Why You Don’t Need a Million Subscribers

It’s simple. You’ve probably caught yourself thinking that these numbers no longer matter—gathering a loyal audience and maintaining views today isn’t about extreme popularity or six-figure subscriber counts.  

Let’s take a closer look at why this is the case and what truly deserves your attention right now.

How does YouTube tell us that the number of subscribers doesn't matter?

Let's first answer this question: what is the actual advantage of having a certain number of subscribers on a channel?  

Do they help videos grow? No, that’s not related.  

Do they influence recommendations? Again, no—what matters there is video performance, not subscriber count.  

Do they provide any crucial insights in analytics? Still no.

Aside from the subscriber count itself, there are no metrics in analytics that indicate this number has any real impact.  

Audience data is gathered from videos, not from subscribers, meaning that aside from the raw number, this metric holds no real significance—at least not for YouTube, its algorithms, or content promotion.  

If we look at YouTube’s official site for creators, we won’t find any encouragement to focus on gaining subscribers. Instead, the emphasis is on understanding your audience, improving videos, monetizing content, and following platform rules.  

Your true audience—the one watching and driving engagement—isn’t just reflected in subscriber numbers, since a huge portion of viewers watch without subscribing.  

So, subscribing to a channel is a way for users to keep track of a creator they like.  

In analytics, there are only two metrics directly related to subscribers: new subscribers and unsubscribes.  

For all other data, the audience is categorized as "viewers" rather than "subscribers," and all performance metrics are based on viewer watch data.  

You can find your exact subscriber count in several places:

•  On your channel page (but the number there is approximate and usually rounded up).  
•  In the "Analytics" tab, under "Overview" (where you’ll see the number of subscribers gained in a month and the exact total, updated in real-time).  
•  On the dashboard, meaning the main page of your Youtube Studio.

In Youtube Studio we have a lot of information about the latest video released on the channel, as well as the exact number of subscribers at the moment and the number of new subscribers per month—data that is also available in channel analytics.  

But if you scroll down, you can even see who exactly has subscribed to you. To do this, find the "New Subscribers" section and check the list. By adjusting the time frame, you can view all the subscribers you've gained over the entire existence of your channel.  

However, even there, the list will not be complete. YouTube explains this in its help section: you won’t see users who have hidden their subscriptions or accounts that have been deleted.  

Essentially, these are all the necessary data we have in the context of subscriber count. But this still doesn’t give the feeling that the number itself holds significance. Additionally, many unanswered questions remain. And one of them, we believe, deserves a detailed discussion.  

But before that, we’d like to ask you something.

Do you know a place where you can get an outsider’s perspective on your content, receive constructive criticism from other creators, and get expert feedback on everything you do on your YouTube channel?

Why does YouTube remove subscribers from channels?

Over the years, we have repeatedly received comments from you stating that YouTube unsubscribes viewers on its own. Your frustration is completely understandable, so let’s take a look at YouTube’s help section to see what the platform has to say about this:

• Many viewers unsubscribe themselves, either by accident or because the creator hasn't appeared in their feed for a long time, and they assumed the channel was abandoned;  
• A viewer can close access to subscription information, so this particular user won’t appear in your subscriber data. However, the subscriber count won’t change;  
• Subscribers might be removed due to platform glitches (this bulletpoint is made up by us, but it does happen on YouTube. It’s rare, but it happens, even though YouTube tries not to mention it);  
• YouTube removes deleted/banned accounts from your channel.

Now, let's talk about the last one more precisely.  

In the platform's terminology, such accounts are called "closed" or "fake," and they won't appear in your total subscriber count. YouTube itself divides these profiles into two categories:

• Closed accounts are channels that were deleted by the users themselves or blocked due to rule violations.  
• Fake subscribers are those attracted through fraudulent methods, such as via paid third-party services.

So, if one of your subscribers turns out to be a bot from a fake follower boost or simply deletes their account, YouTube will change your subscriber count, and you’ll never know about it. The number just changes.  

But that’s not all: the platform also doesn’t count accounts that are involved in spam. Honestly, the rules about this surprised us as well.  

So, if a spammer subscribes to you, their account won’t count in your subscriber count, but they can still watch your content without any restrictions. There’s not much logic to this, of course, but apparently, the platform knows best how to deal with such users.  

And lastly, here’s YouTube’s response to the question, “Why does my subscriber count change?”  

In short: guys, don’t worry, it’s OK. People unsubscribe, this happens.

Well, with the platform and its approach to subscriber counts cleared up, what about from a psychological perspective? Here is a slightly different approach.

Why is the number of subscribers so important to everyone?

The number of subscribers is not a guarantee that your content will be promoted by Youtube.  

