YouTube is making a change to the way real-time subscriber counts are displayed, which may potentially prevent analytic sites to display the accurate number of subscribers gained or lost by the creator.
Until now, YouTube users saw the exact subscriber count – for example, 2,499,106. But once the change is implemented, they will see a flat 2 million.
The change will not affect the regular users but will make a significant difference to the creators and YouTubers who depend on these stats.
A community post from YouTube’s product team notes that knowing the subscriber count holds extreme importance for the creators. However, the change is being implanted to create more consistency.
The development came just after memes of the drops and gains of creators from Social Blade were spreading on the internet. The scandal included several prolific creators such as Fortnite pro Turner ‘Tfue’, famous vlogger PewDiePie, James Charles and Jeffree Star. Most of these channels rely on the real-time stats by Social Blade and often show the numbers through live streaming to enhance the viewer’s interest.
Often, the live showing of the subscriber counts results in feuds between the creators. Just recently, we witnessed James Charles and Tati Westbrook get into a debate of their lost and gained subscribers. The feud saw worldwide coverage where both the creators even sat down at Google’s Spaces to talk about the situation.
Similarly, other creators have also got into bullying online, mocking behavior, and other abuse as a result of the enhanced focus on real-time subscriber numbers.
However, the debates between the creators will soon end.
Besides YouTube, other platforms are also testing out similar changes. Take Instagram for example. The Facebook-owned app will soon disable the like counter from the photos to reduce pressure. Reddit also gives moderators the option to hide comment scores and vote numbers as well. Twitter is also planning the same with its retweets.
The change in the way subscriber counts are displayed on YouTube will be implemented in August.
Read next: Is YouTube also contributing in digital waste?
Until now, YouTube users saw the exact subscriber count – for example, 2,499,106. But once the change is implemented, they will see a flat 2 million.
The change will not affect the regular users but will make a significant difference to the creators and YouTubers who depend on these stats.
A community post from YouTube’s product team notes that knowing the subscriber count holds extreme importance for the creators. However, the change is being implanted to create more consistency.
"For channels with fewer than 1,000 subscribers, the exact (non-abbreviated) subscriber count will still be shown. Once your channel passes the 1000 subscriber milestone, we will begin to abbreviate your public subscriber numbers on a sliding scale.", announced YouTube Team.A spokesperson at YouTube confirmed the change and stated that they are updating the same to the sites that are dependent on their API services. For example, Social Blade, the analytic platform explained via Twitter that the changes on YouTube might affect their data display feature.
The development came just after memes of the drops and gains of creators from Social Blade were spreading on the internet. The scandal included several prolific creators such as Fortnite pro Turner ‘Tfue’, famous vlogger PewDiePie, James Charles and Jeffree Star. Most of these channels rely on the real-time stats by Social Blade and often show the numbers through live streaming to enhance the viewer’s interest.
Often, the live showing of the subscriber counts results in feuds between the creators. Just recently, we witnessed James Charles and Tati Westbrook get into a debate of their lost and gained subscribers. The feud saw worldwide coverage where both the creators even sat down at Google’s Spaces to talk about the situation.
Similarly, other creators have also got into bullying online, mocking behavior, and other abuse as a result of the enhanced focus on real-time subscriber numbers.
However, the debates between the creators will soon end.
Besides YouTube, other platforms are also testing out similar changes. Take Instagram for example. The Facebook-owned app will soon disable the like counter from the photos to reduce pressure. Reddit also gives moderators the option to hide comment scores and vote numbers as well. Twitter is also planning the same with its retweets.
The change in the way subscriber counts are displayed on YouTube will be implemented in August.
Read next: Is YouTube also contributing in digital waste?
