YouTube
A YouTube channel in the Kids & Teens category with nearly 4 million subscribers faced the classic problem of a lack of new content due to team changes. The channel owner decided to find ways to maintain activity.
Initially, they turned to Shorts, which brought traffic and subscribers and ruined audience retention, leading to a drop in recommendations.
However, another option completely transformed the channel’s critical situation. The creator chose Gyre's 24/7 live streams to restore income and bring the channel back to life.
The creator stopped releasing new YouTube Shorts and focused on continuous live streams. It was the perfect solution, as 24/7 streams offer much higher audience retention than other formats. It is essential for YouTube, where algorithms prioritize videos with high engagement and watch time. Thanks to Gyre, the creator set up continuous live streams, keeping the audience engaged 24/7, which increased views and engagement.
Continuous live streams allow for a constant presence on the platform without regularly releasing new content. This approach preserved income and helped the channel return to a leading position in its niche.
Why Do Gyre Streams Work?
Adding 24/7 streams to any YouTube channel’s content brings several strategic advantages:
- Increased Audience Retention: The average watch time for streams is always higher than for regular videos. The life cycle of a 24/7 stream is longer — for example, there’s a record-holder among Gyre users who have been live continuously for three years. Viewers can join at any time. YouTube tracks each session, which helps the creator achieve a higher average audience retention rate on live streams.
- Positive Signals to YouTube Algorithms: Gyre streams retain viewers for longer, improving the channel's average retention rate and boosting its ranking in recommendations.
- Process Automation: Gyre provides easy tools for automating streams, including automatic start and stop functions, which save a lot of time. You can optimize your files in the video converter ahead of time and prepare themed playlists. It allows you to change the order of your videos with just a few clicks without interrupting the stream. With the calendar, you can schedule automatic starts and stops for streams, enabling you to manage continuous streams months in advance.
Results Over 90 Days
Let’s return to our case study. Over the past period, the creator launched 76 streams, which resulted in:
- 11.3% of the channel's views
- 40.1% of total watch time
- 80.3% of the channel’s income
As mentioned earlier, Shorts are a good tool for driving views and subscribers. However, if regular videos are also on the channel, they significantly lower audience retention rates, resulting in low income due to a lower RPM.
In our case, Shorts, which accounted for 85.8% of views, generated only 14.1% of income because of their low RPM ($0.03).
Even when the creator stopped posting Shorts, they generated views but made minimal profit.
In contrast, streams, although having fewer views, showed better audience retention rates and ensured a higher RPM. And this is just the result for 90 days.
It’s important to note that streams have a cumulative effect: their metrics will only improve over time after re-indexing.
Detailed Metric Analysis
Views
- Shorts: 85.8% of views but low RPM ($0.03).
- Streams: 11.3% of views but 80.3% of income.
Audience Retention
- Streams: The average watch time is 3:21 minutes, 32.24% higher than video watch time.
- Better retention increases the chances of being recommended and boosts income due to a higher RPM.
Income
- Total income from streams was $17,936, which is 14.3 times higher than from all other videos on the channel.
- RPM for streams: $1.27, 3.63 times higher than the video RPM ($0.35). RPM for Shorts is just $0.03.
Why Are Streams Better Than Shorts for Sustainable Growth?
Shorts are a powerful tool. When used strategically, creators can significantly increase channel traffic, especially if they are balanced with live streams that have high average watch times.
However, there are several drawbacks:
- They negatively impact retention, which affects recommendations.
- They have low RPM, so they generate little income.
In contrast, streams:
- Increase retention and watch time.
- Have a high RPM, which boosts profitability.
- Positively affect all key metrics.
If your priority is channel monetization, combining regular videos with 24/7 streams is the best approach. If Shorts are your primary content format, creating a separate channel for them is better.
Conclusions
Over 90 days, the creator did not add new videos or Shorts but used continuous streams to:
- Account for 40.1% of total watch time via streams.
- Generate $17,936 in income, four times more than in the previous period.
- Improve average audience retention by 32.24%.
If, like many creators, you started uploading Shorts to gain more views and subscribers but noticed a drop in income and visibility in recommendations, the only solution to restore balance is to start streaming through Gyre.
It’s also crucial to use all tools in a balanced way. If, as in this case, shooting new content becomes impossible, but you’re not ready to watch your channel slowly decline, streams are the best solution. Gyre is the optimal tool and an effective way to bring your channel back to life, even without new content.
An additional bonus that every Gyre user gets is the absence of extra costs for filming, studios, or actors. Instead, you can increase your profit several times over, just like the hero of this case study. And this is only possible with Gyre’s continuous streams.
