Why are low-quality videos often more popular ?

hello guys,
I’m a content creator, and I’ve noticed something interesting: YouTubers who film their content with a GoPro or any action cam often seem to be more popular. It’s as if the GoPro creates an authentic “I don’t care” vibe something cool and laid-back. We all know that the content itself is the most important thing, and 90% of people watch YouTube on their phones. But would these creators achieve the same success with the same content but better video quality? I’m not sure. Just look at Sam Sulek. No thumb, no keywords in the title, nothing.

Exemple :
or

https://www.youtube.com/@DryCreekWranglerSchool/videos

There’s something very honest about this approach, and I’m starting to wonder if I should do the same. Honestly, I’m a bit tired of carrying expensive camera around with me.

I get it—many of these popular channels have been around for a while. They’ve built a loyal fan base, so they can get away with continuing to use a GoPro without upgrading their gear. After all, who cares? But I do wonder: if they started out today with high-quality cameras, would they have the same success?

Is it just luck? Were they simply in the right place at the right time with the right content?

A lot of YouTubers with an authentic vibe and gopro quality don’t achieve success though.


What’s your opinion on this?

Often times you will find that this is the case in most niches. If you look at commentary for example; Penguinz0 is the one of (if not) the biggest in the genre and his videos are very low effort - low effort titles, no thumbnails etc... and I think it comes down to a couple of things.

1. These channels have been around for a long time and already have an established fan bases and so they know what to expect.
2. Low effort videos that perform well generally have an element of human charm that is hard to describe but easy to identify.
3. The creator has a great personality. Probably the most important in all fairness as if the creator of the video is relatable and/or funny and they already have an established audience the aesthetics of the video are less relevant.
4. What they are doing is seeing success and they don't want to change it.

That said, if you already have an audience doing what you're doing, DONT CHANGE IT. Never change something that is working on YT. What you could do is experiment - add a gopro segment to your video and ask your audience for feedback.

YouTube and success can be random though, the algorithm can promote anything at any time for unknown reasons. I recently noticed a video that I made back in April that only got 100 views blow up and is now at 300k completely out of the blue. I don't even post to the channel anymore (as my main channel blew up earlier this year). The number 1 mistake (everyone) on youtube makes is that they find a channel in the same niche as theirs and copy everything that they think is doing well for the bigger channel. This all most never works because there are 1000 other people trying to do the same thing and that is probably the case with those other GoPro channels you referenced. There is only a finite number of people that are interested in a specific niche and if they've watched one video from a larger creator, chances are they aren't gonna have much interest in a smaller channel making a similar video. Its taken me 12 years of trying and failing on YT to realise this.

very interesting man. thanks for your insight. Does. the charm and personnality are amplified with the "bad look" of the video ? When its recorded with a phone or a gopro its like "hey look, I dont give a shit to the views, 'im just like you and share what I got". On the other side you have Gawx with very high cinematic video and performs also very well. Life of Riza and many others with HQ videos.

its not the video quality but could be the video hook that take the video viral. Any video that goes viral works on an algorithm, if they have higher retention views, watchtime.. there's a high chance it wil go viral