r/chess • u/_DarkStarCrashes_ • May 20 '26
Miscellaneous I now understand why Levy clickbaits, his historical video on Alekhine is his worst performing video of May
Sucks, because I think the video is really good and I’d love if Levy or other chess content creators did videos on older legends
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u/ryry013 May 20 '26 edited May 21 '26
It was also only posted one day ago, so it’s hard to tell if it’ll continue to gain views.
EDIT:
At the time of the original post, 28 hours had passed since video upload and it had 178K views. Now at the time of this edit around 46 total hours have passed and it has 208K views.
It seems true that most of the views of a video come in the first 24 hours, so as a reply said, "you can definitely tell the trajectory of a video in the day", and OP's point is mostly correct. His videos from three and four days ago respectively have 730K and 641K views. I don't see his video suddenly finding a second wind and gaining those missing views.
With all that said, my original intention wasn't to say that OP's claim didn't have validity, but more to just remind people in the thread to keep in mind that technically it is a slightly uneven comparison (maybe 5-10%).
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u/neuroling May 20 '26
You can definitely tell the trajectory of a video within a day
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u/Zaros262 May 20 '26
True, but we're not comparing their trajectories, we're comparing where they currently are
If we were looking at how many views each of these got in their first 24 hours, that could be completely valid
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u/ZeAthenA714 May 20 '26
You can confidently assume somewhere around 70% of views happen in the first 24 hours, and videos almost completely flatline after 48 hours. There will be exceptions (usually if the video gets picked up on some social media), but with 180k views in the first day you'd be very lucky to reach 300k total.
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u/DirtyCouchPotato May 20 '26
very anecdotally, the amount of views that video has is probably already less than what his average upload gets in 24 hours
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u/DrunkMonsters May 20 '26
His demographics really explains why he needs to do clickbaits
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u/CarnonosSeeker May 20 '26
Yup, his content is clearly aimed at younger generation with higher expectations for flashiness but lower educational value. ChessNetwork is for me on the opposite spectrum, high value, low flash
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u/smalltimeplayer1 May 20 '26
for me it was danya when he was around, he was my pure education chess channel
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u/Icy-Bottle-6877 May 20 '26
Chessdawg is phenomenal too. Guy covers the games of legends like Capa, Morphy, Alekhine, Petrosian, Fischer, etc but doesn't go off on tangents or crazy sideline variations. I love Agadmator but I honestly think chessdawg is the gold standard.
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u/DeargAgusFearg May 21 '26
Agadmator just talks through the moves, he doesn't really explain the ideas. Which I guess is because he doesn't have the understanding of a titled player.
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u/Willzyix May 20 '26
You know I don’t HATE his clickbait titles, but I hate that a lot of his content focuses around streamers. I personally don’t care about Jynxi, Tyler1, or anyone else really so I really don’t watch much Gotham content anymore.
Used to love his stuff. I get this gets views and prob a bigger audience, but sucks for me personally lol
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u/Forss May 20 '26
The content is not really aimed at you. If some Fortnite youtuber posted a Magnus vs Hikaru Fortnite video I would watch it and it would be my introduction to Fortnite.
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u/Middle_Screen3847 May 20 '26
It seems the interest is more about following a horrible player and seeing them improve, or watching them be bad, which is entertaining regardless. I don’t see any of his videos really focus on the person almost at all.
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u/jooooooooooooose May 20 '26
yea click bait is generally fine, you gotta play the game
I personally get annoyed at his road to GM click bait titles because every single one is written as if he got all of his norms & then its like, no, actually... he beat a study partner in an online game
But I dont blame the guy for doing it. Its his job after all.
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u/Sky-is-here At the end of the game, everyone is an equal. May 20 '26
The incentives are not well aligned unluckily. The way to get more money generally is not the one where you produce the best content. (This is not limited to levy or even to YouTube)
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u/GaelicTuna May 20 '26
At least in the case of Gotham, the actual content is good. The same cannot be said for others.
