As many might know Leonhart is an azmaing youtuber who has helped the community immensely. From raising tens of thousands for charity to creating entertaining content for people to rejoin the hobby - he’s done it.
Recently his content has stopped being recommended due to a coppa related bug in the algorithm. He isn’t the only pokemon youtube to suffer either. Youtube is currently looking into but who knows how long the fix will take (if it is possible).
While i don’t know the solution to this issue, bringing awareness to it may help speed up the fix. Or in the small chance someone in the field may have some tips or tricks to help him out.
I think this may have something to do with him losing all of his revenue from advertising to kids. Yeah, he brought a ton of new money into the hobby. But, you gotta pay the piper at some point. Leonhart will be okay with or without YouTube. Man must have millions just in his collection on top of all the hundreds of thousands he’s made over the years.
Is it me or is Poketubing just dead in general? I used to watch tons of videos… Pokemonevolutionaries, Deriums, Maxmoefoepokemon ect. Feels like I haven’t watched any in 2 years because the content has not ability to grow.
To share my complete honest opinion on this, I’ll start by saying I definitely have an appreciation for a content maker bringing in footfall to the community. However I cant understand the ‘we’ ‘us’ ‘our’ terms they use, as if to say his collection or income is partly shared with me. I also find the hype channels with crazy reactions extremely cringy to watch and skip them, Just feels like acting. Non the less I hope he sorts out any issues he is experiencing and has better days, No business is smooth sailing, and after all i’m guessing that’s what they are suggesting, that their income is being affected, not their ability to be in the hobby.
I like the pack openings, but personally I always preferred listening to people who either could tell me the history of the cards or give me sound financial advice on the card. That being said, for me Leonhart and the newer channel loot box tv always had the best opening videos because I felt like despite some over the top acting they seem to genuinely enjoy the cards and from what I can tell are nice to and work hard to engage with their viewers. I hope leonhart’s channel recovers and keeps growing as I do watch and enjoy the occasional video.
I understand how his content can come across as cringy. The whole we, us fam and squad always seemed silly, but that’s how he developed his channel to achieve amazing success. While I’m not a fan of his style of content I can appreciate the grind, effort and marketing tactics he used to grow his channel into something impressive. Someone above said he’ll be fine if he sells his collection and that he already earned millions. Just because someone has achieved success doesn’t mean it’s okay if they lose it or have to sell it.
As far as helping leonhart out. I’m not sure what specifically we can do help him considering it’s a youtube programming/computer issue.
Leonhart came about and succeeded when PrimetimePokemon started to fail. Leonhart adapted and did things other people weren’t doing, so he had success that other people weren’t having. Hopefully he’s able to do what he did before and adapt.
Leonhart seems like a very genuine person and nobody can deny the positive effect he has had on the Pokemon community. Though I don’t really watch Youtube pack openings anymore, I can definitely say he is one of the best at marketing to his audience and growing his following. It is sad to see that Youtube has these sort of bugs that negatively effect the users, but I have heard of other Youtubers experiencing the same issue - so it should work out. I have no idea how viewers can help out with this but if anybody can get through it, I’m sure he can!
I think these youtubers are going to have some very long-term problems because my understanding of the COPPA rules is that if your content is primarily watched by children then it will be classified as “made for children”. The first criteria the FTC uses to identify child focused content is simply the subject of the video. In this case, we are talking about pokemon TCG which is obviously based on a tv show made for children and it would be logical that pokemon TCG was also marketed to children as well. Youtube doesn’t just use algorithm analysis to identify child content, the FTC also has staff that reviews channels to see what type of content they use. In the short-term, I think pokemon TCG channels will be able to be classified as ‘not for children’ content but the reality is when FTC reviews these channels, they will unequivocally label the entire channel as “made for children”.
For creators like Leonhart…this is a very big problem because “made for children” content plummets in the amount of ad revenue that it earns and the vast majority of people watching pokemon TCG content are children. There is a reason leonhart’s (made for children) pokemon videos get 100k+ views per video while smpratte’s (made for adults) pokemon videos get a few thousand views.
