During covid CR also gained many European fans, and we literally can't watch twitch live. Instead, we're watching it on YT or Spotify.

I don't entirely get the unnecessary hate to C3. I've enjoyed most episodes, yes some are a bit dry, but people are not realising that this campaign is basically one huge story arc whereas C1 and C2 were separated arcs and not one whole story. I think the whole story with Ruidis is very interesting as many plot points come together from all 3 campaigns.

You simply can't compare numbers to how they were. Many people watch the episodes later now that they don't do them live anymore. Some of it is simply that it's audience has gotten older. We have families and jobs and responsibilities and we cannot stay up until the middle of the night anymore to watch the thursday night broadcast. But we'll still watch it later. I think people are comparing their old covid numbers to now and that's a dramatic difference. But they also sell out venues and command HUGE crowds everywhere they go still. They still get LOTS of views on every video. They're not suffering. The numbers are simply different.

Watching live from where I live is often a physical impossibility for me.

They did say one of the reasons they were switching to pre-recorded was in case someone was late coming from work or other mishap.

Majority of my friends who are fans of CR are behind on the episodes or are waiting to get caught up because of their jobs/school/life etc. Also some people who may have started watching C3 could have stopped to watch the previous campaigns because of how much C1 and C2 are involved in the current campaign. Its not that viewership is dropping, its that there is too much to watch now. At least that's my perspective. I still haven't finished Campaign 1 and have been a regular viewer to their Twitch streams since summer of 2020. The covid period was also the only way I could get caught up in Campaign 2 and I haven't skipped a Thursday since.

One factor you seemed to have missed is twitch itself. The last few months I've been having difficulty getting the viewer to load on the Critical Role twitch page. On more than one occasion I've given up on twitch and switched to UKposts a few seconds before the episode started. So I would like to throw twitch sucking into mix as to why the numbers have changed.

thank you soo much, it is annoying to see some these creators exaggerate

I have to say i appreciate your analysis on this issue. There has been a lot of negativity in the space recently and it makes me stay away from outside content and comment sections, i was hesitant to click on this video because yes your thumbnail was a bit clickbaity. Critical Role is and will be fine because the loyal fans who have always been there are still as loyal as ever. And i know that because i was one of the people who was lucky enough to go to the live show and i saw 10,000 people come together for the love of these nerdy ass voice actors and share that love with each other. I see passionate content creators, artist, cosplayers etc. demonstrate just how good this community can be and overall i don't see a drop in engagement just a change in the way it is seen and where it is happening. Sure the content has changed, the chat and comment section is still toxic on occasion and campaign 3 is different tonaly with people complaining about it all the time, but this has always happened, even way back in campaign 1 this was happening, people just love a good fight! Overall they hold strong because their foundation hasn't changed and neither has their passion, i just ignore the toxic content and keep coming back to enjoy the show i've loved for 6 years.

This whole "Crisis" is just manufactured to create clickbait videos, but honestly this is the first I'm hearing of it. Twitch earnings has never been about views, it's about subscriptions. Most people watch CR via VOD's anways, because unless you're on PST, it's impossible to watch a 4 hour stream live. I'm in the UK and that is a 3am start for me, and even on EST that's an 11pm start, it's just not feasable to watch the livestream without being on PST. I started watching CR during Covid, and I started watching the livestream around the Aeor arc in C2 once I had caught up. And even though it was during lockdown, I still only managed to watch the 1st half live, and then I'd watch the second half via the VOD in the morning. I've watched the entirity of C3 via VOD. And since they've started doing VOD's via UKposts, I don't watch on Twitch at all now, as their Playstation app is absolute garbage, and I feel many may have done the same. Also, the majority of people watching CR are not caught up to the current episode which means absolutely nothing to the viewer count, and while this means that it may look like more recent videos on UKposts are dropping in views, that just means that people haven't watched them yet.

I have to agree on your drama point, some creators keep say daily that D&D or critical is dead. It really burns out their content the third time you click on the rage bait and it’s just that a book got published or something.

