Some creators move from unpredictable algorithm-driven platforms to subscription services; YouTube group The Try Guys launched 2nd Try, a $5/month streamer
The Try Guys, one of YouTube's most established creator groups, have successfully abandoned their reliance on Google's algorithms … X: @dannygroner . Forums: r/TheTryGuys X: Danny Groner / @dannygroner : “The algorithms analyze user behavior to create personalized content feeds, which often prioritize posts that are likely to generate engagement. Creators feel pressured to make content that caters to the algorithm, even if they believe it lowers quality, just to stay visible.” Forums: r/TheTryGuys : Turns out the N*d scandal hit the Try Guys harder than we thought
Context & Ripple Effects
The launch sits against YouTube’s earlier shift toward more commercial, advertiser-friendly programming, a change that complicated the platform’s historic relationship with independent creators.
Related coverage also showed YouTube trying to understand creator work and career sustainability through staff-run channels. 2nd Try makes that sustainability question a distribution and revenue-model decision rather than only a platform-policy issue.
First-order effects
- The Try Guys gain a direct $5-per-month customer channel, reducing how much their distribution depends on YouTube’s recommendation system.
- Fans who subscribe receive the group’s programming through its own service, while YouTube becomes less central to the group’s audience and revenue path.
Second-order effects
- The group must convert audience attention into recurring payments; that trades algorithmic volatility for the ongoing burden of subscriber retention and a compelling exclusive offering.
- For YouTube, departures or partial departures by established creator groups reinforce the incentive to retain creators with dependable reach and workable career economics, concerns reflected in its creator-sustainability efforts.
Third-order effects
- If more established creators build paid destinations, creator media could split between platforms optimized for discovery and creator-owned services optimized for direct monetization.
- That model can give creators more control but also creates a subscription-scale constraint: only audiences willing to pay can support independence from broad algorithmic distribution.
The trend: This is part of a broader shift from algorithm-dependent creator distribution toward direct, subscription-backed audience businesses.