YouTubers demand “kickback” feature after Asmongold react video goes viral

YouTubers are demanding a new “kickback” feature on the platform after one of Asmongold’s react videos went viral.

React content has gained popularity over the years and involves some of the biggest creators on Twitch and YouTube uploading a new video reacting to someone else’s content.

OTK co-founder Asmongold went viral back in 2022 for reacting to the Johnny Depp vs Amber Heard court trial on both Twitch and YouTube and has continued to embrace react content across both platforms.

On September 18, 2024, just one day after Asmon reacted to one of his videos, YouTuber Zackary Smigel called for a new “kickback” system after his video ‘slowed down’ in views. His post quickly went viral, and others echoed his request.

“I have no issue with people reacting to my videos in a transformative way—I actually encourage it. But it definitely sucks to see my video slow down at 300k views while Asmongold’s reaction gets almost a mill. My video was only up for 5 days, and it’s pretty much lost all momentum,” he said in the first post before joking that Asmon should wait “at least” a week before reacting to him in the future.

As the post went viral, Smigel added: “This is blowing up. Just to clarify, I’m not mad at the player, but at the game. Honestly, I feel like YouTube should have a system similar to quote tweets or a kickback system for reaction videos.”

Asmongold has since made his video reacting to Smigel’s content private.

YouTuber Justin Whang retweeted his post to agree on the need for a reaction system, saying it would be a win that would be good for both streamers and the platform itself.

“Some kind of integrated reaction system like this would be a win/win and give people a reason to specifically stream on YouTube,” he said.

Another user mentioned that video replies used to be a popular way to react to other creators on the site: “Video replies used to be a thing. Then YouTube removed it because some people got upset their arguments we getting torn apart in the video replies.”

Others in the replies to Smigel’s tweet shared that the “kickback” given to the original creator should be in the form of sharing the revenue made from the video.

“I would take it even further by saying Youtube should make it so the person reacting to the vid has to split some of the revenue with the original creator,” one user said.

Another commented: “Nah there needs to be a built-in rev split for circumstances like this.”

YouTube hasn’t shied away from adding new features to the platform over the years and revealed several new ones during its Made By YouTube event on September 18, 2024. There’s a new Discord-like update to Communities, a gift program for YouTube Shorts streamers, and even a new AI tool to help create your short-form videos.