YouTube is a business platform that sells advertising space, and it absolutely doesn’t care about your subscriber count. What matters to YouTube is that the content creators post content that is easy to monetize for both the platform and advertisers. It’s about ensuring ads can be seamlessly placed on the content.  

This obsession with quantitative metrics is a relic from YouTube’s past, when subscriber counts directly influenced algorithm performance. But that was relevant more than five years ago, and yet we’re still, for some reason, focused on these numbers.  

Today, the platform considers performance indicators like likes, dislikes, comments, and viewer retention, but subscriber counts are not factored in anywhere, as we’ve already discussed. Still, YouTube is not ready to stop displaying that coveted number.  

Youtube still rewards successful creators with buttons that motivate them to grow, make videos, and chase these, let’s call them, symbols of success. But does that button really make a difference? 

And when it comes to subscriber numbers, it ultimately comes down to psychology, simple human psychology. Both viewers and creators are still highly focused on this number. We automatically lower our trust in a channel with fewer subscribers.

Here are a couple of arguments in favor of not giving this metric so much importance anymore:

• People have stopped trusting big creators because quantity is not an indicator of quality.

Both we and others have been convinced many times that even a large, reputable blogger may not hesitate to promote betting, casinos, or profit off their audience through useless courses. 

Of course, situations vary, but unfortunately, many content creators are driven by plain greed in these situations. 

But the attitude towards big bloggers is starting to change. Now, we are more likely to look for hidden agendas than to trust what they say.

And here’s another reason why you shouldn’t chase after subscriber numbers anymore:

• Channels with an active audience are more concerned with their reputation and content quality.

For smaller creators, every subscriber is invaluable: we are willing to spend more time with them, interact, build a community around the channel and shared interests, and it is important to us that our subscribers share our values and see us as worthy content creators.  

We know the hard work it took to achieve our results, we put in a lot of effort and analyze our successes and failures. We are focused on quality and authority because we understand the value of success.

• Advertisers are not interested in reach, but in audience responses

And again, a bonus for small but quality channels: we attract advertisers much more than large audiences with half-dead viewers.  

Our subscribers already know that our content is good, our opinion is authoritative to them, which means we won't promote a questionable project or financial pyramid in our ads. Therefore, good advertisers find us and work with small, but authoritative niche creators with much more enthusiasm.  

This doesn't mean that all large bloggers are doomed, and that only scammers will come to advertise with them. Of course not, a lot depends on how the creator manages their reputation.

Focusing on numerical metrics is distracting us.

When you focus solely on the subscriber count in your analytics, all your thoughts become centered on increasing that number. In such moments, some creators resort to extreme measures like using bots or engagement manipulation because a bigger number psychologically boosts their motivation. But if you’re so drawn to focusing on numbers, why not shift your attention to something else?

Every budding YouTuber has specific numbers for motivation — these are the metrics they need to reach to qualify for the Partner Program within a year.

• 4,000 hours of watch time and 1,000 subscribers.

OR

• 10 million views of Shorts within 90 days and 1,000 subscribers.

In both cases, the figure of 1,000 subscribers appears, but it’s worth noting that this number is far smaller compared to the hours and views that creators need to accumulate in order to access monetization.

When you aim for 1,000 subscribers, you are focused only on calls to subscribe, focusing solely on increasing the audience. More, but not necessarily more active or engaged.

You’re more likely to start churning out videos as frequently as possible, rather than considering their quality. After all, the more videos you have, the more opportunities you have to reach new viewers.

But when you aim for 4,000 hours of watch time to join the YouTube Partner Program, you start checking every video for retention and average watch time. These metrics, in fact, directly affect your channel's growth.

Once you begin to see the logic and patterns in your performance indicators, you start working toward them. You focus on quality, authority, and ensuring that your audience finds your channel comfortable and interesting.

The thing is, the subscriber count is just a number, and it doesn’t carry any real value. So, making achieving a certain number of subscribers your goal is inherently a misguided approach.

Instead, focus on what will truly help your growth: promoting your personal brand, building and growing a business, or becoming a popular and influential figure.

Not every type of content will suit your channel, and not all content formats will help you achieve your goals. That's why not every creator should use Shorts or live streaming, but you won’t know what works unless you experiment and analyze.

When you focus on the number of subscribers, you just churn out content and celebrate imaginary victories by hitting certain numbers. Meanwhile, you probably have no clue about what led you to those numbers and which step was the successful one.

Of course, those who are convinced that without a huge subscriber count, you’re a nobody on YouTube will never be convinced otherwise. But we’re not trying to change anyone’s mind.

The goal of this and many of our similar articles is to help you, whether you're a beginner or an experienced creator, overcome self-doubt and learn to define what truly matters for your goals. We hope and believe this has been helpful to you