Ddos 
Since August, numerous YouTube creators have reported a sharp decline in video view counts — with technology-focused channels suffering the steepest drops, in some cases as high as 50%.
For many creators, view counts are a critical measure of video quality, so such an abrupt downturn naturally prompted investigation. Yet despite their efforts, these creators were unable to pinpoint the true cause behind the drastic reduction.
Google has now issued a response:
Viewers Using Ad Blockers & Other Content Blocking Tools: Ad blockers and other extensions can impact the accuracy of reported view counts. Channels whose audiences include a higher proportion of users utilizing such tools may see more fluctuations in traffic related to updates to these tools.
In reality, Google is well aware of the underlying cause, though its public statement remained vague. The real issue stems from ad-blockers now blocking the API responsible for counting views by default.
On August 11, 2025, the open-source filter list EasyList — used by nearly all major ad-blocking tools — released an update that added a rule targeting YouTube.com/api/stats/atr, one of Google’s key APIs for logging video views.
Once this API began to be blocked, YouTube lost the ability to record view statistics, leading to substantial drops in reported traffic across certain channels. The impact was particularly severe for technology creators, whose audiences show the highest adoption rates of ad-blockers, thereby amplifying the fluctuations.
For example, Linus Tech Tips’ TechLinked channel experienced a view-count decline approaching 50%. This does not indicate that actual watch time decreased, but it clearly illustrates that ad-block usage in the tech community is far higher than in other fields.
It remains uncertain whether Google will seek to resolve this issue directly with the maintainers of EasyList or pursue alternative statistical methods. In any case, a prolonged inability to collect accurate view counts could potentially distort YouTube’s recommendation algorithms. Google, however, has stated that the reported decrease in views does not represent a systemic issue affecting creators.
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- YouTube’s New Anti-Ad Blocker Tactic: “Fake Buffering” Delays Videos by 10+ Seconds
- A German Court Just Revived a Lawsuit That Could Make Ad Blockers Illegal
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