What Would You Do With an Old YouTube Channel That Stopped Growing?

Last week I started my new channel. I have a channel in the same niche with about 65000 subscribers. I decided to start fresh as the channel felt like there was no way of getting over 1k views per video again, I accidentally linked it to Spotify as a music channel years ago and since that point it completely dropped in views. Was a massive mistake on my part and I couldnt undo it for years. The channel used to perform really well up to that point and I kept at it hoping that eventually it would change.

I am now wondering what I should do with the channel. I am very tempted to post less focused videos on it and just throw experiments at it to see what happens every so often and keep my new channel laser focused with good SEO and making videos I believe will perform well. I am unsure if I should just fully stop posting as I do have a sub base there and earnings too.

What are your thoughts? I feel so stuck with this and unsure what is best to do. At this point with starting again I dont mind what happens in terms of views on it any more but I dont want to delete it as I know my videos are helpful and still help people.

Quote from Symph

Why would a channel not be able to just pivot to a different style of content that works? You're acting like something happened, did the algorithm get so used to 1k views that now nothing could ever change that? Why not? Doesn't it seem like all you'd have to do is find a type of content that is better liked, follow some trends, get a few videos to get some extra views and then the algorithm would pick up on it? Or does the algorithm just decide if a channel hasn't grown in years it never will? If THAT'S the case then I need to make a new channel not start uploading to my old one again.

To be honest I am really unsure if it could escape how it was performing. I was getting decent views for a long time, then I linked the channel to spotify as an artist accidentally and the views tanked from that point. They did stabilise for a while but recently when posting I was barely scraping 1k views with good content and content that would have worked in the past. I could have tried to be honest but I felt like my subscribers werent watching or clicking in and off videos. I am really unsure if I could have stimulated growth again in the channel. It is still there and I am open to trying to get it going again but I am unsure if I should just let it die off. I dont think it will punish an older channel but I am unsure. It always felt like the channel was broken but thats something I have come up with without facts.

Quote from Symph

I felt the same way, like my growth had just decided it was what it was and the algorithm wouldn't allow me to go any further. I thought that was all in my head, and I asked Copilot about it, and copilot said that an old channel can always be revived and the algorithm doesn't force you into some kind of purgatory, but copilot also thinks my crappiest lyrics are genius so what does he know am I right?

Thats how I felt with it for a LONG time like everything I posted didnt get the same traction that it used to even around previously popular and good subjects. I done a lot of audiences requests too which may have hurt the channel as many of them were VERY random. Thats why I am so fussy about locking down into a niche now at the start and then eventually branching out. It would be like a gaming channel starting with 1 game, then once has a larger audience finally spreading into similar games and then beyond.

Quote from Symph

Man.... youtube is so freaking limiting. Feels like I'm trying to entertain a 3 year old who just keeps saying "DO IT AGAIN! DO IT AGAIN!"

I have felt quite demoralised about posting there with the views tanking so much. Thats the only real change that I can see happened on the channel with the linking to Spotify. I did start posting less often but I cant see that damaging the channel as much. I have saw a lot of larger channels disappear and come back and still retain high viewership so unsure there.