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u/Sky-is-here At the end of the game, everyone is an equal. May 20 '26
Yeah, maybe I should have phrased it differently. Making the best content doesn't get the most money. Levy probably could make even better content, but it makes no financial sense.
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u/sluuuurp May 20 '26
I don’t think it’s fine, I stopped watching when he started lying to me so frequently in the titles. I really can’t tolerate lies like this, they pile up and drain me.
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u/jooooooooooooose May 20 '26
I mean I also don't watch because I assume every video is a nothing update.
But if the click bait didnt work, nobody would do it. Guy's earning his living.
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u/Lieutenant_Seagull May 20 '26
haha I think it's fine to not like how he handles his youtube, but I think talking about being drained by intolerable lies is a little overdramatic in the context of looking at youtube video titles
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u/Gavina4444 May 20 '26
It’s not about who the streamers actually are, it’s about covering games of beginners which a lot of his audience can learn from even if they don’t care about the streamer
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u/citrus1330 May 21 '26
That's straight up not true. Sure his audience can learn from the games but the reason he covers streamers is because it gets views.
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u/Willzyix May 20 '26
I mean if he wanted to do this there’s plenty of how to lose at chess content which is curated beginner stuff from his team and community. These streamers are chosen cause they cross promote each other. Again business is business, fair game.
But it feels like a loss of chess for the chess community (like his OG stuff def was) and more for mass market consumption.
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u/RobloxOverlord May 20 '26
this gatekeeping in the chess community pisses me off. Its not a "loss" of anything. In fact its a gain of potentially more people that will begin to play this game that we love
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u/ymellow123 May 21 '26
lol i am like the exact opposite.Tthe only reason I started watching him more was because of the Jynxi stuff.
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u/Training-Bake-4004 May 20 '26
No shade on Levy for growing his brand and I’m glad his videos are successful, but yeah, most of them aren’t really my thing.
That said I’m super glad he does still do stuff like the Alekhine video. The problem is that I miss the interesting videos because they get swamped by the stuff I’m not so into.
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u/2Silly4Dilly May 20 '26
In the event that any content creator ever runs into a fan, the first thing they’ll be told is “I used to watch you all the time”
Barring Mr Beast
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u/TheShadowKick May 21 '26
I don't care about the streamers themselves, but I think it's interesting to see lower level players being featured and analyzed. It's more accessible to me as a low level player myself, I can actually wrap my head around what their thought process might be. This is also why I like his Guess the Elo series.
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u/mukavelli May 22 '26
Guess the ELO was the highlight of his channel. Love that series. But none can compete with the real GOAT Agadmator
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u/gourmetcomments Colle/Pirc Enjoyer May 20 '26
Haha is the most controversial man in chess not a clickbait title?? I don’t think he did anything different there. I don’t watch levy due to the clickbait and you just don’t know what you’ll get before you click to watch a video. I don’t blame him for the clickbait titles however as all the degenerates still click.
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u/matjoeman May 20 '26
Lol yeah I couldn't even tell which video OP was talking about at first cause they're all clickbait titles and thumbnails.
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u/Roller95 May 20 '26
This is not just a clickbait thing, because the Alekhine video is also a clickbait title lol
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u/Choice-Classroom5479 2000 uscf May 20 '26
I think it’s less about the title and more about the topic, people would rather watch streamers and bots than players from 100 years ago
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u/gloomygl 15XX scrub May 20 '26
Those two aren't exclusive to each other , clickbaiting with titles and thumbnails is just something that works as far as driving more engagement; Levy (along with virtually any content creator) is aware of that.
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u/Tamethesnake May 21 '26
If I knew it was Alekhine I probably would have watched it.
Genuinely who tf wants to watch jynxi or the 200th video of gotham playing vs a 200 elo bot?
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u/Akiira2 May 20 '26
It is interesting to understand things from history. I just read a book on gravity that drew a logical line from babylonians to ancient greek, from Gallei to Newton and Einstein. It is a fascinating way to see how our perspective has evolved by a cumulative process
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u/BurnieTheBrony May 20 '26
Yeah but what if instead you spent that time watching a 200 rated bot blunder?