So I am a "new" CR viewer. How started watching was I saw a Tiktok of Mat & Ashley having a funny interaction so I started watching the Vox Machina series. I enjoyed that and then started listening to campaign 3 while I work. I "lurk" during the "live" Twitch streams but since I am so far behind I really enjoy catching up on UKposts. Ive watched the Twitch Live Streams but the chat on their was really detracting and sometimes toxic so I switched to viewing on UKposts. However when I started researching CR I was really confused about the all the toxic videos I saw that basically said that CR was failing, or would end soon. I am enjoying what I am watching and I wish CR the best. Excited to see them at a convention soon. Great video, I am glad to see a positive video about CR.

I've just loved C3. I love how Critical Role gets to do different things each campaign rather than aiming for the same tone every time and C3 really hits it for me. It's been so disheartening to hear so much hate about it, especially when the hate often boils down to "It's different to C2". Appreciate the more level video (even if the thumbnail had me almost not click on it out of fear of it being one of those videos :P). I'm so determined not to be a hater on C4 when that comes around!

There is only one UKposts channel I've really seen do clickbait-y shit about Critical Role's "Crisis" or "Downfall". I'd suggest everyone steer clear of a channel called Dungeons and Discourse. As her name suggests, there's never anything positive in any of her videos and she makes mountains out of mole hills regarding Critical Role. And she knows it's total horseshit too because in the same video she can be seen replying to comments in an unexpected civil manner.

Thanks for posting a spin that isn't just for "views" by proposing dramatic conspiracies or looking too deep into stats. Viewership has always flucuated and it will continue to due to the manner in which this content is created. Not everyone can spend hours/hours at "live" showings and utilize VOD when they can to catch up. Doesn't mean C3 is "not good enough." Just means the world has picked back up post-pandemic. Let us not forget they continue to give us the joy of these games on top of creating multiple other shows, merch, and even two animated series. Good video.

I was hesitant to click on this because of the thumbnail and was about to tell youtube not to show me this video but the title gave me a bit more nuanced feel so I decided to give it a shot.

I don't care what people think, I started with Campaign 3 and I still enjoy it the most out of the other ones. I think Matt has done an excellent job making the NPCs in C3 super memorable, and we've seen some heart wrenching moments. The overarching story seems bigger than ever before and I also want to state that I feel like Ashley's evolution as a player has been great to see. Her portrayal of Fearne suits her so well and she seems so much more confident on that character. People say it's just Imogen and everyone else is goofy comic relief, but they all have depth. They've had the deep conversations just like any other campaign, with most of them having heartbreaking back stories that have been touched on throughout the story. I really don't get what the problem is other than people being burned out.

Also they stream the same game on twitch like three times, so that means the viewers on twitch are even more spread out

I feel that everything 'Nerd" related is losing traction and viewers. Like everything there are cycles of highs and lows.

I am so glad someone made an analysis of this issue. All I’ve been seeing on UKposts about CR has just been this drama and although I have managed to curate my feed they still slip through and it just makes me feel icky inside. Thank you for making this video and sharing your thoughts on this issue!

This was... a surprisingly wholesome video. The advice about not falling for clickbait, and training creators to create actual content, was timely - I've been randomly clicking too many bad videos just to feel irritated by them recently - so thanks for that. Keep fighting the good (for a given value) fight.

Finally someone sensible

Personally I feel the second campaign was a bit of a grind at times but the current campaign is really cool

First time viewer (and of course commenter) - your title is good and not click-baity, while the image is extremely so. Image DID make me stop my scroll while browsing on a TV and say, "WTF???" so in that respect it "worked" but I'm very click-bait avoidant and only watched because the title gave me hope you were actually thinking more deeply and not just trying to generate views. That all said 🙂 I agree with your assessment. I've been watching them nearly every week since the beginning of CritRole, and I cancelled my Twitch sub a few months ago due to disliking the overall Twitch experience and preferring UKposts as an already subscribed UKposts Premium user.

