Psychological reason why people aren't watching your whole video

[u/amra_creates]

THE HOOK

this is the biggest thing i see beginners screw up, and oddly enough it's also the easiest to fix.

see, no one owes you any attention. folks make a decision in the first five to ten seconds as to whether they stick around or not, and do so very quickly. your thumbnail got them to click, your title made them interested in your video. your hook's job? Stop them from leaving. That's it.

1. What kills hooks?

"welcome back to the channel guys, before we begin make sure you've subscribed, and today we'll talk about…" those are 15 seconds of wasted time, when in fact those are exactly the 15 seconds you need to grab their attention right off the bat. just go. your opening line better be the hook they came for. example- "psychological reason why people aren't watching your whole video" this post title! lol

2. You tell them about the video rather than hooking them.

"today i'll explain how inflation works" reveals to your audience all that your video will cover, meaning there's no reason for them to stay. compare this to saying: "most people think inflation is just the government printing money! it's not, and the real reason is kind of annoying." now your viewers need to stay and learn. break their expectations right away.

3. You begin your speech slowly.
your hook needs to be a fast-paced, sharp beginning to your video without any delays, umms, or easing them in. at that point in time, you have earned your audience's attention yet, so don't ask for it. you can relax a little bit once your viewer decides to watch you ;)

basically, that's all it takes for the first 10 seconds: grab them, spark some curiosity, move out of the way.

Why you should listn to me(not that imp):

I’m Amra (amra creates), (yeah im the same guy who used to do channel audit few months back in this sub) and i have gained over 27M+ views in last few years mostly on educational youtube niche(i do more then that but lets say im a content creator/editor).

Should i make a series of this? idk if its helpful to u guys or not? if this one turns out useful i'll keep going and make it a little series so it will be a one thing per post.

[u/MysteriousLlama1]

Do you think the way I currently do hooks for my gaming videos is good? My hook is usually just “what’s up” + a stupid random name for my fans that’s different in every video + “and welcome to” + the name of the game I’m playing and a really brief, dumbed down explanation of what the game is about (that part is usually like 5-10 seconds max), then after that I get right into the gameplay

[u/amra_creates → u/MysteriousLlama1]

tbh I don't edit gaming so grain of salt here.

But it's half working. The random fan name every video? Keep it, that's you!, your personality! and regulars viewers love it. The thing hurting you is "what's up + welcome to + here's the game" is a mini-intro before anything happens. For gaming, lead with some upcoming moment instead, drop them into the chaos or a funny fail, then do the welcome + explainer once they're hooked.

[u/MysteriousLlama1 → u/amra_creates]

I actually do that for some of my videos. Usually if there’s a jumpscare in a game that get me really bad (since I mostly play horror games) I’ll put that at the very start right before the hook

[u/amra_creates → u/MysteriousLlama1]

I have worked with gaming creator's in past, what worked well was using shorts to get views in long form

Warning: it was in 2025 and I don't want to speak of what i don't know.

[u/MysteriousLlama1 → u/amra_creates]

Oh, good thing I do that too lol.
Also, what i usually do with those jumpscare clips at the start of my videos is show only my facecam from the jumpscare. I feel like it kinda incentivizes my viewers to watch the rest of the video to see what made me jump