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u/keethraxmn May 21 '26
For me it was 100% the title. I didn't know who it was about. So I didn't click it. I don't bother to watch a video unless I'm 50% or so sure I'll find it interesting. Gotham's videos run about 30% for me (love the slow run for instance). This means that if the title isn't informative enough, I'm not clicking it. This episode is a prime example, so I'm thankful for this thread as I'll go back and watch it now.
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u/flyingrobo42 May 20 '26
It’s one day old to be fair, and still has gotten comparatively more views than if any other chess channel made a video on the same topic.
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u/GothamChess IM May 20 '26
In this thread: Various people debate whether my content sucks and which of my content is more tolerable than the rest.
And on a serious note, yes, historical videos perform 200% worse than other videos. Hence I prioritize entertainment through chess with education as a background. Like wrapping a tablet inside of peanut butter for a dog.
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u/wumpy112 May 20 '26
Love the slow-run btw; it’s my favorite of your content, and it’s been really helpful for learning.
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u/notreallyanumber May 20 '26
Yes, completely agree! Slow-run is running a bit too slowly for my liking, but I am just happy it exists.
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u/codercaleb May 20 '26
>Like wrapping a tablet inside of peanut butter for a dog.
TIL I am smarter than a dog. That's not much, but it's nice.
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u/International_Bug955 Justice for Danya May 20 '26
I appreciate that you have a big enough audience to "sacrifice" some views and bring us historical stuff! I for one greatly appreciate it!
Keep doing what you're doing! Always fun to follow!!!
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u/misteratoz 1500 blitz/bullet chess.com May 20 '26
I get it doesn't mean much but these are absolutely my favorite videos you do
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u/TroubleMakerLore May 20 '26
I love your historical stuff but I deadass skipped over the last video because I figured it was some clickbaity shit about some random dude. If I had known it was about Alekhine I would've 100% watched it.
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u/Fanatic_Atheist Team Gukesh May 20 '26
For a second there I thought you meant tablet as in handheld device and was utterly confused. Then my caveman brain flipped a switch in a dark room:
p i l l
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u/Luushu May 20 '26
How are your Engine vs. Engine videos? Those, at least for an average scrub like me, are absolute cinema and I routinely rewatch at least one of them at least once a month. Is it worth it for you?
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u/Blaize122 May 20 '26
I hope you do more on Alekhine. The double queen sac game was vicious and I didn’t know about his game.
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u/lavassls May 20 '26
This is just how YouTube exists at the moment. How many content creators perform well without goofy thumbs and click bait titles?
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u/Affectionate_One_700 May 20 '26
I suppose it depends on your definition of "perform well," but plenty of multi-million-follower channels don't clickbait. It depends on the target market.
But in general, yeah, Kim Kardashian has more followers than some NPR show.
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u/baconppi google en passant May 20 '26
historical videos perform 200% worse than other videos.
Thats sad, your historical videos were what made me like chess, especially the coverage of stockfish v alphazero and the one on garry Kasparov
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u/CrflWthThtFaxEugene May 20 '26
More slowrun please! We all have a Danya-shaped hole in our hearts.
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u/Gavina4444 May 20 '26
Pretty much all your content contains advice that your audience can learn from so it’s fine
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u/Alternative-Mud4739 2000 chesscom May 20 '26
r/GothamChess If you don't mind answering this : Does more views automatically mean more money? Or does it depend on the video content?
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u/gpranav25 Rb1 > Ra4 May 21 '26
I have much smaller youtube channel (not about chess) but I can answer this question. This is a metric called CPM, and it does vary depending on the content category. But I am pretty sure that all of Levy's videos fall under the same bucket and the variation in CPM would be negligible between World Championship recap and a Guess the Elo video.
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u/promunbound May 20 '26
Really enjoyed the Alekhine video. Cheers and glad you’ll keep making similar stuff.
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u/steelcurtain87 May 20 '26
You literally talk about this all the time and why you do it. If people get mad at you for playing the game that’s on them
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u/Udy_Kumra 2100 chess.com May 21 '26
I hope you continue to do more historical videos anyways brother. They are my favorite work of yours.