Rage-bait is particularly vile. I remember when WotC announced that the next edition of D&D won’t have half-elves or half-orc, some creators misled their audiences Whether this is because they didn’t do a modicum of research or because they deliberately wanted to generate clicks doesn’t really matter. The reality is WotC wanted to move away from half-orcs and half-elves as demihumans; a half-elves can still be half-human, but they can also be half-genasi, half-dwarf, etc. This was presented as WotC removing player agency, ignoring its own source material and inspirations, and somehow (I can’t remember) pandering to a small group of people who allegedly found the existence of half-elves as a separate race offensive (I’m sure no such group exists). I commented on some of those videos trying to explain why WotC did what they did. It was ignored in favor of angrier and nastier comments (listed separately in the comments below).

I watched on UKposts and twitch for the last few months and everytime I look at live viewers it's around 13k-16k on each

I tried to call out one of the worse offenders of these rage-bait, dissent-sowing content creators for this dishonesty recently and my comment was promptly deleted. They didn't reply, or try to argue against what I said, they just removed it and that speaks volumes. They know what they're doing, it's absolutely intentional, and they're actively silencing voices that try to call them out.

I had seen a couple of references to a CR crisis and was really confused. So I appreciate you explaining it clearly and calmly. Have a like 🎉

I think most of this is right on, but I also think the third issue is that Critical Role's long form format really hurts them, and if there is even a momentarily lapse in forward momentum for the narrative, people stop watching because its such a commitment. I don't think Campaign 3 is any worse than 2. Campaign 1 was arguably my favorite. But at least for me, I work a ton, and my time is limited. 4 plus hour episodes is a huge ask. I'll catch up eventually, but I think many are in the same boat as me. Especially amongst the die hard fans. Notably though, I think many like me stay subscribed, so I suspect monetarily Critical Role is doing maybe even better than ever. Because they have so many other sources of income now.

THANK YOU! You put my thoughts and feelings into words so well!

Is the Twitch viewership graph based on live viewers only? If so, people in Europe would have to get up at 3/4am on a Friday morning before work to catch them live.

Which is odd, because I couldn’t get into campaign 1. I finally got into campaign 3, and when I caught up I started watching campaign 2. I still can’t get into campaign 1.

I think your self depreciating jokes aside, this was actually a good analysis of the culture around D&D live-streaming shows. The commentariat will always be chasing after the creatives, and while yours had meaningful insights to offer, many are just chasing that viewer high as you say!

As a new fan of CR I must say the whole thing around CR is discouraging me to get into DnD The whole hate on C3, the so called ‘crisis’, the whole party getting so much shit FROM their fans (esp Marisha/Ashley), the annoyance of any player who would dare forget a rule or messing up during Battles.. Like.. Idk.. the priority of DnD isn’t supposed to have fun..?

It's a combination of things. The three main ones in my mind are as follows: Covid views are gone (people have less free time), weak (railroady) campaign compared to the previous 2, and people are behind on episodes. Live viewers are always high at the beginning of the campaign and fall off as people lose interest or fall behind and catch up on YT.

I started watching crit role right at the beginning of C3 so I basically missed all the live stuff that they used to do. I've gone back an watched the other campaigns as well for the lore and what not but neither of them really drew me in and got me hooked on D&D like C3 has. Along with that I never watched them on twitch and have always caught it all here on UKposts. All that being said it seems like the UKposts numbers are very good and with all the stuff they're putting out and creating, it seems impossible to say that they're not doing amazing. P.S great video :)

I discovered CR about a year ago and have been marathoning episodes to catch up. I listen to them while I work. Today, I got to Campaign 2 Episode 13, but when i called it up, ALL the Campaign videos were deleted from UKposts. All of them! Ive been searching UKposts and they are nowhere to be found! What the FUCK is going on!!!

do all these numbers take VOD into account? I know I watch the next day simply because they are on pacific time and I'm not. Secondly, some people don't like the recorded shows. They prefer live.

THANK YOU FOR THIS SO Much. As some one who is a big fan of critical role and c3 and gets tired of unnecessary comments that shit on it. Thank you for some thing like this and being more positive and deleting my worries of something I love.

