Google says adblockers caused YouTube views count to drop - this is what adblockers told us really happened
Google blames ad blockers for crashing YouTube view counts while filter maintainers scramble to undo accidental damage seen worldwide
Tldr: youtube forced ai into video monitoring and it keeps killing videos it shouldn't, so instead of saying Ai is bad they're blaming af blockers because why not lie when there's no repercussions?
YouTube views are dropping because they are using AI to vet and cull age innappropriate content from minors. the problem is the ai is very bad at its job and marks way too many videos as not advertiser friendly, which effectively kills YouTube promoting that video in feeds. this is the default view for new accounts, so you have to specifically turn off parental controls to see a normal feed. this started happening about 4 months ago. a number of channels I watch have made comments about this, including Redlettermedia
I don't understand:
Not saying I don't believe that's what's happening, but the article mentions nothing about any sort of YouTube AI interference.
Because the AI integration is a recent change unrelated to this data. The commenter is pulling it out of their ass.
If we’re just throwing out theories, I’d propose it was the dramatic increase in ads with a decrease in quality of content being served by the algorithm. The only thing that gets front page access is clickbait.
youtube forced ai into video monitoring and it keeps killing videos it shouldn't
That explains why sometimes the video stops and I get error message. I thought it may have to do with switching the script blockers on or off.
Pinch flat. GitHub. Go.
This is hearsay from victims looking for a reason of their suffering.
Source: my ass
This is not at all what happened. Maybe try reading the article next time.
If you see an ad, close the tab.
Literally the only way they will learn. I really don't understand how we as a society have accepted ads as a necessary evil. We all hate them, but we all also make them work. It's horrible.
I've been wondering for a while where the point of diminishing returns is. Surely, at some point, ads become aggressive enough to have an adverse effect on advertisers?
It kinda is a necessary evil, if you want free content at least. Especially for a website like youtube where you need to host millions of large videos 24/7. That shit ain't cheap, and even google can't make money out of thin air. Not that I'm defending youtube or anything, charging $8 a month for premium lite but still giving you ads is insane. Paid services should never have ads.
My problem isn't with ads, but rather the type of ads used. Like I said a moment ago, I don't think paid services should ever have ads of any kind. But for free websites, a few side banner ads are fine in my book, while ads in the middle of a page or popup ads or video ads (especially unskippable ones) are a no-go. Essentially anything that doesn't interrupt what I'm doing is usually something I'm okay with.
It’s going to take a big cultural shift to get enough people to pay content creators through subscriptions to compete with ad-driven models.
Eventually YouTube’s hubris will cross the line where enough people will just assume the ads are so bad it’s not worth trying to watch a video. As somebody with technical means and no tolerance for ads I’m astonished more people aren’t there yet.
i know what im about to do is beyond the pale on lemmy but here it is anyway. for youtube, they have to spend money to host the content and deliver it. you can pay a subscription fee to enable them to do that. they have ads on there for people who expect free shit forever
Are these "we all" people you talking about are in the same room with us right now? I don't really think that would apply to all of us.
firefox and ublock origin.
All these sites monitor engagement, they walk the line between maximum ads and users. If we decrease the users, they'll decrease the ads to try and keep us.
LOL, nah. If we decrease the users, they'll increase the ads to try to compensate for declining revenue. They believe they have all the power and don't give a fuck what we think.
They'll just insert bots who'll comment generic, soulless things to say instead. "OMG This product amazed me!" or "I cannot BELIEVE how nobody discovered this sooner!" all the while artificially inflating numbers.
The number of ads I had popping up while trying to read that article isn't discouraging me from using adblockers.
This is actually one of my favorite websites to browse on desktop through my VPN and extreme DNS blocking solution. The console just fills with blocked content and JavaScript errors, it really warms my heart.
I’m sure that the number of times I’ve decided “nah I don’t need to see that” after being told an ad blocker violated YouTube’s terms of service has absolutely nothing to do with it either.
Even on a computer without ad blocker (work laptop, chrome browser)
the number of times i say "nah i don't need to see that" as soon as thes annoying ads comes up before the video...
The decline probably has very little to do with ad blockers.
Exactly.
If I am forced to see ads, especially intrusive or page filling ones, I will not continue.
I watched lots of YouTube in the past.
When they started inserting ads into the videos (not channel sponsored stuff), the camel started getting weak.
When they started requiring sign-ins or blocking access when using a proxy that was the straw.
I don't use YouTube anymore.
