- Advertising income remained stable even if the YouTube views were highly lowered
- Volunteer filter agents quickly resolved the rules that caused vision problems
- The vague google index on adblockers leaves confused creators
Since mid-August 2025, many YouTubers have reported a sharp drop in their number of video views, in some cases of 50%.
The drops mainly affected the views of computers, while figures on televisions, tablets and mobile phones seemed stable.
YouTube publicly said that there is “no systemic problem that has an impact on creators”, but also suggested that “adblockers and other extensions can have an impact on the accuracy of reported views”.
Changes in the list of filters raise questions
“Viewers using adblockers and other content blocking tools: adblockers and other extensions can have an impact on the accuracy of the reported views,” said Google.
“Channels whose public includes a higher proportion of users using such tools can see more fluctuations in traffic linked to updates these tools.”
However, Adguard, an advertising blocking company, offered an additional context to the situation.
He suggested that the problem was perhaps linked to lists of popular filters maintained by the community like Easylist and the rapid Ublock fixes.
A new filter rule added to Easylist on August 11, 2025 targets telemetry requests considered to be linked to the allocation and analysis of the view of YouTube.
This rule remained in place until September 10, when it was temporarily disabled.
A similar change was added to the rapid Ublock fixes on September 10 and withdrawn on September 17.
These public updates suggest that the rules have briefly interfered by the way youtube counted the views.
Adguard notes that these rules have never prevented anyone from watching YouTube videos and only blocked background requests linked to follow-up and telemetry.
This situation highlights the tension between tools focused on confidentiality and functionality of online platforms.
Although YouTube has continued aggressive measures against adblockers in recent years, this episode shows that filtering changes can have involuntary effects even without deliberate interference.
It also reveals the transparency of open source communities, which quickly corrected the problem once its impact has become apparent.
The community of managers on the list of filters is mostly focused on volunteers and juggling updates in parallel with other commitments.
They acted quickly to deactivate the problematic rules, demonstrating self -regulation and responsiveness to user needs.
Observers have contrasted this opening with the limited communication of YouTube, noting that the company’s tip on adblockers leaves a lot unexplained.
Some creators remain skeptical, stressing that advertising revenues have not fallen alongside the number of views, which suggests that the counting mechanism, not the real behavior of the spectator, has been disrupted.
The episode feeds a broader debate on Youtube’s relationship with adblockers.
Many users turn to these tools because they are frustrated by advertisements that do not feel relevant, advertisements that they cannot ignore, and even worse, advertisements that last longer than the videos themselves.
