YouTube recently published “Animation’s New Wave,” a report touting the latest insights into independent animation on the platform. The report makes case studies of a handful of super successful shows, like Helluva Boss, (The only U.S.-based show mentioned), as well as international shows like Argentina’s Wasted, and Knights of Guinevere from Australia.
The report includes several statistics, indicating that for most younger (24 and under) viewers, there is very little differentiation between professional studio-driven projects, and independent/solo projects on YouTube. Despite “exclusive” coverage from The Hollywood Reporter, there really don’t seem to be many insights in the report that weren’t already at least hunches in the minds of those who follow these things.
It’s also worth noting that what success looks like for a platform like YouTube doesn’t necessarily translate to success for the creators of these projects. For example, the report touts that within three days of the release of Knights of Guinevere, there were over 1,400 videos posted referencing the show. While engagement is great, 1,399 fan reaction/meme videos doesn’t pay the bills, and to my knowledge, there isn’t a tool for creators to track or even know about all those other videos. YouTube is the outsized benefactor of buzz and community engagement around original animation. The Knights of Guinevere has had just over 18 million views after roughly six months. That’s not bad, but it’s worth noting the show is produced and released through Glitch Studios, who paid the original creators to make the show on their platform. In other words, this is similar to the existing studio system tweaked for YouTube, rather than a disruption of how things are made.
The report also mentions a few projects that overperformed their Kickstarter goals, although that feels more like a testament to that platform than the power of YouTube.
In short, YouTube is a viable outlet for independent animation, and might even be the best place for certain projects. However, that doesn’t mean data coming solely from YouTube itself should be treated as an unbiased look at a purportedly new trend.