The decline was very sudden, almost instantaneous, and can be traced back to the exact date a block list, used by most major desktop ad blockers, added the YouTube View Counter API endpoint to their list.
But sure… nothing to do with ad blockers.
frustrated by ads that feel irrelevant
What?
Do they think we have a friend-or-foe system that only shoots down advertisements from adversaries?
An ad is an ad, and should be terminated on sight.
I used to prefer personalized ads over the insanity that was 90-00s "random" ads experience. But, since ads became a risk vector, I agree with a block by default approach, and I'll find alternate ways to support sites I visit frequently rather than allowlist ads.
Lemme try and feel sorry for my cartoonishly rich tech overlords real quick.........
also it seems too convenient for them for this to happen just after they removed ad blockers from chrome...
Blocking ads for decades everywhere, life is sooo goood without that cancer.
P.S. The only place were ads should appear are "yellow pages" thing, for example messenger channels just for that, where you intentionally join to look for local deals, discounts, contractors etc, especially to support local economy and not some megacorp. And ofc current google spying is not helping, block the ads, block trackers, it ruins the "steal the data" model.
If the Google war on ad blocking meant the ad blockers accidently blocked something everyone wants its still Google fault.
Everything was fine until Google decided to change how everything works over and over again to get people to watch the awful ads they let on their platform.
I don't use ad blockers, just normal YouTube. One thing I noticed about a month ago is that when I'm watching some silly video a 55 second ad will come on with about three minutes left to view on the video. It's at that point I usually just back out and look for other videos to watch. My grandson told me it seems odd because YouTube monetization requires the whole video to be viewed before they'll pay. Does this make sense? I don't know much about "monetization" I just watch silly videos.
For those curious what “adblockers said really happened”:
[AdGuard] suggested that the issue may have been linked to popular community-maintained filter lists like EasyList and uBlock’s Quick Fixes.
A new filter rule added to EasyList on August 11, 2025 targeted telemetry requests thought to be tied to YouTube’s view attribution and analytics.
That rule remained in place until September 10, when it was temporarily disabled.
A similar change was added to uBlock’s Quick Fixes on September 10 and removed on September 17.
OK. I mean Fuck Alphabet anyhow, but this means a youtuber who relies on view counts for monetary income (I guess) would actually have reason to worry about adblockers?
Again, I'm not saying I'm against adblockers or even this particular feature. And I very well see what Google is doing here, trying to get their creators up in arms against adblocking. I just want to know if this is debunkable or if youtubers would have a genuine argument here.
I did not really understand above explanation. I guess I need it ELI5.
Basically Youtube instead of counting views via actual requests for the videos instead uses a separate call that essentially says "hey, someone watched this video". All the ad blockers rather than use a hard coded list of URLs to block which would quickly go stale instead use one of a couple different 3rd party lists the most popular of which is EasyList. EasyList decided to block the URL that youtube uses to register views on the principal that it was a privacy violation because it not only registers "hey someone watched this" but also captures exactly who watched it which allows Google to track your viewing habits.
It wouldn't matter whether it was intentional or not. Put simply, Google can continue indirectly punishing creators for tolerating adblockers then redirect blame, even though they could have easily separated the metrics from the advertising and telemetry endpoints that blockers filtered. This way they get their money either from unblocked ads or from creator's reduced view counts, win-win for Google.
As an added bonus for Google, by ensuring view metrics get fucked up, it double punishes creators featuring sponsored content that rely on those metrics to determine how much the sponsor should pay them. Meanwhile Google could, in theory, sell ad placements attached to their own internal metrics that differ from the affected ones publicly visible.
I kept up with the drama until about a week ago so what I'm saying here is the status from back then. Someone please add any new context if I'm missing any new developments:
From what it appeared, view counts dropped but ad revenue stayed the same. Even before this whole thing, YouTube pays out for ads watched (and clicked). Pay out was not dependent on raw view count for a long time, if ever.
This suspicious behavior of view count dropping but ad revenue staying the same is actually what tipped people off that the issue was adblock related. The fact that channels with a larger focus on a younger audience seeing less of a drop also helped.
Now those view counts dropping could still have an indirect, negative effect on ad revenue, if it, e.g. automatically leads to YouTube recommending their videos less prominently.
I have a few YouTubers I like to support with views of all of their content. Because I want them to get the support, I watch their content on YouTube with no ad blockers.
Didn't age verification - also recently implemented - cause youtube views to drop?
Here's a case of it very well explained.
