This Vintage Clip of an Audi Launching Aggressively Shows How Car YouTube Has Evolved

      amdisbest via YouTube

      Get The Drive’s daily newsletter

      The latest car news, reviews, and features.

      YouTube and I have grown up together. As a child in the Midwest, I witnessed its rise, and during my teenage years, as my passion for cars peaked, it began to flourish with automotive content. Naturally, it has evolved significantly since then, and perhaps it's nostalgia speaking, but I do miss those days. Nowadays, in the crowded car media scene, you require a massive number of subscribers and a strong push from the algorithm to reach seven-figure view counts.

      Back then, however, a thrilling clip of an Audi 200 Quattro burning rubber could easily surpass a million views and continue to rise:

      Let's take a trip back to September 6, 2012, when this video was uploaded. Statistics indicate that it was the last year YouTube had fewer than one billion active users globally (currently, that figure is nearly 2.75 billion). Among the approximately 750 million users at that time, only a small portion would have been interested in a 54-second video of a car launching without any commentary—and yet, it has 3.5 million views as of this article's publication.

      How do you account for that?

      The most straightforward answer is "time." Over the span of 13 years, many people can discover a video. However, I also think it has much to do with the now-lost media landscape where this clip once flourished.

      The video's creator, amdisbest, currently has just under 8,000 subscribers on YouTube. Still, if you check his most popular videos, two feature this car and have over a million views. He has four more with six-figure view counts, which is quite impressive given how few notifications he receives when he uploads.

      I believe this success can be attributed to the fact that, unlike today, the YouTube algorithm in 2012 wasn’t as particular. It would present you with a wide variety of content related to your interests rather than a limited selection from a chosen group of creators.

      Moreover, the volume of videos available at the time was a tiny fraction compared to now. Since this clip was uploaded, the rate of new uploads has consistently increased, and by 2022, creators were posting 82 years' worth of content daily. I can't even categorize how insane that is.

      Our viewing habits started to change not long after this video went live. As early as 2016, the Washington Post reported on a study stating that six out of ten links shared on social media went unclicked. Soon, we became overwhelmed with short videos, leading us to stop engaging with everything our friends shared. (For additional evidence, just observe how infinite scrolling has proliferated across all mobile video platforms.) However, I suspect that this clip was captivating enough and posted early enough to attract anyone who shared my passion for VW and Audi.

      As someone whose profession somewhat hinges on the number of views their content receives, whether on YouTube or this website, I find it astonishing how well this video has performed. It was a different time for Car YouTube, one that didn’t concern itself with whether your face was in the thumbnail. I have no complaints about my current job, but I can’t help but wonder what it would have been like to discuss cars for a living in that era.

      Got a tip or question for the author? Contact them directly: [email protected]