Month over month things seem to be getting worse with no sign of slowing down. I’ve hit a true YouTube recession at this point!
I feel like in terms of quality and personal satisfaction, August has been one of my best so far! I’m much happier with the output, but the stats say otherwise…
I really tried to think of topics that would do well this month, so the low stats are especially painful. I have been making a list over the past few years of which types of videos do well, and decided to try doing a mix of popular topics, helpful videos and hardware reviews. The results don’t make any sense. None of the videos I made this month have left my regular audience at all… I expected the Collecting Tips & Tricks and the Best Ways To Play Today ones to do much better.
It really seems that the ONLY type of retro gaming content people actually care about is Top Games lists… In the last 4 months, there’s only been one video that did above average. That was my PS2 top 15 video.
I’ve nearly exhausted all the consoles I can do this for, so I really need to find something to fill that void, otherwise next year is looking extremely bleak! I also want to make more interesting content too, but if the views aren’t there, then there’s no money coming in, no new subscribers and no motivation to continue. I’ve been making regular videos for almost 10 years now, and uploading in general for almost 20! How I still haven’t found anything that works outside of the Top Games lists is so frustrating!
It’s quite depressing to look back at my rewind post from the same month in 2021, and see I was actually doing better back then than I am now! I really thought that in the three years since that post I would be much further ahead than I am now…
https://retrobreak.co.uk/retrobreak-rewind-8-august-2021/
Work has been very hard lately, and I wonder if that’s having a knock on effect with my side projects? I feel so deflated after work and I’ve been slipping into a depressive spiral of not wanting to do anything, I did struggle with motivation, and only managed to do one stream too.
YouTube also tells me that NONE of my latest videos are bringing back any of the new viewers. Maybe I need to totally rethink how I go about planning and making videos? Do people want to have a series to follow instead of random topics each week? Do they even want a video each week, or something more or less regular? I have no idea…
This would be the point where many people would give up entirely, but I’m going to stick it out and hopefully turn things around! I do feel like I also need to try and change things outside of the channel as well, my life is in a bit of a rut in terms of career, and I’m sure it’s having a knock on effect in other parts of my life too…
To understand what videos do well, and which ones don’t in terms of growing the channel, I pulled together a list of every video I’ve made over the past two years and ranked them as either Growing or Dead based on the views coming in from that video over time.
A growing video has a graph that looks like this, where it’s clear that a constant flow of new viewers is finding the video over time.
A dead video on the other hand, levels out almost immediately and only gains very few new viewers over time.
So with that in mind, here’s how the past two years on the channel stack up.
I did actually have a plan in place last year, but have been neglecting it all year due to time constraints. My plan was to create videos to populate this table. I still think it would be a good idea, but I also think that creating videos on that scale is just incompatible with my work life balance, and the weekly video output I’ve been trying to maintain.
The good news is that I’m still learning and improving with each video I make, wether that’s better lighting, camera settings, audio quality, screen transitions etc, that whenever I do get round to making this videos, the quality should be better as a result of the extra practise I’ve put in over the time!
If I compare a video from today to the same time last year, it’s clear that I’m still improving and making meaningful and noticeable progress. Hopefully those improvements will continue to compound, then whenever I do make another video that brings in a new audience, more of them will be likely to stick around…
Here’s the table I was planning to fill in with content.
September is looking like a busy month for me, so I’ll have to stick to smaller videos for now. In October I will try to get into the flow of making some bigger videos and try to tick somethings off the checklist…
Sorry for the rants this month! Im just in a bit of a bad headspace at the moment, and use these recaps to vent and figure out what’s in my head… Anyway… Here’s the content for the month!
Videos
Podcasts
Streams
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Over the last year I have really been enjoying the more thesis based videos that Retro Bird makes. He also blends that with his own comedic sensibilities.
I think the outtakes on your recent video could well be a nice addition (lime cannonball run 😀) to maybe not every video, but would add some lightness to your more informative style of videos.
I also would love to see a more in depth tour of your own collection…one video per game system.
Hope this helps!
You could do a list of quality retro style games on newer consoles (Switch, PS5, etc).
What games to collect on newer consoles that might be expensive in the future (I’ve been considering this for the switch)?
I do like hidden gems…and on something like the Wii there are a lot. And your hidden gem videos have been different to that of other youtubers.
Maybe a holy grail video of games you’d like to add to you collection and reasons why you haven’t already.
All the best 👍
Thanks for the suggestions! I do enjoy Retro Bird’s videos but I don’t think I have the energy for that style of content! He’s definitely found his audience though for sure 🙂 I’m planning to do individual console collection videos, maybe starting in the new year I’ll do one a month…
I personally enjoy the vast majority of your videos as I’m sure others do to so please don’t be too disheartened, YouTube is a funny old game!
Have you thought about a series where you collect a specific set of games for a particular console eg. all of the Konami games for the NES or Atlus games for the Saturn? Take the viewers through the journey to different Retro Game stores, conventions etc as you build the collection?
Never give up 🤙🏻
Thanks! I try to keep positive, but also want to figure out any weaknesses I may have at the same time, it’s all about learning and finding out what works for me! 🙂 Thanks for the suggestions too! I have thought about doing collections! It can get VERY expensive though >.< I was looking at doing Konami 16 bit, and Treasure, but maaaan some of those rarer games are insane these days!
I just started watching your videos and as you said I went straight for the “Top Games” videos. I feel you are very genuine and have great energy & enthusiasm for the games you like, making me want to try out games & genres I previously would not.
What I usually like on YouTube is of course the “top games for this system” but also hidden gems videos, and like “top best RPGs, platformers etc” for this specific platform. Retrospective videos are also great, a personal touch with what you yourself remember from when you first played/bought the game.
So like a series, that you can follow when you cover endless of games and memories hehe.
I look forward to more videos from you and will start to watch the backlog with videos I have yet to see! 🙂
Cheer up, in my opinion you are a very good content creator.
What would help your channel, I think, is to talk more about current events. A video about the Chromatic or a monthly update on the state of the most promising homebrew games I think would draw more attention to click on the video and attract more audience.
wow!! 104RetroBreak Recap – August 2024
I’ve just discovered your channel through your latest video (“Why I gave up gamedev”) and I’m truly impressed about your journey. Especially this blog which I don’t see very often now days.
I think Youtube recently doesn’t know what to monetize properly, its just supersaturated with lot of garbage content that (unfortunately) attracts clicks and therefore ads, generating money for Google. Hopefully its just a cycle as I’ve notice that everyone is getting tired of that “algorithm race”.
I’m a developer and I love programming, and same as you, I also wanted to create games when I grew up. Watching your last video I notice that your passion about its something I have never had interested in, create stories and documentations for the game. That’s awesome!
My suggestion would be for you to take advantage of that and create videos telling your personal connections with the games you played over the years.
Genuine content as your is a rare find, don’t give up!
PS. thanks for sharing your Youtube data, this is also uncommon as most Youtubers masks their real results.
Just seen your comment, thanks for the kind words! I’m surprised more creators don’t express their thoughts and frustrations openly like I do, I always enjoy people who share their struggles and ideas openly, so I try to do the same, but it does seem like something most hide away from! Glad you enjoyed reading! I’m feeling much better about content now, got some good plans now 🙂