On December 5th, YouTube released the latest edition of Rewind – and so far most people hate it with over 4 million dislikes and counting. This year's flop follows in the footsteps of the 2018 Rewind disaster that resulted in that video being the most disliked video in all of YouTube history. It even holds that record to this day with more than 17 million dislikes and counting. But if people hate Rewind so much, why is YouTube still trying?
YouTube Rewind became an annual tradition starting in 2010 when the first edition was released. The idea was to put together a compilation that highlighted the best content and creators that the site had to offer, as well as focus on the major trends and viral videos that dominated the year.
For the first seven years of Rewind, the videos were generally looked upon favorably. Rewind 2017, for example, currently has about a two-thirds like to one-third dislike ratio. Rewind 2016 did even better with 3.7 million likes to just 557k dislikes. But all that changed in 2018 when a tone deaf flop of an attempt proved just how little YouTube understood its community, what it represents, and what it wants.
The 2018 Disaster
The 2018 YouTube Rewind video starts with A-list actor Will Smith reciting awkward, corporate approved dialogue about how much he likes Marques Brownlee (a content creator who was far from the top of the food chain for 2018, and a seemingly random pick) and the game Fortnite. The rest of the video features overproduced segues of campy dialogue and massive misfires that focus on aspects of YouTube that were, as many argued, not representative of the actual YouTube community and what it wants.
One notable absence from Rewind 2018 was the infamous content creator PewDiePie who currently has more than 80 million subscribers and was the leading content creator and YouTube personality for 2018. His complete absence from Rewind was a glaring omission that seemed both intentional and punitive. Needless to say, it angered a lot of people.
The Crash Continues
On its official Twitter account, YouTube staff admitted their mistake with 2018, nothing that they "made something you didn't like", indirectly suggesting that this year's Rewind would be a return to form.
Unfortunately, the general consensus online has been that YouTube Rewind 2019, while less of a failure than 2018, is still a massive disappointment. Instead of relying on celebrity cameos and high-budget cringe sequences, the 2019 edition is completely lacking in any creativity. It is instead mostly just a list of stats and figures followed by clips of popular content creators. It would seem YouTube is simply saying that they won't try and tell us what was successful and are instead just sticking to the numbers. This time around, even PewDiePie mades an appearance through his incredibly popular wedding video.
After striking out two years in a row, it's going to take a lot for YouTube to win back its audience if it is ever to attempt to make YouTube Rewind 2020 next December.