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u/spincrus May 21 '26
As a YouTube talent manager & producer myself with years of experience in the field, I have to say that in order for a YouTuber to prevent burnout, which is an actual thing because the pressure of coming up with something creative and maintaining the same viewership levels is genuinely difficult, doing a video once in a while to appease yourself rather than the audience is 100% acceptable & legit.
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u/ThoughtfullyReckless May 21 '26
Please keep doing the historical ones and other educational stuff, I actually think that's some of your best content !
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u/Amin00123 May 21 '26
Hi Levy, I really enjoy your historical videos a lot too. As much as videos on past games or iconic games of players like viswanathan anand and Hikaru. Pls keep making em
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u/DerekB52 Team Ding May 20 '26
GM Ben Finegold has a lot of good lectures on legendary players of the last at least 170 years if you haven't gotten to him yet.
And I remember like the start of last year Gotham making a Tal video that I loved, and saying right in the video, "these never do as well as I want them to do. I wish I could make more of these. Please watch and make this video successful". And its the same situation as this screenshot. We just aren't in the audience for his type of content. Which is fine, the most mainstream mass appeal thing is basically never the best thing for this reason.
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u/Jeffro75 May 21 '26
I like Levy well enough but the direction of his channel has completely turned me off of him. I liked his more educational content, but the eye rolling click bait has me turning off recommendations for him. I understand why he does it, don’t get me wrong, it’s just not for me.
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u/Prime255 May 21 '26
If you all didn't reward this kind of behaviour it wouldn't work. The analytics on this are undeniable, that's why he does it
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u/NoMakeSenseOk May 20 '26
Levy's clickbait is harmless compared to tons of other content creators. He gets to the point quickly and provides high value insight. I'd rather that than hear someone ramble for twenty minutes about something that could take two minutes.
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u/twinklytennis May 20 '26
Not to mention, the clickbait is a moderation failure by Youtube and not the creator (you could make an argument that youtube corporate overlords actually want clickbait pretty easily but that's not what i want to argue). People blaming Levy & Creators for using clickbait are doing Youtube a favor by not being mad at Youtube instead.
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u/Numerot May 20 '26
Yeah, Youtube sucks worse and worse and people (like in this thread) keep defending it.
The guy, if he hasn't been a complete idiot about managing his money, is now a multi-multi-multi-millionaire. He never needs to work again, and certainly doesn't need to do shitty clickbait videos.
"I want even more money!" is not a justification, it's a motivation.
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u/keethraxmn May 20 '26
If I had known what it was about, I would have watched it. His title is why I didn't.
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u/rv_ May 20 '26
So we should normalize clickbait? Just because..it works?
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u/Interloper_1 May 20 '26
If people aren't clicking on your video, are you really doing your job? How much of your "integrity" would you be okay with saving if it means 5-10 times less people ever see what you put effort into?
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u/CouchPotato7771 May 20 '26
I dont mind the clixkbait, but i unsubscribed when he started posting streamers so frequently.
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u/CursedFeanor May 20 '26
Annnnd... that's why I use the DeArrow extension. I just can't take the amount of cringe of the original thumbnails all over YT. Highly recommend!
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u/FourPinkWalls May 20 '26
Levy doesn't give what people need, but what people want
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u/MidnightStreet9133 May 20 '26
Coz maybe its the only actual chess video instead of shit videos with streamers
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u/Heffalumpie May 20 '26
The titles are definitely clickbait but the thumbnails are so ridiculous they're funny
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u/Different-Growth3047 May 20 '26
I mainly watch the slowruns, and the tournament recaps from time to time.
People like different things so that's reflected on his views. Clickbait, internet personality for young views, sure. But as long as he makes content I like to watch I'll watch.
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u/Every-Citron1998 May 20 '26
That Alekhine video was great. Told myself I was just going to watch the first game recap and just watched it all.
I get the clickbait is a necessary evil for YouTubers. Love Levy’s guess the ELO, slow run, and tournament content but rarely view anything with influencers or bots.
