Rooster Teeth Removes Popular Videos From Youtube, Asks Fans To Watch On Its Website

Warner Bros. Discovery-owned Rooster Teeth is deleting many of its most popular videos from Youtube in a maneuver designed to increase ad revenue.

Celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, Rooster Teeth has produced some of the internet’s favorite videos and web series, such as Red vs. Blue and Camp Camp, and the feature film Lazer Team. Rooster Teeth has hosted its videos on Youtube for years. The official account was established in July 2006 and now contains 8,900 videos. It has more than 9 million subscribers, and its videos have been watched over 5.7 billion times.

Why did Rooster Teeth do this? According to the company, “The short version is that animation is expensive and hard to make.” Because of the capital required to produce its animated programs, Rooster Teeth depends on ad revenues, which the company says are much lower on Youtube. In a video posted to social media, Rooster Teeth showrunner Kerry Shawcross explained that when users watch ad-supported videos on the Rooster Teeth website, the company earns five to ten times revenue than if the same video is watched on Youtube with ads. “Youtube revenue is just not cutting it for us anymore,” he said.

As you may have heard, we’re changing things up a bit over here at Rooster Teeth. These changes are all about ensuring we can continue to create the content you know and love as well as new and upcoming projects. Your support means the world to us and we’re so grateful to have… pic.twitter.com/jGyycDZob4

— Rooster Teeth (@RoosterTeeth) October 5, 2023

What has been removed from Youtube? So far, the series Red vs. Blue and Camp Camp have been removed. If the company’s decision proves profitable, nobody should be surprised if other videos are similarly taken down, and other successful independent creators copy Rooster Teeth’s decision.

Will I need to subscribe to watch videos on the Rooster Teeth website? No subscription will be required to access most of the videos on the Rooster Teeth website. However, the company offers an ad-free viewing experience as well as exclusive content to users who subscribe to its First program, which runs $5.99/month.

How has the reaction been to this decision? It’s always been hard to judge how a message is received based on social media replies, and that’s truer now than ever. On Twitter, the original Rooster Teeth tweet has 1,400 likes, yet most of the nearly 500 replies have been critical of the announcement. On Instagram, most of the top replies empathized with the studio’s situation, although there were sill plenty of people annoyed by the announcement.

Jamie’s take: The anger among Rooster Teeth fans on social media seems misplaced. The company is still offering a way to watch almost all of its videos for free, and it doesn’t seem like an unfair request that the people watching them do so in a way that is sustainable for the company.