- Advertising revenue remained stable even though reported youtube views dropped sharply
- Volunteer Filter Mainteners quickly got the rules that caused vision problems
- Google’s Vage Tip About Adblockers Blade Creators Confused
Since mid -August 2025, several YouTubers have reported that sharp decreases in their video views count, in some cases up to 50%.
The drops primarily affected views on computers, while the number of television, tablets and mobile phones seemed stable.
YouTube has announced that there is “no systemic problem affecting creators,” but also suggested that “adblockers and other extensions can affect the accuracy of reported point of view.”
Changes in the filter list are raising questions
“Viewers using Adblockers & Other Content Blocking Tools: Adblockers and other extensions can affect the accuracy of reported viewing counts,” Google said.
“Channels, if the audience includes a higher proportion of users using such tools, can see more fluctuations in traffic related to updates to these tools.”
However, Adguard, an ad -blocking company, has offered additional context to the situation.
It suggested that the question could have been linked to popular community-maintained filter lists such as Easylist and Ublock’s fast corrections.
A new filter rule added to Easylist on August 11, 2025 targeted telemetry requests, which are believed to be tied to YouTubes View Attribution and Analytics.
This rule remained in place until September 10 when it was temporarily disabled.
A similar change was added to Ublock’s quick corrections on September 10 and removed on September 17.
These public updates suggest that the rules briefly interfered with how YouTube counted views.
Adguard notes that these rules never prevented anyone from watching YouTube videos and only blocked background requests associated with tracking and telemetry.
This situation highlights the tension between privacy -focused tools and the functionality of online platforms.
While YouTube has been pursuing aggressive measures against adblockers in recent years, this episode shows that filter changes can have unintended effects, even without deliberate interference.
It also reveals the transparency of open source communities, which quickly corrected the question when its influence became clear.
The filter list maintains community is mostly voluntary-driven, juggling updates along with other obligations.
They acted quickly to disable the problematic rules and demonstrate self -regulation and responsiveness to user needs.
Observers have contrasted this openness with YouTube’s limited communication and noted that the company’s hint of adblockers leaves very inexplicable.
Some creators remain skeptical and point out that advertising revenue has not fallen together with view counts, suggesting that the counting mechanism, not actually viewing behavior, was disturbed.
The episode feeds in a broader debate about YouTube’s relationship with Adblockers.
Many users address these tools because they are frustrated with ads that feel irrelevant, ads, they can’t skip and worst of all, ads that last longer than the videos themselves.
