The Effect of Fortnite on YouTube: A Personal Experience

As I sit here reflecting on the impact that Fortnite has had on YouTube, I want to share my personal experience as a small YouTuber who stumbled upon the goldmine that is Fortnite. I'm not the first person to make a video discussing the effect of Fortnite on YouTube, but I do want to share my story and how it relates to the platform. Whether you think that Fortnite's influence on YouTube has been good or bad, there's no denying that it's literally made people's careers, like Ninja and Ali-A, who have made millions of dollars playing this game.

But what about the small guys? What about us little YouTuber channels? Can we take advantage of Fortnite to gain traffic to our channel? I'm going to share my example with you. Two months ago, my channel had 8,000 subscribers, and I was looking for ways to grow. So, I made a series where I basically just tested out some gaming on some older and lower end hardware. There were four videos in this series, and I tested four different devices. The first video was called "Can You Game On a $200 Windows Tablet?" and it got about 2,200 views. The second video was "Can You Game On A Retina MacBook?" and that one got 2,400 views. The third video was "Can You Game On A Nine-Year-Old MacBook Pro" and that one got 3,500 views.

It wasn't until I uploaded the fourth video that things started to get interesting. I called it "Can You Game On A Five-Year-Old MacBook Pro," and in the first two to three days, it got about 2,500 views. What made it even more interesting was that for each of these videos, I had picked out games that I thought were appropriate for the hardware I was running them on. For the 2013 MacBook Pro, which was a dedicated graphics card, I figured it would make sense to test out Fortnite because it's a very popular game and I thought it would run decently well on that computer.

However, when I first uploaded the video, my title was "Can You Game On A Five-Year-Old MacBook Pro." It wasn't until I realized that no one was watching the video anymore that I decided to change the title. So, I changed it from "Can You Game On A Five-Year-Old MacBook Pro" to "Can You Play Fortnite On A Five-Year-Old MacBook Pro." I made a small change, but it made all the difference. As soon as I added the keyword "Fortnite" to the title, the video started gaining traction.

Here is a screenshot of my real-time 60-minute views, and look at this - 20 minutes after I changed the title, the views just skyrocketed! The video now has over 76,000 views, and it still gets about a thousand views a day two months later. That's pretty solid for a channel with 8,000 subscribers.