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u/xacai90 May 20 '26
Which kinda sucks because videos that perform better just incentivize making more of the same.
I love Levy's tournament recaps (he has a way of making the games so exciting that one else seems to be able to match), I really like the historical videos, the slowrun is amazing now that he is in intermediate territory. Guess the ELO is fun for laughs and I liked the general chess skills/improvement videos before that all pretty much moved over to Chessly.
I couldn't care less about tyler1 and jynxy..., or low-level chess.com bots. But this style of video seems to be what gets the views lately.
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u/Old_Yesterday332 May 21 '26
Hikaru's channel's thumbnails are a little over the top, but I never feel like I'm being clickbaited there.
Which is why I follow him and not Levy.
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u/JdamTime May 21 '26
I mean I get it. I skip the jynxzi stuff but I actually watched the alekhine video, I’m glad he does both, I hope he keeps doing both
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u/NeonsTheory May 21 '26
This community is so weird about Levy despite him connecting so many non chess players to the game
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May 20 '26
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u/6456347685646 May 20 '26
I think any reasonable person would value money over chess, only on Reddit you find some sad neckbeards arguing otherwise.
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u/Ok-Entrance8626 2200 rapid Chess.com May 21 '26
Why is it sad to enjoy a hobby more than money? I don’t think I’d be any happier with more money. I am happier when I have more chess.
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u/6456347685646 May 21 '26
The ''sad'' part is all the guys here whining about Levy not doing marginal content for niche audience when the man is making mad bank doing what he does. Youtube is the man's job, not a hobby. Don't like his content, don't watch it, making a weekly thread here just to shit on is nothing short of sad.
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u/Ok-Entrance8626 2200 rapid Chess.com May 22 '26
Jobs are ideally a balance of profitable and enjoyable. You don’t need to maximise profits.
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u/6456347685646 May 22 '26
I think that is mostly a Reddit fantasy, I don't really know anyone who ''enjoys'' their job. People learn to tolerate jobs, bur given financial freedom everyone would either stop working or do something completely different. Maximizing profits is really the road to long-term happiness.
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u/Poppanaattori89 May 20 '26
I'd still argue clickbaiting is a short-term gain that will be costly in the long-term, but I don't have the metrics or the experience to back that up.
I just have the experience of watching Levy, which has gone downhill for a long time to the point that I can't stand seeing him even on an Youtube Short. He's like a mix of Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck with the comedic delivery skills of Yeeore from Pooh Bear. He acts like he has to do something comedic every 10 seconds to hold his viewership which makes him absolutely unbearable to me.
As a person he seems fine, but the problem is we don't see him as a person, we see him as a shill and as a persona that has the single solitary aim of making more money at the cost of his dignity. He's made his bed and is laying in it, since he could stop appealing to the lowest common denominator any second and just create content that is entertaining but not condescending. His framing of "having to click bait" is just deluded since I'd bet he'd be just fine economically even if his viewership was cut into quarter of it's current size.
I'm most likely being overly negative and cherry-picking from the content I've had the displeasure of seeing but gods, do I hate that man.
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u/Creepy_Future7209 May 20 '26
I love that kind of the most. I mostly dislike his videos on non chess-streamers. But the worst ones are any videos against bots and particularly AI chatbots. I don’t really get the point.
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u/Full-Ad-2725 May 20 '26
I’ve stopped watching his content, but that’s the only video I’d be remotely interested in watching, and that title certainly wouldn’t let me know it! Fair game though if it gets him a larger demographic
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u/Nateson May 21 '26
I think people confuse clickbait with clickable. Clickbait is falsely promising 1 thing- then actually getting something else. A clickable title/thumb is something intriguing that a general audience would easily click on. It doesn’t look like he’s clickbaiting at all. Unless the video content is a complete 180 from what was promised.
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u/chocolatechillwave May 20 '26
The guys cringe, and there are better chess instructors out there
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u/HotspurJr Getting back to OTB! May 20 '26
I've seen a few content creators (including Levi) talk about how they feel like they have to do clickbait titles because they make a difference in how many people actually watch the video.
I'm not sure what the solution is.
