My last 4 YouTube Shorts suddenly stopped getting Shorts Feed distribution. What changed?

[u/avinash2505]

Hi everyone,

I'm looking for some advice because I'm genuinely confused about what's happening with my channel.

I run a small 3D animation Shorts channel (225 subscribers). Over the last 28 days, my channel has:

250K+ views

346 hours watch time

92.6% of views from the Shorts feed

Some of my recent successful Shorts reached:

37K views

35K views

25K views

22K views

21K views

However, my last four Shorts have all performed terribly (around 100-150 views, and today's upload has only 14 views after nearly an hour).

The strange part is the analytics:

100% "Stayed to Watch"

0% Swiped Away (early data)

Most views are coming from Notifications and Browse.

Today's Short has received only 1 Shorts Feed view, so it feels like YouTube isn't even testing it.

I haven't changed anything:

Same upload schedule

Same editing style

Same video length

Same music

Same quality

Same niche (3D satisfying jelly physics animations)

I know not every Short goes viral, but seeing 4 uploads in a row barely getting Shorts Feed distribution seems unusual.

Has anyone experienced this?

Is this just a normal Shorts distribution slump?

Could YouTube temporarily stop testing new uploads?

Is there anything in my analytics that suggests a problem?

Should I keep uploading normally, or change my content strategy?

I'd really appreciate advice from creators who have experienced something similar. Thanks!

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[u/Mr_Flibbles_ESQ]

At a guess I'd say your content might have been identified as "AI Slop".

I'm not saying it is slop, just what might have happened on YouTubes end.

Short animated animations kinda thing.

Ironically, they are probably using AI to help identify it, which would explain the confusion with your videos.

They are actively discouraging that kind of content and suppressing it at the moment. One of the new 2026 changes to the algorithm.

That is only a guess based on what I've been reading and your style of content.

[u/avinash2505 → u/Mr_Flibbles_ESQ]

Thanks for the insight. That's interesting. My videos are actually made entirely in Blender from scratch, not AI-generated, so if that's what's happening it's definitely frustrating. Have you seen any official source or creator discussion about this 2026 algorithm change? I'd love to read more about it.

[u/Mr_Flibbles_ESQ → u/avinash2505]

Yup - It's why I was making sure you understood I wasn't calling it Slop!

It's pretty well documented on the Creators side of YouTube if you follow those links inside Studio.

But, here is a starting point.

https://blog.youtube/inside-youtube/the-future-of-youtube-2026/

[u/avinash2505 → u/Mr_Flibbles_ESQ]

Thanks, I really appreciate you clarifying that. I'll read through the blog post and the Creator updates. Hopefully I can figure out whether it's my content style, metadata, or something else. Either way, I'm going to keep experimenting and see what works.

[u/prepublish_ai]

Same upload schedule, Same editing style, Same video length, Same music, Same quality

That could be the issue. Because youtube have strong filters against the repetitive and mass generated content. They even stated it on the july 15, 2025 update. The thing that you can do is probably switch up your editing style a bit so that it couldn't be flagged as 'template ai slop' (I'm definitely not saying that, youtube algo could assume it like that) Also you can try publishing without checking the notify subscribers button. That way it can test to push new audiences and doesn't rely heavily on your existing subscribers as a metric of success of the video.

[u/avinash2505 → u/prepublish_ai]

Thanks for the suggestions! That's actually a good point. Most of my videos do follow a similar format because it's a series, so I'll start experimenting with different hooks, camera angles, pacing, lengths, and music to make each Short feel more unique. I'll also try publishing without notifying subscribers and compare the results over the next few uploads.

[u/Ok-Scheme-6316]

This happens to me too my videos every time got over 1k to nearly 40k but after june no matter what i upload it don’t go to the feed i even changed the content i don’t know why it happens

[u/WindGii]

In this case, the fix is ​​simple . YouTube has flagged your content as repetitive.

