The YouTube algorithms are out to get Boogie2988

Steven Williams, the man who plays Boogie2988 on YouTube, has scanned his current threat environment and has identified a new threat to his wellbeing: the YouTube algorithm.

He posted a video complaining about YouTube and its algorithm the other day.


If I understand what Boogie is throwing down, and maybe I don’t, he expects people who’ve subscribed to his channel to see his videos appear as a Recommended video.

I’m not sure that’s how it’s supposed to work.

I think everyone uses YouTube differently. I have my subscription feed bookmarked and when I want to watch a YouTube video, I go to my bookmarked link. Just because I subscribe to a channel doesn’t mean I ever watch videos on that channel.

Why subscribe to a channel if you don’t watch the videos? Because if a YouTuber’s video is generating buzz elsewhere, it’s easier to find and watch that video if you’re subscribed to the YouTuber’s channel. It’s not like it costs anything to subscribe to a YouTube channel. There’s no drawback to subscribing to a YouTube channel you never watch.

Boogie2988 currently has 4.4 million subscribers. Very rarely, especially recently, do his videos get that many views. For example, the video above in which he complains about YouTube and its algorithm shows 87,000 views.

That’s a fraction of his subscriber base.

Most, if not all, of Boogie2988’s most watched videos, were made years ago when he was doing a bit and playing one of his characters. Most people didn’t realize it was a bit. His most watched video is Dramatic Fat Guy Splash. It was published in 2011 and has over 35 million views. It’s a 37-second video of a shirtless Steven Williams falling backward into a swimming pool.

Boogie2988’s second most watched video is Francis Rages – Where’s My Goddamned Mountain Dew?  It was published in 2011 and has almost 17 million views. It’s a bit where he is “Francis” sperging out about not being able to find his beloved Mountain Dew.

His most recent highly watched video was Open Letter to Logan Paul. He published it three months ago and it has a little less than 3.5 million views. I think most of that video’s viewers were probably Logan Paul fans or people curious about the incident where Logan Paul was in Japan and made a video about someone killing themselves in a forest. I didn’t watch it. I don’t like Logan Paul and I have no interest in an open letter to him.

Most Boogie2988 subscribers do not watch his videos. If they did, each of his videos would have around 4.4 million views.

Steven can address that fact in different ways. He can try to make better content so people will want to watch his videos, or he can blame YouTube and its algorithm.

It appears he chose the latter.

I freely admit I’m not a typical Boogie2988 viewer. I watch his videos because I think most of the stuff he says is so absurd, it’s entertaining. I don’t watch any of his Francis videos because I don’t think they’re funny. When Steven tries to be funny, I don’t find him to be funny. What I find funny is when he is completely serious, especially when I catch him in a lie or better even yet, multiple lies.

That’s not to say I’ve always felt this way. I used to watch his videos because I thought he was a nice guy who had interesting things to say. I then gradually realized over time he was fake, lied frequently, and was often just trolling for sympathy he didn’t deserve.

Update (4 April 2018)

In light of the YouTube shooter Nasim Najafi Aghdam, Steven removed his video complaining about many of the same things Aghdam complained about.

If he believed the things he said in the video, I don’t understand why he would remove it.

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