❤️ Did YouTube Change the Algorithm and Shadowban You?

This is a great video:


I'm definitely noticing way less YouTube shorts views than before.

YouTube isn’t broken or “shadowbanning” people. It’s a smart, data-driven system whose only real objective is user satisfaction. Creators who consistently deliver strong viewer experience still win, regardless of format.

What YouTube actually changed is more specific and way less dramatic than people make it sound:

1-Older Shorts now get less passive distribution
2- Long-form videos have fewer homepage slots than before (I think it was 2 rows of 4 vids, now it’s mostly 2 rows of 3 vids)

That’s it.

And what does that really mean?

For Shorts creators: you can’t rely on old Shorts being pushed forever. You need to upload fresh content consistently to stay in circulation (IT FOOKIN SUCKS)

For long-form creators: yes, there are fewer homepage spots, but that also means less competition per slot. If your video earns a homepage position, it often gets more traffic than before, not less.

Personally, I haven’t seen any noticeable drop or abnormal change in long-form traffic on my channels, so I don’t buy the idea of some hidden “shadowban due to priority shifts.” YouTube has been pushing Shorts aggressively since day one. This isn’t new. Search anything on mobile and you’ve been getting a full screen of Shorts before long-form videos for years.

Also, at some point, we need to apply common sense: why are we listening to someone explain the algorithm 24/7 when their own videos average ~20k views?

Creators need to adapt instead of blaming layout changes.

I don’t think there’s a hidden shadowban wave going on, but I do think a lot of people are getting hit by a mix of freshness decay, heavier competition, and weaker early signals on their Shorts, which kills distribution fast.

What has changed over time is how brutal the first minutes are. If the Short doesn’t get decent retention and rewatches almost immediately, it just doesn’t get the second or third push. That makes timing and packaging matter more than people want to admit.

A few things that actually help when views start dropping:

Posting when your audience is online.
Not in a generic “best time to post on YouTube” way, but your own audience. In Studio you can see when your viewers are active. If your Short gets better early engagement, it’s more likely to get another test batch. Posting into dead hours makes even good clips look bad statistically.

Hook in the first second, not the first five.
On Shorts, you basically don’t have an intro. Movement, facial change, text, sound, something that visually resets the brain instantly. If people swipe in under a second, the video is basically dead on arrival.

Loopability matters more than length.
A 12 second Short that people rewatch beats a 40 second Short with average retention. Ending in a way that naturally loops back into the first frame still works very well.

Don’t post the same structure over and over.
If you upload 10 Shorts that look, sound and pace the same, the audience response usually degrades over time. Small format changes can reset performance even in the same niche.

Batch test, then double down.
Instead of trying to make every Short perfect, post variations of the same idea and see which one gets traction. Then copy the pattern, not the topic. Title style, pacing, type of hook, framing, all of that.

Also, sometimes the channel isn’t the problem, the niche is just saturated that week. Trends move insanely fast on Shorts. What worked last month can be “meh” today even if nothing on your side changed.

So yeah, less views doesn’t automatically mean YouTube is punishing you, it usually means the early data didn’t beat the competition hard enough. Small tweaks in timing, hooks and structure can be enough to push a Short back into rotation without changing the whole channel.

Thanks for this, great video.

Anyone else seeing increases in shorts views over last 5-6 days? Now it seems to be getting better again

the video was fascinating thank you

I would not trust what VIdiq says as I see long form video creators getting tons of views.