YouTube addresses lower view counts which seem to be caused by ad blockers [U]

"The most likely explanation seems to be that YouTube is not counting views properly for users with an ad blocker enabled, another step in the platform's continued war on ad blockers. This was first realized by Josh Strife Hayes, who noticed that view counts on TV, phones, and tablets have been steady, while views on computers have dropped by around 50% since the mid-August trend started. TechLinked, a channel in the Linus Tech Tips family, confirmed similar numbers within its statistics."

"Channels whose audiences include a higher proportion of users utilizing such tools may see more fluctuations in traffic related to updates to these tools. The rest of the post addresses prior speculation that YouTube's new AI-powered age verification tools were to be blamed - which YouTube adamantly says is not the case - while also offering other possible explanations such as "seasonal viewing habits" and competition on the platform. YouTube says "there is no systemic issue that is impacting creators" regarding lower view counts."

Many YouTubers experienced sharp declines in desktop video view counts since mid-August, with some channels reporting drops around 50%. Views on TVs, phones, and tablets remained steady while computer views fell, suggesting a platform-specific counting discrepancy. The discrepancy aligns with ad blockers and content-blocking extensions interfering with accurate reported view counts. Google acknowledged that ad blockers and other tools can impact view-count accuracy and that channels with higher proportions of such users may see fluctuations. YouTube denied a systemic issue affecting creators and rejected age-verification tools as the cause, while also mentioning seasonal viewing habits and platform competition as alternative explanations.

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