Long-term, I don’t see children focused pokemon TCG channels being economically viable. So Leonhart is going to have to figure out a new way to make money that doesn’t involve youtube advertising revenue.
Also the only reason they talk about the “pokemon community” is because it is politically incorrect to say. “Hey guys, my ad revenue plummeted by 90% and we have a problem because I am making less money now.” Leonhart asks the community to “help” but the reality is the time to do that is over. Youtube already settled with the FTC and it is unlikely that FTC will reverse course at this point.
My guess is long-term Leonhart will slowly shift the youtube channel more into the focus of “paid pack openings” and “sponsored” content. Possibly even shift to live streaming and rely on direct donations or a patreon.
My kids love to watch leonhart on youtube. Personally that’s how I’ve been exposed to him. It’s too bad that his model may have to change, because that family friendly content is good all around and great for the hobby
This is exactly the problem. In the past, there were a lot of creators (like leon) specifically focusing on a younger demographic. There’s a few reasons for this. 1) Children have more time on their hands and are more likely to binge watch a lot of your content 2) They’re more loyal and get hooked on content easier. They’re also more likely to interact. 3) They’ll be around longer. It makes sense to want an audience that wont run into “life” as quickly and get sidetracked from the show. If you had a child audience, you were doing bigger numbers (views) and those views would translate to dollars based on ads. The problem is that once COPPA rules came along, the ad revenue stream changed. Your “show” is either getting ad revenue from children-oriented ad placements, or ad revenue for adult-oriented ad placements. Youtube essentially fractured the earning potential of any show focusing on a younger demographic. Compound that with this “bug” where even children/subscribers are failing to see his content show up as “suggested” and he has a big problem. Apparently Youtube acknowledged part of the issue being a bug on their end that they are working on fixing. It sucks that Leon is basically stuck waiting with a “we’re sorry” while his revenue takes a dip, but it’s likely only a hiccup. I think he, and other creators, should be looking ahead though. This is what happens when you rely soley on youtube for revenue. It’s a good idea for content to live on multiple platforms with multiple streams of revenue coming in, as well as to privatize some additional revenue via a plethora of different applications that allow direct-funding from the audience/fans.
I personally do not like how YouTube, Facebook, or google censor content.
BUT they are private businesses that have no duty to promote a specific type of content. If YouTube believes that the liability risk is too high to promote kids content Because of COPPA or whatever other reason they have, then they can make that choice.
If they keep censoring content then a opening in the market will be created for a new less restrictive content sharing platform.
Yup, exactly. This is why what pokerev does is a pretty interesting model overall. People buy packs which pokerev opens on livestream. Obviously people like it and it makes for good entertainment. I think what we are going to see is the whole game is going to start shifting. Youtube is eventually going to label pokemon TCG channels as “made for kids” and it won’t be a bug. Ad revenue for those channels will plummet by as much as 90%. At that point, I could see certain youtubers who can’t adapt will start scaling down the quality of their videos. Bye bye opening vintage packs or dozens of expensive product. That will result in less people wanting to watch that content. It will just be boring. At the same time, new youtubers will pop on to the scene that creates something unique which is entertaining and economically viable at the same time.
There are a bunch of other pokemon TCG youtubers that are tiny at this point but trying to get their name out there. We could always see one of those unknown people burst on to the scene quickly with something interesting. I think the future is definitely live streaming and having high interactivity with your viewers.
I have grown to like Leon’s videos because he is such a sincere guy and actually loves the cards. That being said he is a little over the top, but in a good way I think.
Even in my videos I use “we” because when I open up mail or look at cards it is together and I try to make it be for the first time along with my audience. I think unlike Leon I enjoy discussing some of the history usually too.
I know nothing about ad revenue so I’m not sure how much he is really being affected but with almost 1 million subscribers I imagine he will be okay. I’ll watch his pack openings!
I appreciate what he does. The hype videos aren’t really my thing (very happy he pulled that Zard though!). He seems like a very good person. Having said that…he’s very smart, he’ll figure it out, and he’ll be just fine.