YouTubers fame vs subscribers
Discussion
Always wondered why/how regular YouTubers get recognised so much when out and about.
For example Trucker Tim has 255k subs. In one video he drives UK-France-Belgium-Holland and is recognised numerous times including by a load of kids in Holland.
Rate my takeaway is similar even when he had under 200k subs. He was constantly stopped wherever he went which just doesn’t make sense because in theory, only about 200k ppl should know who he is. That’s about 3% of the entire population.
What am I missing?
For example Trucker Tim has 255k subs. In one video he drives UK-France-Belgium-Holland and is recognised numerous times including by a load of kids in Holland.
Rate my takeaway is similar even when he had under 200k subs. He was constantly stopped wherever he went which just doesn’t make sense because in theory, only about 200k ppl should know who he is. That’s about 3% of the entire population.
What am I missing?
Edited by AF11 on Tuesday 3rd December 00:59
Quite funny that you post this as a few days ago I was sat behind a Ford Kuga with ‘Trucker Tim’ stickers on its back windows and I just assumed that the driver was a guy called Tim who drove HGVs and him or his family had some stickers made 
In response to your actual question, it’s all manufactured, they’re are a few YouTubers that I watch that have more subscribers than those you’ve mentioned, but if they were to walk through London, I doubt many would know them.
Those YouTubers you’ve mentioned will likely either have said where they’ll be to their fans or have paid people to be ‘fans’.
In response to your actual question, it’s all manufactured, they’re are a few YouTubers that I watch that have more subscribers than those you’ve mentioned, but if they were to walk through London, I doubt many would know them.
Those YouTubers you’ve mentioned will likely either have said where they’ll be to their fans or have paid people to be ‘fans’.
nismocat said:
I saw a Reddit and it was one of these Youtubers and he admitted most of it is faked and he sets up people recognising him, either paid followers or mates. He said he went to a Vloggers conference and said most of them do it and pay for subscribers.
Doesn't surprise me at the least - the desperate desire for fame doing vlogs etc is beyond me...If you have a channel you'll see metrics based on how many subscribers you have compared to regular viewers. Someone with 225k subscribers could very easily have 1M+ regular viewers. On top of that you could have another 500k or 1M irregular viewers (pops up on their feed from time to time and they've watched). Also a lot of youtubers have multiple accounts now, different languages or different content etc. For example, I am subscribed to Harry's Garage but not Harry's farm, his videos always appear on my feed and most of the time I watch them!
AF11 said:
Always wondered why/how regular YouTubers get recognised so much when out and about.
For example Trucker Tim has 255k subs. In one video he drives UK-France-Belgium-Holland and is recognised numerous times including by a load of kids in Holland.
Rate my takeaway is similar even when he had under 200k subs. He was constantly stopped wherever he went which just doesn’t make sense because in theory, only about 200k ppl should know who he is. That’s about 3% of the entire population.
What am I missing?
With Trucker Tim he drives around in a bright blue & white truck covered in lights and his name on the headboard so its hard to miss him. I imagine if he just walked round a shopping centre on his own he probably wouldn't get noticed. For example Trucker Tim has 255k subs. In one video he drives UK-France-Belgium-Holland and is recognised numerous times including by a load of kids in Holland.
Rate my takeaway is similar even when he had under 200k subs. He was constantly stopped wherever he went which just doesn’t make sense because in theory, only about 200k ppl should know who he is. That’s about 3% of the entire population.
What am I missing?
Rate My Takeaway is known by a lot more people than just those who subscribe to him due to reels/TikTok. I know who he is and I'd probably recognise him if he walked by in the street but I'm not subscribed to him. Its the type of thing that I'd watch if it popped up on TikTok but I wouldn't subscribe and watch every new upload.
Crudeoink said:
If you have a channel you'll see metrics based on how many subscribers you have compared to regular viewers. Someone with 225k subscribers could very easily have 1M+ regular viewers. On top of that you could have another 500k or 1M irregular viewers (pops up on their feed from time to time and they've watched). Also a lot of youtubers have multiple accounts now, different languages or different content etc. For example, I am subscribed to Harry's Garage but not Harry's farm, his videos always appear on my feed and most of the time I watch them!
Yes that’s definitely true in a lot of cases but in trucker tims example, he avgs 2-300k views which is very similar to his sub count, so he doesn’t have a lot of non subs watching his vids. 123DWA said:
AF11 said:
Always wondered why/how regular YouTubers get recognised so much when out and about.
For example Trucker Tim has 255k subs. In one video he drives UK-France-Belgium-Holland and is recognised numerous times including by a load of kids in Holland.
Rate my takeaway is similar even when he had under 200k subs. He was constantly stopped wherever he went which just doesn’t make sense because in theory, only about 200k ppl should know who he is. That’s about 3% of the entire population.
What am I missing?
With Trucker Tim he drives around in a bright blue & white truck covered in lights and his name on the headboard so its hard to miss him. I imagine if he just walked round a shopping centre on his own he probably wouldn't get noticed. For example Trucker Tim has 255k subs. In one video he drives UK-France-Belgium-Holland and is recognised numerous times including by a load of kids in Holland.
Rate my takeaway is similar even when he had under 200k subs. He was constantly stopped wherever he went which just doesn’t make sense because in theory, only about 200k ppl should know who he is. That’s about 3% of the entire population.
What am I missing?
Rate My Takeaway is known by a lot more people than just those who subscribe to him due to reels/TikTok. I know who he is and I'd probably recognise him if he walked by in the street but I'm not subscribed to him. Its the type of thing that I'd watch if it popped up on TikTok but I wouldn't subscribe and watch every new upload.
