Goodbye YouTube

The fun will continue at www.watchertv.com/ We hope to see you there.

edit: Hey all! Seeing a lot of folks saying that we’re pulling all of our content off YouTube. To clarify, all of the content on our YouTube channel will continue to live here forever. For new seasons, the first episodes will be released on YouTube will the remaining coming out exclusively on the Watcher platform.

it's real ironic to complain about the cost of video production in a video that was clearly overproduced

So to recap: you overhired, leased an egregiously and needlessly large studio space in one of the most expensive cities in the world and have exhausted all other means of monetization as a result. Basically you pulled a Buzzfeed. Ponderous.

Rest in peace Shane Madej you would've hated Shane Madej

So, the merch website wasn't making enough with $80 hoodies, $40 tees, and $45/$125 "mystery boxes"? The 13k+ subscribers on your ACTIVE Patreon, with a minimum of $5/month donations (and higher tiers of $10/month, $25/month, and $100/month)? The monetization of your YouTube (2.85 million subs), Instagram (489k followers), and Twitter (248k followers) accounts? The ongoing, sold-out tour shows? The podcast profits? NONE of that was enough? Instead, you felt obligated, for the sake of production quality, to add another streaming service that you want your audience to juggle? Solely for "exclusive" content?
Your apology video doesn't break these costs down, either. You need to be FULLY transparent if you want even a sliver of your fans to consider subscribing to something like this.

Y’all remember when the best parts of buzzfeed unsolved was the black screens with nothing but text… Yeah, production quality isn’t why we watched

As someone who CAN afford the new streaming service, this decision is so tone deaf and selfish that I will NOT be investing a dime of my money into y’all. Hope this decision makes the change you wanted

I used the CHANGE OUT OF MY CAR for a gallon of gas to get home from my job in disability care. No I don’t have 6 a month or 70$ a year for this.

25 EMPLOYEES?! You have less than 3M subscribers, what on earth are you thinking?!

That’s your problem right there. It’s not a YT problem, or an advertiser problem, it’s a YOU problem. Do better.

I cant explain it but this video feels like when your rich corporate boss gives you a pizza party instead of a raise

Imagine being so tone deaf and living in such a bubble that you can look around in 2024 and think “I bet people are willing to pay for another streaming service.”

" You made us rich, but not rich enough :( "

YouTubers can make more money by devoting one minute of a video to a Raid Shadow Legends ad than I will make in a 40 hour work week. Do NOT ask me to pay more money for things.

The production cost for this goodbye video alone could have probably paid for at least 7 videos of Shane and Ryan goofing off and making our lives better. This is so depressing.

This feels like a breakup, and the reason was you calling me broke.

They left Buzzfeed to create Buzzfeed but even Buzzfeed was smart enough to stay and grow on YT.

Please never remove this video. It needs to remain as a shining beacon on what not to do and how not to make an announcement for ages to come.

this feels like when you're at a work meeting and the boss keeps calling the team "a family" when you all make $10 an hour and they're going to Italy for vacation this summer.

Netflix is $6.99 a month, Disney+, $7.99. Prime Video, $8.99. And you're asking $5.99 a month!... most people have to choose between the three. Do you really think you're in the same league as the big streaming giants? You really need to press the undo button.

“Shane finally saw a ghost, the ghost of his career” TOOK ME OUT.