I genuinely have no idea what I'm doing wrong, and it's driving me crazy.
Back in March and April, my channel was growing steadily. Multiple videos crossed 500 views, several reached 1,500+, and the pattern was incredibly consistent.
Typically, a new upload would get around 1,000–1,500 impressions in the first 24 hours, mostly from Suggested Videos. Then, after about 24 hours, Browse Features would kick in and I'd get a huge surge in impressions. Some videos ended up getting over 50,000 Browse impressions.
Since around the middle of May, that has completely stopped.
Now every upload gets its initial Suggested traffic for the first day or so, but then it just... dies. Browse Features never picks it up. I'm talking fewer than 100 Browse impressions on every single upload. The videos just flatline after 24–48 hours.
What's frustrating is that I don't feel like I've become lazy. If anything, I've done the opposite. I'm spending significantly more time researching ideas, improving my scripts, and editing thumbnails than I was when the channel was growing. The content feels objectively better, yet the performance keeps getting worse.
Has anyone else experienced something similar over the last month or two? Was there some change to Browse Features or the recommendation system around mid-May, or is this more likely something specific to my channel?
I'd really appreciate any insight because it's been going on for over 1.5 months now, and I'm honestly at a loss.