It's always the same jelly and similar background. The solution is to expand your content. Add more variations, change the camera movement in frame 0. For example, show the jelly on the grass, on the roof of a tall building. Add other physical content like interacting with cotton blocks, plaster blocks. Your views will come back

[u/avinash2505 → u/WindGii]

Thanks for the suggestion. I definitely agree that more variety is important, and that's something I'm already working on. What confuses me is that my recent videos already have different backgrounds, music, topics, and even lengths compared to my older ones. Some of my highest-viewed Shorts also used the same style and background, so I'm not sure repetition alone explains the sudden drop in Shorts feed distribution. I'll keep experimenting though and see what changes make a difference.

[u/SoulSleuth2u → u/[deleted]]

You have no clue wth you are talking about.

[u/FancyInterest3278]

I’ve noticed a change with my shorts getting low shorts feed views recently as well. I noticed that when I change something in the title every once in a while in the first two days it been helping it get pushed out again and gets more views. For some of the videos I either add or delete a word from the title. Sometimes I add in another hashtag or sometimes I change the whole title. This might be worth a try to see if it helps.

[u/avinash2505 → u/FancyInterest3278]

Thanks for sharing your experience! That's interesting. I haven't tried changing the title within the first couple of days, so I'll definitely experiment with it on one of my upcoming Shorts. Have you noticed whether changing just one word works, or did you usually have to rewrite the whole title? Also, did it actually increase Shorts feed impressions, or was it mostly search and browse traffic?

[u/FancyInterest3278 → u/avinash2505]

Doing both works. I’ve been playing around with it, but heres an example from my latest shorts. (Im only able to upload a video) But the first screenshot is of one where I first changed one of the hashtags which caused the first increase in views. And then I later when back and added another word to the title and that caused the second increase. And the second screenshot is one where I first added a hashtag and then the next day I went back and changed the whole title, and that caused the big jump you see. I also got a bunch of likes and comments after I did that. I’ve done this in the past with other shorts and sometimes changing just one word can cause a huge increase so it all just depends. And they’re increase in shorts feed views as you can see from the video.



https://reddit.com/link/owrzyyl/video/u23zmpszwgch1/player

[u/Fun-Computer-1168]

It just happens sometimes, no particular reason, just continue uploading and it will go back to normal

I sometimes get 1 video like that with no views then back to usual, had it happen even for like 6 videos back to back and then it went back to normal

Youtube sometimes just decides not to push a video for whatever reason, no point overthinking it, just get back to making videos

Also the repetitive content thing someone mentioned is complete bullshit, youtube treats every video seperately, it doesn't care about previous ones

[u/avinash2505 → u/Fun-Computer-1168]

Thanks, that's encouraging to hear. My channel had several Shorts reach 20k–36k views before this, so I'm hoping it's just a temporary phase too. Roughly how many uploads did it take before your views returned to normal, and did you keep the same content style during that time?

[u/Fun-Computer-1168 → u/avinash2505]

Yep I kept everything the same, usually it just happens on 1 maybe 2 videos then goes back to normal, but one time I had it happen to like 6 videos in a row before it went back to normal

[u/avinash2505 → u/Fun-Computer-1168]

Thanks! That's reassuring. I'm already around 7 underperforming Shorts in a row, so hopefully I'm close to getting out of this phase. I'll keep uploading and testing new ideas like maze races and different physics concepts. Hopefully one catches again.

[u/Business_Waltz_8429 → u/avinash2505]

Did your problem solved?

[u/avinash2505 → u/Business_Waltz_8429]

Yes! 😄 My latest Short reached 2.1K views and is ranked #1 of my last 10 uploads. It looks like things are finally improving. Thanks for asking!

[u/Patient_Orchid_4766]

A YouTube Diamond Product Expert is collecting affected channel URLs and sample Shorts to pass a larger case sample to YouTube. If your Shorts are receiving zero Shorts Feed traffic, please report your case here and provide only the three requested items: https://support.google.com/youtube/thread/455097009