Veteran YouTuber Vitaly ‘VitalyzdTv’ Zdorovetskiy returned to the platform after more than a year-long break from making videos, but most of his viewers don’t seem to have gotten the message.
Those who have been on YouTube for a number of years have probably heard of or seen some of Vitaly’s infamous prank videos in the past.
Some of his most popular were the “Russian Hitman” stunts. The original version actually landed him in jail, but also racked up more than 18 million views in a week – an almost unheard-of accomplishment on the site back in 2012.
In 2021 however, it seems like Vitaly’s main YouTube channel just isn’t pulling in the numbers it once did.
https://youtu.be/VDhu7QA3tbs
Vitaly finally released his first new video in more than a year to his main channel on May 12, after not uploading since March of 2020.
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Titled “Changing A Homeless Man Life!” It follows the Russian-American YouTuber as he picks up a homeless person from the streets of LA.
As far as content goes, it’s the classic YouTube philanthropy of finding a down-on-their-luck individual and helping them out. Vitaly genuinely seems to assist the guy named Nick, but the video only has roughly 88,000 views compared to his last one before the year-long hiatus which racked up over 1 million.
There are a couple of explanations why this could be happening. One is that this isn’t the first time Vitaly has done a video like this. He has a whole series of helping out people instead of pranking them, so maybe viewers just aren’t as interested as they once were.
Whatever the reason, Vitaly himself doesn’t seem to be too concerned with the drop in YouTube views. The influencer has stayed busy running his other sites, and even paid for a streaker to run across the field during the 2021 Super Bowl – though you might have missed it, as it wasn’t broadcasted on television.
Not being able to muster the views they once were able to is a common trend for some creators who have been on YouTube for a long time. That being said, Vitaly’s prank videos are far more popular than his ones helping people out, so when a new one of those is released, we very well could see his viewership numbers go back up.