belong in the debate section I wasn't sure so feel free to move it)
Click to expand...
I think I have .01% of my views from subscribers. I have almost a million and half views with under 500 subs, so I would agree that subs are overrated.
 
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