YouTube released an update to begin showing the abbreviated subscriber number across all public YouTube surfaces with effect from August 2019.
The platform says its aim is to create more consistency everywhere that subscriber counts are publicly displayed. Currently there’s been a few discrepancies in the way creators subscriber counts are being publicly displayed.
All creators with over 1,000 subscribers see their subscriber counts displayed differently in different places across YouTube desktop and mobile apps. In some cases, the subscriber count is abbreviated (e.g., 133k) and in other places we display the full count (e.g., 133,017).
Effective August 2019, the will be an elimination of such irregularities on the platform. Subscriber counts fewer than 1,000 will be displayed in full e.g (999) while those above 1,000 e g 1,290 will be abbreviated as (1.2k) till the count reaches 1,300.
Third party apps using YouTube’s API to feed creators subscriber counts are also not excluded. Although sparking YouTuber protests to save analytics providers like Social Blade.
It is quite Alarming how creators motivation across social media platforms lie in the amount of subscribers, likes, retweets each post generates which invariably becomes the approving factor for posts.
However, there’s a downside to it. Creators who are yet struggling to breakthrough often get into depression.