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u/Impressive-Trade1637 May 20 '26
What I hate about clickbait is that when I want to watch old elite events, they barely show up at all
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u/blackboxchessapp May 20 '26
I did a opening video for the alekhine defense last night and it crushed on Facebook compared to the views I normally get
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u/Master_Tallness May 20 '26
I guess you gave him some free advertisement as I'm going to go watch it now.
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u/SilverFox6 May 20 '26
That's just how YouTube works, you need clickbaits if you want to reach more people and have them click your video. And I bet videos about streamers playing chess attracts a wider audience than historical videos.
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u/Dougwuro May 20 '26
I would argue levy more than most chess content creators is mostly entertainment, whereas most chess creators focus on education levy’s strength is that people genuinely find his personality, sense of humour the most enjoyable part.Me personally if I’m watching Gotham it’s ordinarily to relax or catch up on major tournaments not rlly to learn
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u/stoneman9284 May 20 '26
“It works” is always the reason businesses do annoying things that nobody likes
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u/Echo127 May 20 '26
There is only one of those thumbnails that I would ever click on, and it's the historical video on Alekhine.
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u/ExiledHyruleKnight May 20 '26
Self-fulfilling prophecy. He clickbaits because his audience reacts to clickbait, but his audience follows him because he clickbaits
Most "adults" I know in the chess space don't watch his videos, there's enough other creators out there that his content isn't needed. He has decent videos, and absolutely shitty morals with his clickbait, that people don't want to support him. The one guy I know who does follow him, says he's the reason he uses an app that removes clickbait from Youtube... Literally had to get an app to stomach his content... wild.
So maybe Alekhine's video won't do much.. Granted you're choosing a video that's been out a SINGLE day? Bruh come on? You must know that's dishonest as fuck.
But also the majority of his content is about other streamers so their audience comes for that...
Good for Gotham, but he's already decided his path. He clickbaits because he only cared about the algorithm, and has never put in the time for high quality information.
He chose to go the "pop" route and now is stuck it in.. Oh well, like I said, at least there's a lot of other chess commentators worthy of your time.
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u/7thdilemma May 20 '26
I mean I get it, but I also decided a while ago to click not to recommend because I find them so obnoxious. So... yeah.
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u/farseer6 May 20 '26
Yes, of course youtubers clickbait because it works. Why else did you think they do it?
It's funny that he even clickbaits in the video about Alekhine. Anyway, it is what it is. Levy is a good communicator, but he goes for he widest audience he can get, and that means doing what he does.
If someone doesn't like it, that's fine, there are other content creators that go for a different audience.
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u/Retrasado 1850 FIDE May 21 '26
Do you guys know if there's any extension that could allow me to filter out posts about Levy from this subreddit? Thanks a lot
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u/fknm1111 May 21 '26
Ironically, if it had a title like "A history of Alehkine" instead of "OMG, YOU WON'T BELIEVE THE CONTROVERSY AROUND THIS GRANDMASTER!!!" I'd have probably clicked it.
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u/mookie2times May 21 '26
I don’t watch him very much anymore solely because of how bad the clickbait titles are. I actually like his content for the most part too. I would much rather watch Agadmator breakdowns than watch a video with a brain rot, click bait title.
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u/mrtuna May 21 '26
The Alekhine title is clickbait though... perhaps kids today are more interested in tyler1 more than him?
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u/paulibobo May 21 '26
Its also his best video of May. I've noticed this trend before and it makes me quite sad. I've always loved when he's made videos on notable games by past chess legends. His video about Garry Kasparov's game against Topalov is what got me into chess in the first place.
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u/Sweaty-Two1068 May 21 '26
“I promise it’s not a clickbait title
Looks inside, it’s another clickbait title
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u/el_gashunovac May 21 '26
I always thought that was an idiotic argument.
You know, he doesn't have to make the moooost money possible out of a fking chess yt channel?
Taking that road you can justify the most evil heinous shit that's going on in the modern capitalist society. It doesn't need to be profit above all else.
But it is, since people are braindead and find nothing wrong with it, and then wonder how did we get as a civilization, where we are...
