Channel feeling dead and it’s breaking my spirit

[u/nickdebruyne]

I really need some advice. Your responses really would be appreciated. Instead of growing with consistent views, so many of my videos from the past 6-8 months are barely breaking 250-400 views anymore. For some context:

I have a gaming channel that’s around 4 to 5 years old now with around 300 videos, monetised for nearly 3 years I think. I have just under 3000 subscribers, and recently passed 1 million views… But it feels like barely any of my recent videos ever get many views except for the odd occasion. It breaks my spirit because despite it making a bit of money and getting some decent overall views from the entire library, (around 40k hours a month), I make videos in the hopes that people watch them and we can also connect and chat, etc. The channel feels a bit lifeless.

I got to a point here I considered 1000 views on a video to be a success, and I started getting more 5,000s and some 10,000+ with a few really big performers, but this is killing me… 300 views, 130 views, 260 views. Some old performers are still performing day after day, but this is breaking me. The biggest misconception I had was that as I got more subscribers, my videos would have a higher consistent floor of viewers - but honestly it feels more like people subscribe and then forget the channel exists, as so many views are from new viewers.

Where I know I could improve: I haven’t picked a hard sub-niche, and I know that I experiment with formats and video concepts too much, so my content isn’t a consistent format for returning viewers. I possibly tweak and update thumbnails and titles too much. I really need some advice, I feel like i want to throw in the towel because I love it but it’s a lot of work and energy and it sucks to feel like it’s not really going anywhere.