YouTube favors short-form videos over long-form content
10 posts across 3 communities in the last 60 days; 60% from r/NewTubers.
“When you do long form content you build a more loyal audience that way and doing only long form content will give you big views a only a little while till they will eventually drop and shorts are mainly for trends and using shorts for original content isn't really going to work…”
“Your shorts audience is basically a different species from the long-form crowd. They're scrolling for quick hits, not settling in for a 15 minute deep dive. The FIFA 17 video getting 11 views isn't surprising when your subscriber base was built on 30 second clips. Start treating…”
“>Beyond that people’s attention spans are cooked. People got too used to TikTok and YouTube shorts. Long form content is not that desirable anymore. i think this is overblown by social media. Only a handful people go to this extreme and because it is an extreme it gets endlessly…”
Creators express frustration that YouTube's algorithm prioritizes shorts, leading to lower visibility and fewer views for longer videos. They believe the platform intentionally promotes low-quality shorts to maximize impressions, while carefully guarding watch time for long-form content.
SOURCES (10)
“When you do long form content you build a more loyal audience that way and doing only long form content will give you big views a only a little while till they will eventually drop and shorts are mainly for trends and using shorts for…”
Shorts are a lot more fickle than long form. You can make amazing shorts and they wont do much until you build a big collection of them and people are watching your…
“Your shorts audience is basically a different species from the long-form crowd. They're scrolling for quick hits, not settling in for a 15 minute deep dive. The FIFA 17 video getting 11 views isn't surprising when your subscriber base was built on 30 second clips. Start treating your long-form content like a separate launch. Those 600k Spider-Man views mean nothing if those viewers only want bite-sized content. You need to find the people who actually want to hear you talk for 10+ minute”
“IMO (for long-form creators), the real question now becomes whether Shorts has become a valuable-enough tool to drive viewers to long-form videos. About 2-3 years ago, it used to be that Shorts significantly disrupted performance for long-form creators; there was at least one thread per week on this sub about how introducing Shorts ruined impressions and views. This sentiment seems to have tapered itself over the past 1-2 years. Many have and still tout that Shorts viewers don't convert to l”
“>Beyond that people’s attention spans are cooked. People got too used to TikTok and YouTube shorts. Long form content is not that desirable anymore. i think this is overblown by social media. Only a handful people go to this extreme and because it is an extreme it gets endlessly talked about. Most people can follow a movie just fine. Most people gobble up youtube essays of 1+ hours. [re: Netflix plans to layoff 5% of workforce]”
“New from YouTube this week! If any part of your channel leans on other creators' footage, this news is for you. They're changing Shorts recommendations to prioritize original content and reduce distribution for channels that mostly repost or aggregate clips without adding anything of their own. The key line from their announcement is that minor technical edits or template-based changes to alter a video won't count. What does count is real added value, your own commentary, unique edit”
“You didn't need to make Shorts Short submitted by /u/MR_Happy2008 [link] [comments]”