I keep falling asleep when they do the live video. So catching up a couple days after works better for me

I get and thank you for explaining. Personally, I just didn’t click with Critical Role’s campaign 3 storyline or characters so I lost interest in keeping up with it. However that doesn’t mean I have a disinterest in Critical Role. In fact, I’d say it’s as strong as ever. I just really like rewatching campaign 2 and I am now playing in two different Wildmount campaigns that are definitely some of my favorite ones I play. I also am, despite being in my 3rd rewatch of campaign 2, starting to get myself caught up on campaign 1. I figure I really don’t need to watch campaign 3 live. As you pointed out, there just feels like less incentive to catch it live too. I do catch their actual live streams when I can though. I definitely watched the baldur’s gate one (when so much of the cast was sick that only 4 could do anything so they did character creation). I also caught the London show via live stream too. I still intend to keep watching Critical Role. I just have a ton to catch up on though. Oh right! And yes I checked out and loved the animation of vox machina. I am still looking forward to the Mighty Nein series that’s been teased and promised. Honestly they have a ton going on so I totally get why live shows aren’t a thing anymore. I still miss it though, and especially the art reel they used to show during break, miss that a ton too.

I have started curating my clicks to avoid all the crisis videos so as to not encourage that and am so glad I clicked this one (thanks to the ""). Thoughtfully curating our feeds is essential thanks to the algorithm that recommends content. Want to see more innovative live play shows? Start watching more and leaving comments on them. Thank you for reminding us that we can in fact control the flow.

Numerous ways to watch youtube even have it in audio form have to add all viewing ways in the mix to get full picture

See, I'm 54 years old. With the exception of the LAST EPISODE, which I was GLUED to the screen, I was watch all my views on Critical Role on UKposts. I can barely stay up because I have to work that Friday morning, so I can only watch so much, then get sleepy, turn it off, then watch the rest of it on Monday. So I love the show, and I just watch the first half live and the second half or what I missed on Monday.

Spot on! Controversy = Clicks Critters > Controversy One point on which I disagree: watching on UKposts used to be a better experience than Twitch UNTIL recently with the surge in long ad times on UKposts. I only wish that Crit Role’s actual sponsors were sufficient such that CR didn’t let UKposts barrage us with long ads, batteries of ads and poorly matched questionable ads and political propaganda.

This was extermely well-reasoned. Thank you for the dose of perspective and positivity.

imagine satanic panic in the d&d clickbait era…. that would be hell (pun intended)

Great point of view, hopefully the drama baiting decreases and allows some space for better content. Also, love the just "not clicking" idea, because it sounds to me as the best way we all can help the change to happen! I didn't feel your title was misleading as you mention a "Crisis" and that it'll be explained. Besides it felt to me you pretty much got right to the point of clarifying what you meant with this video. Nice job!!! 😁

I think the main factor views are down is simply because it’s pre recorded. You don’t feel like you’re at the table reacting and experiencing it alongside the cast. Because there is no urgency it feels like just watching any old yt video so i can do it whenever im free.

That is the best take on the current dnd youtube situation i have seen in a while. I dont blame creators for following what the algorithm gods demand. The food on the table has to come from somewhere. but i have caught myself being angry at videos that tried to create conspiracy where there is none, because i find it disingenuous. So if i fall for it, the ragebaity dnd youtuber will get a view from me...but i won't cone back to them. Not sure if that is a sustainable model for content creation

there is also the fact they have 1 less episode of their main show every month, so 3 instead of 4 (ish), which probably takes out a good cut of their monthly views on twitch.

I totally agree. Sensationalist news or commentary has been the bane of regular journalism in the USA for decades. That the same technique is being employed by people on social media is to be expected. I applaud you for pointing this out. Nicely done ✅

THANK YOU! The drama is driving me nuts.

