YouTube is home to billions of videos. From children’s rhymes, cooking shows, how-to videos, and news content, this video sharing platform has it all. However, one of the most popular video types on YouTube now is the “true crime.”
A lot of people are fond of watching mind-baffling videos. They try to solve the mysteries of what they watch as the story goes on. For this reason, true crime has gotten the attention of the YouTube community.
Crimes such as unsolved mysteries, unfathomable murders, and outrageous wrongdoings command headlines across the media. Their gripping stories, along with the details, became the fuel for the growth of YouTube’s true crime community.
Such a community is no doubt a small one. It only consists of 340 channels, some of which have less than one million subscribers. Yet, its impact on viewers has been outsized.
This Crime Vlogging Is Growing In Views At An Explosive Rate
Around 2014 to 2015 were the years of resurgence for true crime’s popularity in the US. It continued to get the audience’s attention when the podcast “Serial” and TV series “Making a Murder” sparked in popularity. The viral success of ”Tiger King” by Netflix can attest to that. What isn’t a crime is the growth these YouTubers have had in the raw numbers of views they are earning!
This year, the search volume of “true crime” has hit its all-time high on Google. Besides, YouTube’s survey found out that more than 60 percent of true crime viewers are female.
A Crime Video’s Witnesses
True crime videos were viewed more than two billion times last year. While that is undoubtedly a high record, this year’s record is close to eclipsing the previous one. In fact, true crime videos were watched over a billion times from January to May.
Now you may be asking, “Who’s watching such videos?” As mentioned, more than 60 percent of the true-crime audience were females.
Earnest Pettie, YouTube’s Culture & Trends department’s Trends Insights Lead, has his explanation for the large percentage of female true crime viewers. According to him, it may be reflective of the creator pool who are compromising the community. About four or five of the most-subscribed YouTube channels had names that are traditionally thought of as names of women. Such include Bailey and Eleanor.
Petite then added that many of those creators were migrators that come from the beauty community. Of course, most of the audiences of the beauty community are females.
A Genuine Mystery
This unlikely migration from the beauty community to the true-crime genre was due to a famous style of true crime vlogging, which is known as “Mystery and Makeup.” Content creators discuss true crime stories through the “Get Ready With Me” approach to this content format.
As a quick reminder, the “Get Ready With Me” approach came from content creators who, as the name suggests, put on makeup as they get ready for the day. An excellent example of such a mashup format is Bailey Sarian. She applies her morning makeup while telling the story about murder and strange events such as the exorcism of Anna Ecklund and the Janestown Massacre.
A lot of creators in the true crime genre have tried to imitate Sarian’s channel. Pettie has a theory behind the popularity of this content format. He noted that the growth that true crime content witnessed is because creators and viewers are discovering, developing, and sharing their interest in such topics. Also, they stayed connected to the interest that they first had– makeup.
Podcasts and documentaries are some other formats of the standard true crime content. Documentaries rely on pre-existing narrations and footage. In addition, they are especially popular and utilized by the three most subscribed channels about true crime. The said channels are Buzzfeed Unsolved Mysteries, True Crime Daily, and Real Stories.
ASMR is another popular true-crime video format. It utilizes the traditional ASMR elements, including audio triggers and personal attention that helps in creating an immersive experience for the audience. One great example of a YouTube channel that does true crime ASMR is The Empress ASMR.
A Future for True Crime
YouTube is the largest video sharing platform in the world. It is also the second-largest search engine next to Google, its parent company.
YouTube has millions of active monthly users. In addition, it has over a billion users collectively around the world. More than that, billions of hours of videos are being uploaded on the said channel every day. Needless to say, this video sharing platform is indeed a huge one.
Furthermore, the said video sharing platform has hundreds of thousands of channels competing to be seen by their audiences. For this reason, it is far from possible to predict the long-term future of any video genre. Regardless of this fact, one thing is for sure– the true crime genre should keep its staying power for a long time.
At its most basic level, a true crime genre is a form of entertainment that focuses on examining the mystery of the human mind. It also seeks to understand why people behave like how they do to a certain degree. Everyone share such timeless pursuits. In addition, as long as committing notorious crimes to stay equally enduring, true crime will continue to catch the attention of many YouTube viewers.
Conclusion: None! The Mystery Remains!
As mentioned, it is never possible to foresee the future of any video genre on YouTube. For this reason, content creators on YouTube are continuously looking for ways to keep the attention of their viewers. Therefore, we can expect that true crime, in whatever form of content, would change in the future in ways that we do not foresee. The documentaries, ASMR true crime videos, podcasts, as well as the popular mashup of Get Ready with Me and true crime will change– this is something that is sure.
True crime will stay on YouTube for a significantly long time. But once the public has gotten over it, content creators will undeniably look for something new to offer their audiences. Regardless of this fact, we should enjoy the true crime video genre while it lasts.
Date: February 10, 2021 / Categories: Influencer Marketing, / Author: Joy P