It was the first thing most people assumed was the culprit, as it silently enabled Restricted Mode, but since the biggest difference came from Computer views, despite the age verification happening on all platforms, that is strong evidence against that having any impact
Not to mention most didn't see a corresponding drop in revenue from views.
No. It's false news. Just someone panicked looking for a cheap reason.
It's gotten to the point where I have to re-load each YT tab three times before the video ever starts playing - only because I use uBlock.
Still better than watching ads, but it is getting annoying.
I have a theory that YT deliberately makes you wait the length an ad would have been if you have uBlock Origin installed. Ive just let it "buffer" for 30 seconds or so and it will eventually load the video.
I'd rather watch nothing than an ad trying to sell me something.
Still better tbh
I think this is true, and I still prefer it to an ad. Even if it's longer than the ad would have been.
I am fine if it means I don't have to watch some scam ass ad.
I have no problems with ublock on Firefox or Librewolf, unless I try to skip past what the video already loaded, then it's a dice roll whether it'll work or not
I have the same problem, and after you start clicking play, often you can wait it out and the video will eventually play on its own after 10-15 seconds
This mostly happens when you use youtube while being logged into a google account.
I fixed this by using firefox containers + https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/switch-container/
also has the nice benefit of not messing up your reccomendations when clicking on random yt-links from other sites
It is like they know you're using adblocks, so instead of trying to force ads down your throat, they try making your experience miserable by breaking their own viewer or whatever. It is absolutely petty of them.
Leave a video sitting there in idle for too long, come back, it plays for 10 seconds then has to reload itself. Sometimes, it doesn't do this, so it requires a complete refresh.
They can do this bullshit all they want but I am not letting up on blocking ads.
For me, it works without reloading.... After a 15 second load and an insufferably laggy UI despite having no identifiable system bottleneck.
Yeah yt is basically unusable on Firefox with a blocker and it's 100% by design. Yt even gives a helpful pop-up offering to tell me why it's running so slow.
I switched from Chrome to MS Edge and don't have that YouTube ad-blocking issue with uBlock anymore. Other than that, MS Edge works exactly like Chrome.
MS Edge is Chrome, with a slight MS reskin.
caused youtube views count to drop
oh no... anyway
Some people might care about supporting the creators they enjoy by having their view count. If it looks like nobody is watching, then that doesn't fare well for the creator, even if in reality they have a viewership that's invisible.
adblockers cause views to drop
Nothing causes me to drop a video like an ad I can't put up with, like a political ad. This is some BULLSHIT.
It's true. Having to constantly update some adblockers and ways to evade ads in youtube made me realize shitty youtube videos are not worth the effort and I barely use it nowadays.
(shrug) don't care if it affects views, never should have had them in videos regardless.
The only real alternatives to ads are either paying for the content, or having someone else pay for you. The latter is the case with something like PeerTube - someone else is covering the cost of the server and bandwidth without asking you for payment, and the creator doesn't get money from you just watching the video.
Paying to access content makes a lot more sense that hoping someone willingly watches an advert on their own hardware.
An indirect, alternate could be universal basic income - which makes it easier for people to choose less profitable options.
i really don’t care
rather do without than with ads
If it were sensibly prized I would have no issue with paying for YouTube. But seeing as they almost ask for the same as Netflix and co while not producing any content, I decided for the adblocker instead
Creators are paid based on those views, so that would matter.
I personally wouldn't care that much if youtube went back to how it was back in the day of people sharing for the sake of sharing instead of it being filled with bunch of aspiring infomercial hosts trying to get the bag.
Have to block so many channels because they monopolize the top search results before I see videos from normal folks just uploading to upload because they thought a video would be helpful.
@kokesh@lemmy.world @ZenShinobi@lemmy.world
Creators are paid based on those views if they're willing to be dependent on them.
There are many, many ways for a content creator to be supported (and a viewer/follower to support them) without relying on Google: Kofi, OpenCollective, even Patreon, to name a few. And there are platforms specifically paid by the viewer, such as Nebula.
It's worth mentioning: donation is a thing and many do donation-based projects. It can be even a direct bank transfer from a viewer to the bank account of the content creator. I say this as someone who did support content creators and donated to them. In the past, I used to pay for membership for two specific Youtube channels, back when I still used to use Youtube. When I stopped using Youtube, I went from YT membership to direct, bank transfer to both creators behind these channels. I wished they would choose to use some private PeerTube instance/channel (it's a thing) or even Nebula, but they stubbornly chose to stick to Google's walled garden, unfortunately leaving me with no choice but to stop watching them both.