So, what does this mean? Is it right to use Fortnite as a way to get views on your channel if it doesn't fit perfectly into the content you're creating? In my opinion, I don't think so. If Fortnite happens to fit into your content, and you answer all relevant questions in your video, then there's no reason not to use it to get views. The moral of the story is that you shouldn't be afraid to use Fortnite for views even as a small channel. It works.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enso using fortnight for views it's what we're talking about but also a little bit what I'm doing to be honest so I'm not the first person to make a video talking about the effect that fortnight has had on YouTube but I do want to share my personal experience as a small youtuber who kind of stumbled across the gold mine that is fortnight on one particular video that I made so whether you think that fortnight's influence on YouTube has been good or bad there's no denying that it's literally made people's careers people like ninja and ali-a have made millions of dollars and an entire living off of playing this game but what about the small guys what about us little YouTube channels can you take advantage of fortnight and use it to gain traffic to your channel yeah so here's pretty much how it goes hello youtube hello could I have some more views on my videos please yeah yeah sure just put fortnight in the title you're good to go oh okay that's that's pretty easy I can do that I mean it's really almost as easy as that so here's my example about two months ago my channel had 8000 subscribers so yeah we've grown a lot in the past two months so two months ago I made a series where I basically just tested out some gaming on some older and lower end hardware there were four videos in this series and I tested four different devices so the first video was called can you game on a $200 Windows tablet this video got about 2,200 views the second video was can you game on a Retina MacBook this got 2,400 views and the third video was can you game on a nine-year old MacBook Pro and that one got 3,500 views so obviously these view counts aren't really anything spectacular that's about what you would expect for a video being made by a small 8,000 subscriber YouTube channel so then I uploaded the fourth video which was gaming on a 2013 MacBook Pro and I called it can you game on a five-year-old MacBook Pro and in the first two to three days it got about 2500 views which makes sense however it did get more interesting than that because for each of these videos I had picked out games that I thought were appropriate for the hardware I was running them on so for the 2013 MacBook Pro which was a 15-inch was dedicated graphics I figured it would make sense to test out fortnight because it's a very popular game and I figured it would run decently well on that computer which it did no I didn't put this in the title initially but I had in the description I'm testing out fortnight csgo sieve 5 and Tomb Raider 2015 those were the four games I tested I think so those were what I put in the description I put all of those games in the tags but I left the title as can you game on a five year old MacBook Pro so in the middle of the third day the views had dropped down considerably to about 10 to 15 views an hour so at this point I'm thinking oh well the video has run its course so then I figured well at this point no one's really watching the video so I'm just gonna change the title and put fortnight in it so I changed it from can you game on a five year old MacBook Pro - can you play fortnight on a five year old MacBook Pro it's a small change but here is a screenshot of the real-time 60 minute views 20 minutes after I changed the title I mean that's crazy all it took was one keyword in the title and the video took off so for a perspective this video now has over 76,000 views now obviously that's not crazy high it's not a viral video but for a channel with 8,000 subscribers getting a video that goes to 76,000 views and still two months later is getting about a thousand views a day I should add that's pretty solid basically I think the TLDR version of this story would be if fortnight happens to fit into your content I don't think you should feel bad about using it to get views because if it's an accurate depiction of what you're doing in your video can you play fortnight on a five-year-old MacBook Pro was a question that I answered in the video it's not forced it wasn't you know a video that was made to deceive people so the moral of the story is you should not be afraid to use fortnight for views even as a small channel it works so that'll do it for today's video thank you guys so much for watching as usual make sure to follow me on twitter at luke me on e don't forget to join my subreddit the link is in the description below and I will see you guys in the next video oh yeah and also you know like comment subscribe on all that stuffso using fortnight for views it's what we're talking about but also a little bit what I'm doing to be honest so I'm not the first person to make a video talking about the effect that fortnight has had on YouTube but I do want to share my personal experience as a small youtuber who kind of stumbled across the gold mine that is fortnight on one particular video that I made so whether you think that fortnight's influence on YouTube has been good or bad there's no denying that it's literally made people's careers people like ninja and ali-a have made millions of dollars and an entire living off of playing this game but what about the small guys what about us little YouTube channels can you take advantage of fortnight and use it to gain traffic to your channel yeah so here's pretty much how it goes hello youtube hello could I have some more views on my videos please yeah yeah sure just put fortnight in the title you're good to go oh okay that's that's pretty easy I can do that I mean it's really almost as easy as that so here's my example about two months ago my channel had 8000 subscribers so yeah we've grown a lot in the past two months so two months ago I made a series where I basically just tested out some gaming on some older and lower end hardware there were four videos in this series and I tested four different devices so the first video was called can you game on a $200 Windows tablet this video got about 2,200 views the second video was can you game on a Retina MacBook this got 2,400 views and the third video was can you game on a nine-year old MacBook Pro and that one got 3,500 views so obviously these view counts aren't really anything spectacular that's about what you would expect for a video being made by a small 8,000 subscriber YouTube channel so then I uploaded the fourth video which was gaming on a 2013 MacBook Pro and I called it can you game on a five-year-old MacBook Pro and in the first two to three days it got about 2500 views which makes sense however it did get more interesting than that because for each of these videos I had picked out games that I thought were appropriate for the hardware I was running them on so for the 2013 MacBook Pro which was a 15-inch was dedicated graphics I figured it would make sense to test out fortnight because it's a very popular game and I figured it would run decently well on that computer which it did no I didn't put this in the title initially but I had in the description I'm testing out fortnight csgo sieve 5 and Tomb Raider 2015 those were the four games I tested I think so those were what I put in the description I put all of those games in the tags but I left the title as can you game on a five year old MacBook Pro so in the middle of the third day the views had dropped down considerably to about 10 to 15 views an hour so at this point I'm thinking oh well the video has run its course so then I figured well at this point no one's really watching the video so I'm just gonna change the title and put fortnight in it so I changed it from can you game on a five year old MacBook Pro - can you play fortnight on a five year old MacBook Pro it's a small change but here is a screenshot of the real-time 60 minute views 20 minutes after I changed the title I mean that's crazy all it took was one keyword in the title and the video took off so for a perspective this video now has over 76,000 views now obviously that's not crazy high it's not a viral video but for a channel with 8,000 subscribers getting a video that goes to 76,000 views and still two months later is getting about a thousand views a day I should add that's pretty solid basically I think the TLDR version of this story would be if fortnight happens to fit into your content I don't think you should feel bad about using it to get views because if it's an accurate depiction of what you're doing in your video can you play fortnight on a five-year-old MacBook Pro was a question that I answered in the video it's not forced it wasn't you know a video that was made to deceive people so the moral of the story is you should not be afraid to use fortnight for views even as a small channel it works so that'll do it for today's video thank you guys so much for watching as usual make sure to follow me on twitter at luke me on e don't forget to join my subreddit the link is in the description below and I will see you guys in the next video oh yeah and also you know like comment subscribe on all that stuff\n"