AF11 said:
Always wondered why/how regular YouTubers get recognised so much when out and about.
For example Trucker Tim has 255k subs. In one video he drives UK-France-Belgium-Holland and is recognised numerous times including by a load of kids in Holland.
Rate my takeaway is similar even when he had under 200k subs. He was constantly stopped wherever he went which just doesn’t make sense because in theory, only about 200k ppl should know who he is. That’s about 3% of the entire population.
What am I missing?
Why do you assume that everyone needs to be a subscriber to be a viewer?For example Trucker Tim has 255k subs. In one video he drives UK-France-Belgium-Holland and is recognised numerous times including by a load of kids in Holland.
Rate my takeaway is similar even when he had under 200k subs. He was constantly stopped wherever he went which just doesn’t make sense because in theory, only about 200k ppl should know who he is. That’s about 3% of the entire population.
What am I missing?
Edited by AF11 on Tuesday 3rd December 00:59
I've watched Colin furze videos since he did things like mobile fire, or bmw jacuzzi. His top video (homemade hoverbike) has 51m views. He's been making watchable stuff for 17 years.
I've never considered subscribing. No idea if that makes me an outlier, but i think there's a fair chance that he'd get recognised.
Equally, since most of tictoc etc is just faking an image, there'll be a lot of people setting up fake fame!
48k said:
AF11 said:
What am I missing?
That "subscribers" is not the same as "viewers" ?Also they might have a video that went viral on a platform and then suddenly millions know them.
Some Gump said:
AF11 said:
Always wondered why/how regular YouTubers get recognised so much when out and about.
For example Trucker Tim has 255k subs. In one video he drives UK-France-Belgium-Holland and is recognised numerous times including by a load of kids in Holland.
Rate my takeaway is similar even when he had under 200k subs. He was constantly stopped wherever he went which just doesn’t make sense because in theory, only about 200k ppl should know who he is. That’s about 3% of the entire population.
What am I missing?
Why do you assume that everyone needs to be a subscriber to be a viewer?For example Trucker Tim has 255k subs. In one video he drives UK-France-Belgium-Holland and is recognised numerous times including by a load of kids in Holland.
Rate my takeaway is similar even when he had under 200k subs. He was constantly stopped wherever he went which just doesn’t make sense because in theory, only about 200k ppl should know who he is. That’s about 3% of the entire population.
What am I missing?
Edited by AF11 on Tuesday 3rd December 00:59
I've watched Colin furze videos since he did things like mobile fire, or bmw jacuzzi. His top video (homemade hoverbike) has 51m views. He's been making watchable stuff for 17 years.
I've never considered subscribing. No idea if that makes me an outlier, but i think there's a fair chance that he'd get recognised.
Equally, since most of tictoc etc is just faking an image, there'll be a lot of people setting up fake fame!
48k said:
AF11 said:
What am I missing?
That "subscribers" is not the same as "viewers" ?In fact, when you start seeing massive percentages of the views being subscribers, time to worry as YT isn't showing your video to randoms any more (ie. not recommending it, and that's how it gets lots of views).
Even subscribers aren't guaranteed to have the video pushed to their recommendations. I've channels that I'm subbed to and haven't seen a video recommended for many months despite them putting out new stuff all the time. There's also other channels I watch on a regular basis that I'm not subscribed to that put out a regular show and I always see that pop up in my recommended list. But I guess if I stopped watching for a week or two, that would get replaced by something else.
Pretty sure I read about someone from YT saying that subs aren't as important as they once were, it's whether or not you have watched that channel (or a similar topic) recently. So creators need to keep pushing out the content on a regular basis as once people stop watching for a week or two, they 'lose' them even if they are a subscriber. Seems like being a Youtuber is getting a lot less like fun and more and more like a full time job all the time.
Lucas Ayde said:
Even subscribers aren't guaranteed to have the video pushed to their recommendations. I've channels that I'm subbed to and haven't seen a video recommended for many months despite them putting out new stuff all the time.
If you subscribe to a channel all of that channel's output appears in your "Subscriptions", whether you like it or not, assuming you're signed in! CypSIdders said:
Lucas Ayde said:
Even subscribers aren't guaranteed to have the video pushed to their recommendations. I've channels that I'm subbed to and haven't seen a video recommended for many months despite them putting out new stuff all the time.
If you subscribe to a channel all of that channel's output appears in your "Subscriptions", whether you like it or not, assuming you're signed in! If you specifically want to see the new videos from your subs, you have to click left onto the 'icon menu' of different categories and then click down to subscriptions. That's extra 'friction' and is going to take away potential views. If you don't get recommended, you lose views even from subscribers.
I remember being annoyed when YT first started to push suggestions over subs - IIRC the client used to be much more centred around subs - but to be fair, it's the best way to keep people entertained with a feed of stuff that they are (likely) interested in. Unlike the days when everything 'internet' was web-based on a browser with someone sat at their computer, Youtube is now more like channel hopping on a TV.
(Broadly the same on a web browser too now.)
Linus Sebastian (of Linus Tech Tips) discussed this recently on a podcast. He noted that he had attended a school reunion recently and realised (to his delight, I should note) that he was largely unrecognised by his peers. He was just another guy in that room which I got the feeling he enjoyed.
I guess they will always show when a fan recognises them in their videos, but there are plenty of other times they aren't recognised and they don't draw attention or comment on that.
I guess they will always show when a fan recognises them in their videos, but there are plenty of other times they aren't recognised and they don't draw attention or comment on that.
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