"i dont get the hate" bro they followed up fcs episode with a TOY ADVERTIZEMENT FOR THE FUCKING CROWN KEEPER MINIS

Thank you. I've left twitch because I just can't stay up late on a Thursday, but I still watch it on Mondays on youtube

I don't watch live anymore because the stream is pre-recorded, so what's the point of me going to bed at 3 a.m. when I can catch it on UKposts a few days later? Also, the irregular upload schedule of new campaign episodes. Sometimes, due to one-shots or side plots, the episodes are a month apart, so there's no real incentive to keep following weekly since there are such big gaps in uploads. That impacts viewership most since its no longer "is it Thursday yet" and now its "is it the random C3 upload of the month yet". (I'm sure there's a schedule, but i don't care enough to coordinate my month with their uploads)

Yeah, agree completely, as If you look at twitch, viewers of people whose seen the videos. CR starts at 7 PM PST / 10 PM EST / 9 PM CST. Plus EU they're asleep. So live viewers is always gonna be lower than the actual viewers. They're all watching it the next day or the Monday upload of youtube. Some even watch when it's live on twitch until the first break and finish the rest the next day. 2019 - 220k to 500k viewers 2020 (COVID) - 600k to 900k viewers (Some even hit over a million viewers on the videos on twitch) 2023/2024 - 220k to 500k viewers (It's pretty much the same as it was back in 2019, before COVID) UKposts, 600k to 1 million views, from people who wait till Mondays when they upload watching it. So last 3 videos from C3, combined number of viewers of twitch and youtube: 2,201,000 views Anyhow good video. The whole debate of CR3 is doing bad is far from the truth. As realistically it's actually doing how C2 was doing if not somewhat better before COVID.

I switched to watching CR on UKposts when the Twitch app disappeared from my Roku TV!

The shows aren't live anymore. That's probably why a lot of people watch it on vod

I'll be honest. I don't watch live anymore. I used to be religious about making sure to sit down for 4 hours every thursday but when they switched to pre-recorded and they only stream it 3 out of 4 weeks I switched to watching vods for free. I also tend to save up a few episodes so I can sit down one day and binge a couple back to back.

I find a lot of obvious (to me being someone who has taken part in many dnd campaigns) decisions/actions are not being taken by the cast. Making some of the newer episodes hard to watch without getting frustrated. Is it an attempt to draw out the sessions? I don't know.

I think i know what creator are you (mainly) talking about and yeah, they fooled me once with their thumbnail+title, but not anymore. Of course I didn't comment in their video insulting them or being an asshole but it kinda pissed me off how blatant all of it was and the amount of views they had while bringing nothing of value.

Very well said. I clicked hoping against hope this wouldn't be ragebait. Very pleasantly surprised! I do avoid content creators that burn me on that too much. But sometimes, like now, I'm just blissfully ignorant of the current drama of the time, & am a little curious despite myself. If there were actual big news I'd want to know, you know? More like this, thank you!

Yeah, they started prerecording during COVID so it makes sense that people would stop watching the "live" stream. I , myself, will often only watch the first half "live" and watch the rest on VOD or YT later in the week.

I have always watched on UKposts the next week. I can go 1.5x, as opposed to staying up on a weeknight

Agree 100%. I'm one of the viewers that switched from Twitch to UKposts. Mainly because of a tech glitch I kept getting on Twitch. If I changed tabs to look at anything else and then tried to return to the Twitch tab it would lock up and skip anywhere from 10 - 30 seconds of the live stream. It was NOT my internet which is fast, nor my computer, it was a Twitch issue. The only selling point Twitch really had was the live moderated chat, but now UKposts just added live chat so why settle for a platform that is acting Twitchy??

The thing is CR is a business. It's a group of friends, sure but over the years it's grown into an actual business that needs treating, well, like a business. If CR was 'dying' we'd be seeing a retraction of expense. Less polish, less diversification of content and a recall to more streamlined products. The simple fact they continue to develop and push outwards Year-on-Year means they're growing, not shrinking. Just people trying to create drama where there isn't any to make money. The only thing that sells better than sex is hate.

