YouTube has revealed that it is permanently canceling its once-beloved ‘YouTube Rewind’ year-end videos after a decade of celebrating creators and viral moments on the platform.
YouTube Rewind was once an activity that everyone who frequented the video-sharing website looked forward to. Generally, these Rewind videos celebrated the platform’s biggest moments and most popular creators at the end of every year.
However, in 2018, YouTube’s highly-anticipated Rewind video was met with heavy backlash.a Fans felt as though major moments from the year were left out due to controversy and that the site favored Hollywood celebrities. It even became one of the most-disliked videos on the platform.
In 2020, YouTube announced that it would not be publishing a Rewind due to ongoing global health issues, prompting MrBeast to create his own version of the annual event. It even sparked the creation of an independent musical that was met with mixed reviews.
YouTube reveals why it’s canceling YouTube Rewind
On what would be the 10th anniversary of the Rewind tradition, YouTube revealed to TubeFilter that they are officially shelving the project after back-to-back years of criticism.
However, it’s not the backlash that has prompted the company to make this decision; instead, they claim that YouTube has become “so massive that it is impossible to encapsulate its vastness and diversity within a minutes-long compilation.”
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“Since Rewind started in 2011, we have seen creators from MrBeast [54 million views], elrubiusOMG, and Slayy Point, to so many more, create their own end-of-year videos, uniquely capturing the year from each of their perspectives,” a YouTube spokesperson said of the situation.
“It’ll continue to be inspiring to see the myriad of ways the most creative content producers in the world — our YouTube creators — encapsulate the end of year in their video recaps, as YouTube retires its own Rewind video.”
For now, it looks like it’s in the hands of content creators to come up with their own Rewind videos.
It would certainly be a rewarding experience to see some of YouTube’s bigger creators come together to make a project on par with previous Rewinds — but for now, there’s no telling what influencers will cook up at the year’s end, if anything.