I need your input on what to do next

Hello everyone,
long time lurker, first time poster.

I started a gaming channel about 3 months ago. It's an 2008 original YT account (that was monetized before the new requirement).
Currently the account is monetized (it took around 6hours to get accepted) which is a nice thing. But I have 1.3k subs and really low engagement. Mind that I already had 200 subs from back in 2008 and I bought 1000 subs.

If I look at the period between the 13th and the 16th of november :
300 views
30 watch hours
5 videos came out (doing 2 let's play at the same time).
between 10-20 likes per videos
between 10-30 comments per videos

If we take in consideration that 1200 of my 1300 subs are bot/inactive accounts, the engagement is decent but ...

Since I'm in the gaming niche, I'm afraid that this is simply not helping my case. Since my let's play are in french, I feel limited with my tags and I can't seem to rank anymore. Even with vidiQ, if I find some low competition keyword, I can't for the love of god, seem to get some impression. CTR is around 5-12% per videos (10% global) and my average retention is a bit more than 50%.

With what is happening right now, I have 2 months off work paid vacations. Should I concentrate on that channel or make a new one with a new niche? I have a few ideas but I have a great personality and quick witted so I need to play around that.

So, before I continue my rambling

Should I :
a) Continue on my old 2008 YT account with the same niche
b) Change my 2008 YT account to a new niche (I know that the organic subs I have are mostly there for my personality and not my gaming skills)
c) Keep the gaming channel, updating it less frequently and start a brand new channel
2c) I'm pretty sure the answer is yes, but is investing in a monetized account or an old youtube account worth it?

Thanks a lot guys, I just don't know what to do. Having fun is one thing but if I find myself without a job in january, I'll be sad that I invested my time for mostly nothing. (I can't live of this 0,50$/day lmao)
Thanks again and as you have guessed it after reading 3-4 words, english is not my native language lol

1. make videos on what you enjoy most, if thats gaming then stick with it.
2. make a new channel, those inactive subs will not help you at all.
3. start posting on your new channel and stay consistent. 1 upload every week .
4. dont buy subs
5. if your going to buy views, they must be high retention/high watcthime.

i suggest test videos with a second channel

First of all, thanks a lot for the quick reply Russ Thomas. Your thread is one of the reason why I was wondering on what to do next lol

Russ Thomas said:

1. make videos on what you enjoy most, if thats gaming then stick with it.
2. make a new channel, those inactive subs will not help you at all.
3. start posting on your new channel and stay consistent. 1 upload every week .
4. dont buy subs
5. if your going to buy views, they must be high retention/high watcthime.

Click to expand...

1. Since gaming is the only niche I tried so far, its easy to say that it's the one that I enjoy the most but I guess I could simply stream on twitch while doing an other niche (that I enjoy, that's for sure) on Youtube.
(I will think about it. I'll try 1 or 2 other niches while recording and watching myself afterwards).
2. That's what I was afraid of. Is it worth investing in an older account? I might have a 2012-2013 account laying around somewhere. If I can't find/recover, should I buy one? Or since I'm posting original content, the Investment would be better elsewhere?
3. I have been posting ~1 video/day while trying to keep it between 10 and 15minutes each. This might sound dumb but is it too often? I guess it doesn't give enough time for my real subs to keep up to date.
4. Yea, I that was my biggest mistake. "I will get monetized 1st then build a community".
5. Noted

Thanks again sir!

mnrfas said:

i suggest test videos with a second channel

Click to expand...

I could do that while keeping some consistency (at a lower frequency)
I presume that would be the safest bet while keeping the gaming channel as a "fun" channel

Since you play games, have you tried going live on YT? Doesn't live videos help your channel to grow? You should also try that.

Jimjom said:

b) Change my 2008 YT account to a new niche (I know that the organic subs I have are mostly there for my personality and not my gaming skills)

Click to expand...

From this one here, I'd rather create e new channel for that specific niche. Unless your personality really is linked to the game world, otherwise, open an exclusive channel for that purpose.

pop3 said:

Since you play games, have you tried going live on YT? Doesn't live videos help your channel to grow? You should also try that.

Click to expand...

You know, that might sound dumb but I did not think about going live on YT. That's why I came here, for this great information.
I presume that when you go live, it's not the same algorithm . Thanks pop3

If you don't care about monetization, get an aged account with 0 subs and start over. Inactive subs scks big time, they fck up ur CTR a lot. Trust me. But as long as you can translate that great engagement through a new channel, go for a new channel.

Now it is difficult to get monetisation, so do all your trial in 2nd channel so in case of negative results your old account will be safe.

Thanks for the input guys, I will keep you updated with what I went with
thanks again

Thanks for the input guys, I will keep you updated with that!