YouTube Rewind 2018 - Where has the community gone?

It’s nearly the end of the year for the YouTube community which marks 'Rewind' time. Since 2010, this annual video produced by YouTube themselves is designed to feature and celebrate the biggest trends and topics that defined that year. Once praised and seen as an homage to the creators, it has gradually become one of the most disliked YouTube traditions with 2018 being no exception. In fact, YouTube Rewind 2018 which premiered on the 6th of December, has solidified itself as one of the most shunned videos on the platform.

Since its release, it has overtaken Justin Bieber’s music video ‘Baby’ with almost 10 million dislikes to become the most disliked video ever uploaded. What is even more impressive is that ‘Baby’ grossed its 9.7 million dislikes over 8 years; YouTube Rewind 2018 was able to reach this milestone in just 7 days. This downward spiral of negativity began after the golden era of Rewinds (2012-2014) as displayed in the ScreenRant graph below. To gauge the reasons why this video was unanimously detested and what this ultimately means for the community, let's directly compare and examine the differences in relation to the beloved 2013 YouTube Rewind.

Ratio of likes to dislikes as of 8/12/18.

One of the biggest forms of criticism arises in the beginning shot of Rewind 2018 with Will Smith, a mainstream celebrity, opening the video. The theme of this year’s Rewind was that the creators control it, but as pointed out by H3H3 (a very popular comedic react channel) it is obvious that Will Smith is lying when he talks about playing Fortnite and adamantly watching YouTube. It feels superficial; favouring ‘real’ celebrities over YouTube stars. In comparison, 2013 Rewind starts with Kid President - an actual cherished YouTuber of that year. He isn’t mainstream media but part of the community. It’s more wholesome and representative than the obvious corporate move in 2018.

Will Smith from the Opening of Youtube Rewind 2018

In terms of content, PewDiePie has criticised the over saturation of Fortnite and inclusion of individuals that aren’t Youtube personalities. Viewed as incredibly cringe worthy and distasteful to the community were the clips of US talk show hosts Trevor Noah and John Oliver doing Fortnite dances center stage for the camera. In 2013, host Jimmy Fallon and his band ‘The Roots’ were featured, but instead of having them as the focus, YouTube stars watched them play on a huge screen in the desert. The talk show host is peripheral; more disconnected and removed from the celebration of actual YouTube based creators.

Jimmy Kimmel in Youtube Rewind 2013

Trevor Noah 'flossing' in Youtube Rewind 2018

Furthermore, Rewind 2018 reflected the more brand-friendly content YouTube is trying to promote and therefore, resulted in a video deemed as dull, uninspiring and one that didn’t address some of the biggest developments in YouTube’s history this year as they were either too political or controversial. The most noticeable being Logan Paul’s suicide forest video, the boxing match between KSI and Logan Paul streamed by about 800,000 people and influenced modern sport, PewDiePie’s battle with T-Series for number one spot, Shane Dawson’s influential documentary content and much more that was simply left on the cutting room floor. If you look back to 2013 Rewind, one creator that was a main focus was Kassem G who had a very popular year with his series ‘Going Deep’ that interviewed porn stars. Here YouTube was recognising someone who had more provocative and mature content. They were daring, adventurous and more representative. If they ignored Kassem G’s success, YouTube would have experienced the same level of outrage seen in 2018. In 2013, they even gave main parts to memes such as ‘prancing lady’; this inclusion of content would be unheard of now. Instead, the creator Liza Koshy dominated 2018 Rewind despite not uploading a video in 9 months.

However, is it really possible to make a Rewind that pleases everyone now?

The community has exponentially grown with the number of channels with over a million subscribers growing from around 50 in 2010 to now over 5000+ channels. It is impossible to feature all of these influential channels over different continents into one 10-minute video. There’s an option of making separate Rewind’s for the US, UK, India and China (the biggest users of YouTube), but that goes  against the apparent aim of uniting the community together. The backlash directed at YouTube this year boils down to a growing disparity between the platform's true creator culture and the polished, family-friendly version that YouTube wants to present. Increasingly it’s trying to separate itself from the controversies involved with the more provocative channels, emphasising late-night shows and celebrities to attempt to prove to advertisers that they would be safe from scrutiny. Even when they apparently tried to make it for the creators, it had the complete opposite effect and turned out to be the worse receipted one yet.

YouTube Rewind 2018 is a reminder that focusing on advertisers, corporate incentives and ultimately not putting the community first will have drastic repercussions from not representing and respecting the creators that built the platform into the giant media power it is today. YouTube needs to return back to the relationship they once had with the community in 2013; taking risks to incorporate the biggest moments and most influential creators of the year even if their content is deemed more mature, to put the sole creator in the spotlight rather than catering for mainstream stars.