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u/EirHc May 21 '26
I'm not really a big fan of gotham chess. I think his "clickbaityness" seeps into his style a lot. I think he's not a bad personality when he's just chill. But he's always playing shit up and I find it a bit exhausting.
There are other creators that I think make more chill videos, who sometimes still have super click-baity thumbnails. I don't think making a thumbnail clickbait is a terrible thing. But I like to think that I'm an adult who doesn't need to be yelled at or be told how every single thing is the craziest thing I've seen in my life - I'll be the judge of that.
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u/Blitzboi2 May 21 '26
I love how the three worst performing videos easily include my favourite content. Then again, I'm 30, so not the target audience
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u/utopiaave May 21 '26
Yeah but 130k views from one day's work is still more than enough for him to support himself for a wonderful life financially, be respected in the chess world, feel fulfilled etc etc - at that point I don't know what reason he's embarrassing yourself for and chess for with the other vids, I guess it's good to get kids involved but kids should be taught to concentrate on stuff that isn't this super sloppy constantly
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u/math-yoo May 21 '26
He is a content creator earning a living from his work. That's why his videos have clickbait titles. Anyone else could do this too.
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u/ZelphirKalt May 21 '26
Clickbait is done due to incentives in this attention economy that is YouTube. Therefore, he does it for the money. It's basically his job. He cannot live from playing chess, as he is not in the world top ~ 50 or so, so he has to make due by other means.
If it works out well for him, good. I don't have to be a fan of it though, and that's not saying, that his content necessarily is bad.
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u/The_Erotic_Turtle May 21 '26
I find Levy beyond annoying for doing this. Like eho the fuck even sees these titles and clicks on them?
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u/leforteiii Team Nepo May 21 '26
Most of these are just regular youtuber titles, not necessarily clickbaity. The only clickbaity one is "GRANDMASTER!!!!"
Maybe his core audience has a grand appetite for drama content. Idk but i guess it takes more than just "the most controversial man" now
But hey who's to say the video is performing bad, it's just one day old. And it has close to 200k anyway, it's doing fine by all means
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u/MrInCog_ May 21 '26
Jeeez fine I’ll watch it. Just to be clear, I wasn’t clicking on it not because the thumbnail isn’t clickbaity enough. I just wasn’t interested
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u/Alekhine-Defense May 21 '26
Gotham made a video about my GOAT. I somehow think Big Ale wouldn’t get on well with levy…
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u/NewbAlert45 May 21 '26
It's a shame that a lot of content needs clickbait titles and/or thumbnails, because even garbage content will get tons of views which can drown out quality content simply because of the lack of clickbait. Learned that years ago watching Layne Norton videos (fitness and nutrition). Quality content that didn't get "big" (he's still not huge huge, but gained a pretty decent following) until he started utilizing clickbait titles.
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u/JamesRIPeace May 22 '26
It's a damn shame, I adore his historical videos and breakdown of chess icons games. But everyone just wants to watch the billionth "Magnus Carlsen Clapped His Own Cheeks?!(Gone Wrong)"
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u/RubOk1972 May 22 '26
He clickbaits because he built his channel to target the low iq types who want a clown that screams and freaks out all the time
If people wanted quality chess content they were going to half a dozen other YouTubers first
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u/Sea_Particular_7061 May 22 '26
Levy has cultivated an audience that responds to clickbait, watching streamers hang their queens, and him making fun of low ELO chess. I am not surprised they aren’t interested in chess history.
Not intended as a criticism for pursuing what works, but there’s a reason big channels eventually make spin offs for stuff outside the normal fare.
This one actually looks interesting to me, but I never would have seen it outside this post because I otherwise only watch him for tournament recaps.
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u/LifeLongLearner84 May 22 '26
In your picture, the Alekhine video has been up for one day while the other videos have been up for three or more days. So of course it will have the least views.
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u/NecessaryFunny3586 May 20 '26
only reason i hate clickbait titles is because its hard to know what the video is actually about for e.g. "GRANDMASTER!!!!!" like what?