The thumbnail baited me because it is about critical role, and they are an interest of mine. But what click baited me... Was the drama king who said that Matt wanted to TPK so they would play Dagger Heart.... Which... Aren't they already doing? They play Dagger to promote it. But their main thing is still campaign 3. We are all waiting for the Avengers style battle on the moon, with Dorian, and Percy, and Pyke and all the friends they made along the way. Damn I got teary eyes thinking about it. Critters, assemble!

I almost didn't click on this, because I was worried you would be doing that yourself. Happy I did. Really good points. I'm enjoying C3. It's the first campaign I've watched weekly. That being said, I don't have the time to watch it all in one sitting. I put it on a hour or so and at time, throughout the week.

Every episode on UKposts is still reliably hitting ~half a million views. I don’t think there’s a problem. If I could watch it live I 100% would, but they stream at like 3am where I am

Twitch livestream just happens too late for so many of us. I’m just watching on UKposts when it releases.

To be fair, I usually watch on UKposts. Schedule-wise, it's what works for me, because with college and everything, I just can't catch it live.

For better or for worse, the "why watch when its pre-recorded" crowd is probably a big part of this "decline". Lets not even begin to talk about how insane of a reason that is, but if people are still watching on UKposts, other social media, and buying their merch (which people def buy their merch) then there is no concern, they're just adapting.

Not to mention over 8+ years, alot of ppl left college, had kids, got full time jobs, It's easy to fall behind on videos even if you love it

Excellent video! Letting my comment here to show appreciation and for the algorythm gods to see.

My undstanding is that upload viewership of episodes for se3 have been doing on youtube, idk about live viewers on youtube so I cant say if the total live viewers is as strong as ever. Theres deff an echo chamber of negativity and its likely overblown, but I do feel like viewership is down, esp on rebroadcasts on twitch. Also I wouldnt say c3 is bad but its been the rockiest of the 3 imo.

Re: UKposts viewers Even during the premieres, I see the amount of viewers range from 10-14k these days 🤷‍♀️ it's fine!

Your video really speaks to the sense of irritation I feel over the clickbait D&D video titles. I JUST saw a video with a very clickbaity title and thumbnail, and it's so damned stupid. It's cheap, lazy, and feeds the fire of rage videos where people just want to consume drama and bs like that. It's the same exact thing that TikTok literally survives off of: just cheap, half-baked rage bait that elicits a negative reaction out of people because we are apparently so easy to anger that all someone has to do is fabricate a scandal or perceived problem, and like flies to shit, we all swarm in and consume it. This is pretty much what content creation culture is becoming, and I hate it. Then again, it probably won't change anytime soon and it will be because of us and our thirst for drama.

Really appreciate this video and noticed the same thing and finally posted a comment on another creator's post about feeling like Fox News and Nancy Grace cuz she would be posting "Critical role getting cancelled" and go on to say "oh I love critical role" and Im really just done with that garbage content. Good work posting this and the thumbnail is appreciate for what you're getting at.

Title: not click-baity, well written. Thumbnail: leaning towards click-bait IMO, but also not (IMO) sufficiently well-related to the video. Good video. Good points.

i really appreciate your super honest view here. thank you.

I actually agree with this. Especially since, as of writing this comment, episode 92 of Campaign 3 is "live" and has about 17K watching. It's only just started, too, so more may join later on. Plus, the last episode is around 301K views. I've recently started watching Critical Role, maybe the start of this year or there abouts, and I don't think they're "dying", plus they have the Amazon shows, with Vox Machina having 2 seasons with a third on the way alongside the first season of Mighty Nein on the way too. I do believe that people who have been fans of Critical Role longer than me are still watching it, just on a different platform and at different times rather than watching it live.

I believe the viewerships on the twitch streams has to do with a lot of other things. such as, - It being streamed on both twitch AND youtube, so the livestream viewership is divided. - The rise of European viewers after covid who can't watch the streams. - Critical Role is not being streamed live anymore, so they do have less incentive to watch it live. - People are not that invested in Bells Hells as they were previous campaigns. So this has probably led to a lot of the audience to watch the VODs because they can't/don't want to watch it live. And the viewership on the vods seems pretty stable and good. People are either watching it days after, or (like me) have been on a break from it and have to slowly catch up. Critical role is not dying. Hell, I think it's bigger than ever.

