Youtube viewership down 10% this year according to SocialBlade.   Ouch.

They get into a long list of apologetics about how its nothing YouTube did, of course, but you don't bleed that many users if you're doing everything right.

I suspect a lot of it has had to do with a combination of legal shenanigans, increased ContentID and other copyright bullshit, and things like the Nintendo Partner program literally killing scores of channels.