Sub count on youtube:

Andrew Neeme: 191k
Rampage Poker: 264k
Brad Owen: 694k
Daniel Negreanu: 781k
Wolfgang Poker: 783k

So how did this relatively new poker player become the most subscribed poker channel on youtube?



How does he go from gaining 600 subs one month to 10k subs the next month to 250k subs the next month??

Can this be explained by something other than botting? Did he win the WSOP main event and I missed that?

https://socialblade.com/youtube/chan...n5ce2QLHIKk3aw

Not sure but whenever I watch a youtube short one of his terrible videos will pop up. I am guessing he has cracked some algorithm so that they appear to a wider audience.

If you do take the time to watch them you will see it's not a bad thing. The ones who watch them and think that is the best way to play then we are going to have alot more bad recs in the pool.

I think you may be right and I want to be clear I'm not accusing Wolfgang of viewbotting but his channel growth is absolutely wild. 250k in one month for a niche youtuber and poker is niche for sure is insane.

Looking at his shorts he's posting every day and they're getting good views so that could definitely be the key. Also his latest video did come up in my recommended AND I clicked it.

Yeah I was going to suggest shortform content as well. If you look at the view counts of viral YouTube shorts across all sorts of fields, they are totally insane. For example, Wolfgang's most viewed longform vlog has 225k views which is really respectable. But his most viewed YouTube short has 78 million views?!

Not sure exactly why that is. Seems like YouTube is pushing the shorts pretty hard to compete with TikTok, and there are probably less people making decent quality poker shorts than decent quality poker vlogs.

"Whats up you guys back with another video BANGGGGGG we flop top set!"

I can't even hate on it, kid is catchy

He talked about this in a vlog a few months ago. Yes, it's from the shorts. He was at 420k at that time so he's almost doubled that since then. I had wondered the same thing because he was only at like 30 or 40k and almost overnight he was only behind Brad Owen in sub count.

He also has a LOT of followers on Tik Tok that might have migrated over to youtube as well

Biggest poker youtuber is Masato Yokosawa with 820k subs https://www.youtube.com/@yokosawa

As others have stated, it’s the shorts.

Simple. He makes quality youtube shorts. His long form videos lowkey suck but the shorts will make his channel grow quickly.

From OP’s list, I sub to all but Wolfgang

Trashcan players getting tons of views on TikTok and Youtube Shorts is a blessing for the poker world. I for one support Wolfgang Poker whole heartedly.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgO8ZmA74yE

Wolfgang hit 1 million subscribers and posted a somewhat interesting behind the scenes video going through his process for growing the channel.

Exactly this. People love to hate but vlogging has been helping to grow the game in the modern area tremendously. Lot of players I've come across that started playing because they saw a poker video on youtube or what have you.

YouTube is pushing traffic to shorts right now to compete with tiktok and he pays for ads on Facebook.

He has over a million "subscribers" but then his 18-minute video over the course of 3 days has received a "whopping" 14K views and 1.2k likes.

So those shorts are artificially inflating how his channel looks more successful than the other big players in the vlog world he's "passed", but looks more like fluff than actual dedicated people viewing his channel.

I would imagine if you hosted two MUGS and one featured Brad Owen and the other featured Wolfgang, the Brad Owen MUG would be far more successful despite Wolfgangs illusionary "lead" on Brad in the social space. And that would be because Brads content developed more invested/loyal viewers while Wolfgangs is just taking advantage of algorithms but not really building that community like Brad has done.

Tbf a lot of people dont watch anything but shorts so if his following is mostly the TikTok crowd who dont watch traditional youtube then those subscribers will not translate into views on longer videos at all.

You are right about what that implies for the actual enagement with the poker world from his viewers. Brad Owen is a much bigger name in terms of poker influence despite lower amount of subs

I still have a feeling not all the shorts views are legit. I find it difficult to believe multiple MILLIONS of poker fans are viewing his poker shorts. But, I guess he's getting paid and able to leverage it for his benefit, might as well cash in while you can these days.

Im not sure how legit the numbers are either (because I dont really have a clue, never been a creator) but there are so many young people out there who will spend at least 30-60 minutes a night just mindlessly watching shorts/reels/tiktok to wind down. And then there are people who are legit addicted who spend MUCH more time than that. The numbers can easily add up.

Consider someone who subscribes to longer video channels like RaiseYourEdge. Thats 30-45 minute videos to watch just 1 (one) video - I dont watch Brad Owen but if Im not mistaken he has similar length on his videos. If I spend my evening watching one video from a creator like that, in the same time a single person just watching shorts will watch 50-100 videos. The numbers just naturally get massively higher for short creators than original long format creators. Everyone has a smart phone nowadays, all over the world. Getting millions of subscribers on short videos is relatively easy if you crack the algorithm.

So he's got over a million subscribers but his video where he talks about having a million subscribers has received less than 20k views in 8 days time..................

Everyone knows he bought a LOT of subs

https://youtu.be/XURgzsfaMNU?si=HBGFEgn8zw0-Tvnb

Whether he bought his subscribers or not, the guy is officially legitimate. Being invited to juicy games with NFL players is pretty sick.

I wonder how long you get invited to juicy games when you make content out of them.

I'm not even subscribed to him or signed in on the YouTube app on my phone, but I get fed his YouTube shorts all the time. The algorithm favors his shorts very well.

With that said, a bulk of his shorts are "nothing burger" hands and/or hands that he played so poorly that it's almost impressive.