I discovered them through UKposts never used twitch. I am super behind sadly still in campain 1. I hope they keep going

I used to watch the Twitch stream every Thursday when I started watching CR, then when I moved and work got in the way, I had to just catch the re-run or with my Twitch sub watch it after the stream ended. Now If I can catch the "live-stream," I watch it on UKposts mostly because I can cast YT to my Roku and I can't with Twitch.

didnt even mention spotify and other podcasts too

I’ve been rolling my eyes at these takes for ages. I’ve been watching live every Thursday since 2016, but I’ve always taken every opportunity I can get to watch on other platforms because I hate twitch. I watched on Alpha (rip!) because it had better overlays, quality, etc. and worked smoother than twitch and now I watch on YT because it works better and is easier to access on the rare times I have to work during the stream. So just because twitch says I’m not watching there doesn’t mean I’m not watching at all.

I became a cr fan when TLOVM was announced and I love campaign 3... But I'm also British. I cannot watch the twitch live unless I'm awake at 3am 😬

Coming from a critter who watch C1 live and then C2. I think there are a few different factors. I kind of had it when I went from C1 to C2. I call it campaign break up. I loved C1 because that was my first campaign and then when C2 came along i had to put up with these new characters who i didn't really give them time to get them to know them properly. And I didn't give the campaign the time and attention it deserved to enjoy it properly.So I think people who enjoyed the Mighty Nein are not having the same fun with the Bells Hells.

Great video - well done for calling out the nonsense! There is a real UKposts industry in saying that D&D is in desperate trouble because of the OGL crisis last year, and you see it almost every week - "Hasbro profits collapse" - "D&D players hate on 2024 playtest" - "Critical Role viewership collapses". I think that Critical Role choosing NOT to immediately cut their ties to Wotc after the OGL crisis actually did them the biggest harm, because so many creators were so hostile to Wotc during last year. In addition, I am sure that Critters on the whole would like the cast to return to live play rather than pre-recorded streams, because viewers feel more connected to what's happening at the table when it's taking place in that moment. I think pre-recording their stream has really hit their Twitch numbers, but not their UKposts numbers, because viewers on YT are completely used to watching pre-recorded videos. The vast majority of Critters now watch the YT catch-up on Mondays. Critical Role has been caught up in the desire of many creators to tear into Wotc for all its mistakes (understandably) but that doesn't mean CR is dying. Their Twitch stream is only a tiny proportion of their total income now, they must have most of their income guaranteed from the Amazon Prime deal with TLOVM

taking like 30 seconds to go look at their youtube page shows they are doing fine, lol - their flagship content, the main campaign, gets about 300-500k views which for longform content several hours long, released once a week, is a strong showing - the legacy viewing bumps that number up to around 800k for the main campaign episodes a month+ after its released - and this is ignoring all the other content they release plus their merch sales and everything else - its safe to say Critical Role is doing fine

It's been a widespread problem recently that's just growing. Now it's infecting hobby spaces like d&d.

Well thought out. I could see this generally being the case.

I clicked on this video thinking it was in reference to the most recent episode so I guess it’s not specifically clickbaity in the way you’re worried about lol

I honestly don't watch on Twitch because I don't have Twitch. But I'm a loyal critter and watch Critical Role on UKposts.

CR is doing big things, but it's if the fan base cares enough to pay attention to them. I'd love to know how many of their viewers actually plays D&D, has the show made people want to play the game?

After seeing what happened to Rooster Teeth, people sure had an interesting definition of "crisis" for Critical Role.

I agree that the crisis isn't what people make it seem to be. Even the twitch vods have quite a lot of views compared to the live stream.

Also I’ve been on campaign 2 for more than a year. They’re 3-5 hour long episodes that takes awhile to watch lol let alone catch up. I can’t even think about campaign 3 yet. Especially since I still have to watch campaign 1.

This actually make a lot of sense