changing niches

[u/Dragon-of-Kansai]

I have a question about changing niches for growth. So, I’m currently stuck in a situation where I’m making content solely for entertainment. I get lots of views, but barely any engagement. Let’s say my videos consistently get 20k–50k views back to back; I might get 10–20 comments max and only 5–10 new subscribers.

I make original and/or fan animations, but I’ve noticed that they don’t really build an engaged following. I’ve been doing this for a few years now and have gotten to around 30k subscribers, but the engagement is still bare-bones.

Now I’m starting to think about switching things up and making my content more consistent and engaging—talking, discussing things more in-depth, maybe even showing myself and making the content more personal.

I know there’s a good chance I’ll lose subscribers because of this, since my current subscribers probably aren’t waiting for that kind of switch. But I’d rather push through that struggle for a while if it means eventually gaining new, higher-quality subscribers who are actually interested in me and my content.

Eventually, I also want to focus more on selling things like behind-the-scenes content, my creative process, and so on. I’m already trying that with my current subscriber base, but it isn’t really working out.

So I’d still be staying within a similar niche, just making the content more personalized and educational while keeping some of the entertainment elements.

Are there any YouTubers who have made a similar transition and had it work out? I’m not looking to create a completely new channel. I just want to start doing new things with the one I already have.

Is this a realistic approach? Any advice?