Had what in videos?
Ads
At least we know one thing that didn't cause it.
Thanks for that hint on decoding your shitty blackbox google.
For many years biggest online threats were criminals and malware. Today the biggest threats are big companies, especially Google. Everyday we have to "fight" against it because it tries to steal all our data and even more.
YouTube is completely broken on my Apple TV — the last platform I have which actually does display ads. When the app loads, I get a black screen. When I tap on a video (click on it? on the remote?) it goes black, stutters through an ad, stutters through the next one, then stutters through the video for a couple seconds. Sometimes I have to start the video over. If I were running an ad blocker, I would expect static like this... but I'm not. I don't have a PiHole. The Apple TV has direct, unfiltered access to my WiFi. The ads are showing, but the app is just... broken. On my computers (Macs) I get a perfect experience, because I use Firefox with uBlock Origin like a sane person who knows what they're doing.
The black screen on the TV could be related to your TV’s HDR settings. Only recent TVs have started to decrease that temporary stutter between SDR/HDR.
It was annoying as hell in ad rolls before I started to pay for YT lite so my kid wouldn’t be advertised to.
No longer paying since they shuttered the YT Kids app on TvOS.
Yeah I've had more than a few things where the ONLY thing that shows is the ad, and then the content roll fails and/or it just keeps looping ads with no content
*Goolag shooting itself on foot be like.
The dev community is just adapting to shit thrown.
For reference, here are the exceptions I've been using to try to make sure my viewership counts. Not sure if they're all needed and they're probably overkill, but:
@@||youtube.com/api$domain=youtube.com|google.com
@@||youtube.com/youtubei$domain=youtube.com|google.com
@@||youtube.com/ptracking$domain=youtube.com|google.com
@@||play.google.com/log$domain=youtube.com|google.com
! these are meant for checking for active internet connection (https://www.techtapto.com/what-is-gstatic-why-you-see-it-often/#Is_Gstatic_com_generate_204_a_virus)
@@||youtube.com/generate_204$domain=youtube.com|google.com
@@||google.com/generate_204$domain=youtube.com|google.com
@@||youtube.com/gen_204$domain=youtube.com|google.com
@@||google.com/gen_204$domain=youtube.com|google.com
They're not getting revenue from you either way. That's really more effort than I would want to go through for what amounts to a display bug.
Well, I for one stopped seeing YouTube videos ever since they started requiring me to Sign On because I'm using an AdBlocker and am behind a VPN.
If for some reason it's actually required that I watch it, I'll disconnect from the VPN and watch it, if not, I just move on.
In the last 6 months or so I have disconnected my VPN to watch a YouTube video maybe once, whilst I just moved on maybe hundred times or so (less and less as I increasingly I won't even click on links for YouTube).
Why do you need to login? I've been using YT w/o being logged in for a couple years now, and it's 100% fine. I can't watch some of the age-restricted videos, but those are so rare that I don't even remember the last time I've been prevented from seeing a video.
I think so too and did the same as you.
What I'm saying is that when I'm behind my VPN, if I go directly to a video in YouTube by clicking on an external link that goes to that video directly (for example, a link to a YouTube video in a Lemmy post), YouTube literally demands that I log in to play the video, giving me no other option.
If I disconnect from the VPN and fully refresh the page, it doesn't demand that I log in.
I supposed they have the VPN exit point IP addresses of the VPN provider I use on some list and for connections from those IP addresses YouTube requires Log In before playing a video.
Something that I've been confused about ever since people have been talking about this, is that there didn't seem to be a change of views from mobile devices. Like, I know that adblockers are less common on mobile devices because most people either don't know they are available or aren't using browsers that have/support (good) adblockers. But, was there really no noticeable change at all?
There was. Some channels even saw most of their decline from mobile/TV viewers.
That doesn't necessarily mean that wasn't also related to the adblocker issue, though. How the algorithm reacted to the dramatic change in views could have made waves that saw channels de-recommended or caused it to ignore sections of a viewer's watch history and thus the recommendations shown to them as well.
With the algorithm everything gets tied together so much that any disruption can have unpredictable effects.
Youtube has not once on any device or brpwser recognided the most ubiquitous adblocker for me
Google know who they're streaming videos to. They know this from the back-end. They absolutely do not require a script running in the browser to phone home about it in order to count "views". All the telemetry they need they can get from existing traffic; the additional telemetry supplied by scripts is mostly just for Bad Reasons and it's morally fine to block it.