youtubeJanuary 3, 2026
No one watches YouTube to learn anymore
by melkey
YouTube tech content has shifted from tutorials and crash courses to entertainment and commentary, with creators who once had millions of views on educational content now making opinion pieces instead.
Key Takeaways
- Tutorial-style YouTube channels (Traversy Media, Ben Awad, Tech with Nana, freeCodeCamp) used to get millions of views on crash courses. Today their educational content performs poorly, so they've pivoted to opinion pieces or stopped creating.
- A comment sparked this observation: someone watches LeetCode content "for entertainment" rather than to learn. Melkey found this mindset baffling since he learned to code entirely through YouTube tutorials.
- Code with Antonio produces high-quality 6-10 hour tutorials that would have hit millions of views 7 years ago. Today they reach 50,000-200,000 views.
- The tech YouTube audience has shifted from active learners to passive consumers seeking entertainment, news, and drama.
- Anyone starting a tech YouTube channel in 2025 needs to blend technical knowledge with entertainment rather than rely on pure educational content.
Notable Quotes
"I cannot believe anyone is watching any sort of tech-related content on YouTube if there's not an underlying purpose of learning something."
References
Discusses the shift in how developers approach learning, touching on themes similar to ai-codes-better-than-me-now-what where the role of traditional skills is being questioned.