WatchMojo's downfall makes me sad, actually

Added: 2026-05-26

[00:00:00]A few weeks ago, a video was published on a YouTube channel called Voyen, and it is Watch Mojo's Downfall should be celebrated. Pretty messed up thing to say as a Watch Mojo fan myself. You guys know that I've been watching Mojo for years. It was actually something that I did on my commute when I lived the soul sucking 9 to5 white collar life.

[00:00:22]However, over time, they've kind of fallen down, you know, in terms of cache a bit. top 10 lists just not where they used to be uh on YouTube. And so this channel seems to be making note of that.

[00:00:35]And it got 814K views two weeks ago. One of those 18K views was Watch Mojo themselves who had an an impassioned reply, which is strange, I think, because a lot of people think, myself included, Watch Mojo is not a person, but rather a robot. They publish like eight videos a day. I didn't think that they they did this. But first, we're gonna watch why Watch Mojo's downfall should be celebrative. Let's find out together, shall we?

[00:01:08]>> Welcome to Watchvoyan, and today we're counting down the top 10 reasons Watch Mojo fell off and the top 10 reasons that's a GOOD THING. OH [ __ ] IT'S HUNGRY BOX. What is he doing there? As YouTube continued to grow as a platform in the 2010s, we began to witness the holy miracle of the content farm. They had existed long before this, but thanks to things like cable cutting and the partner program. I mean, just imagine having kids, you could pay Time Warner Cable $100 a month so your kids can watch Nickelodeon or hand them a tablet with all their favorite YouTubers on it for free.

[00:01:38]>> Yeah. And they could also find their own favorite series like Elsa hanging out with Spider-Man or Fruit Love Island.

[00:01:44]That's a good one.

[00:01:44]>> Elsa and Spider-Man.

[00:01:46]>> Oh, there they are. Yeah, I love this series. Who Who remembers? You know, some of you guys are old enough to have grown up with that, I think. So, or young enough, I should say. Some of y'all were like, "Yeah, I clicked on that before." Maybe Buzz getting thrown into the wood chipper.

[00:01:58]>> YOUTUBE IS >> funny moments.

[00:02:02]>> YouTube is chaos.

[00:02:03]>> Funny moment.

[00:02:04]>> That's the best part about it. Before the website was an algorithm-driven industry. It was just a community that kind of existed on its own terms. Money and jobs could happen, but they were distant. There was no grind. The word influencer was an illness with an accent. Uploading something meant you did it to do it, probably because you like doing it and for minimal outside reasons. There's there's a lot of like cultures and inside things like this.

[00:02:24]This is how I feel about like Smash commentary. Not to like make it too simple and talk about something that but it's what I know is like you just did it cuz you liked it and then it became an industry and the people on the ground floor that it became their job. It's same with YouTube. Like I don't think the angry video game nerd ever wanted to make that his job. It's just kind of how it goes. understand that with so many cable TV refugees, there was a large appetite for scripted, produced, studio-made, standardized entertainment, and YouTube would reward anyone who was going to make it. Combine the rapidly expanding YouTube audience hungry for manufactured content reminiscent of their expensive cablebased forefathers with the 2010 social media rise of the listicle.

[00:03:02]>> Welcome to watchmojo.com and today we're counting down our picks for the top 10 deaths in movies.

[00:03:09]>> See, I loved this [ __ ] There is something so funny to me about Watch Mojo being the arbiter of truth and the collection of culture in a way that like they are finally they are the ones who are going to decide this and it felt more legit that something like Buzzfeed, right? And I thought that that's sort of where I started watching Watch Mojo in terms of like watching it on stream cuz it was [ __ ] funny. It was great.

[00:03:30]>> If this were a puff piece, I would say Watch Mojo was genius. [ __ ] it. I'll still say they're genius for commodifying and oversaturating something as numeric opinion expression even though that's why I hate It was awesome. That sort of content churn popcorn [ __ ] is awesome at the time.

[00:03:45]It's just not a lot of meat on the bone anymore.

[00:03:48]>> You can find videos about basically anything on their YouTube channel.

[00:03:51]Recipes, fashion, gaming, travel. It's the very same company we know today dipping their fingers everywhere, but just with this aimless EI feel, like something that would be on TV at an urgent care. They even had top 10 in this period, but they did not look like the Watch Mojo top 10s that would arrive shortly after.

[00:04:07]>> Number three is Zelda. Now, Zelda, >> this is G4 content. This is something that would have been on G4 TV next to the show where they show you cutscenes and one where Morgan Web uh tell has a very offensive Japanese accent. GameStop TV, bro, I remember, this is not a joke.

[00:04:29]I would watch the GameStop TV and I'd be like, I'm going to do that one day.

[00:04:33]Like, I want that to be my job. I want to be like a gaming person, influencer.

[00:04:37]And now I'm here and I'm like, phew. You do, I know, but this is way better.

[00:04:43]Thank god I don't got to go to the GameStop thing and tell you about the new Assassin's Creed [ __ ] I could tell you that mixtape is ass. I don't have to tell you, you know, this is much better. By the end of 2011, early 2012, Watch Mojo had an idea. Less effort.

[00:04:58]They just needed some non-original footage, a voice over, maybe a music track. Just choose any random topic ever. Okay, throw me some numbers.

[00:05:05]You'll always have to back it up, but people are far more interested in the number than the reason. At least with this setup. And if they tied it back to the community, it would be used to represent as many people as possible.

[00:05:14]Nobody could ever be mad. Except they still would be because it's the internet. Boom. Free engagement, comments galore. More people end up on their website to try and turn the tide of opinion in their favor and get lists they want to see made. [ __ ] is low-key brilliant.

[00:05:26]>> Yeah, it's just commodifying opinion in a way that is like self-perpetuating. It just feeds forever, right? It was very good for the time. I think people just found out how shallow it is.

[00:05:36]>> It's kind of like rabies, man. Like the minute you see a Watch Mojo video in your suggested videos. Say hi to my grandma for me.

[00:05:43]>> Oh, it's everywhere. That's how you get into the different verticals, bro. You get you find one top 10 about the topic you're interested in and then you might find a million more. And that's why you got like a plays channel. There's a woman Watch Mojo. They got all kinds of stuff. And a time ruled by tons of short form content. Watch Mojo was a rare slop channel that you could go to from video to video mindlessly for an hour. I think at you know what it is at the time and maybe I'm wrong. I think at the time it felt better to click on a channel rather than an individual. Like watch mojo felt like an institution in the same way like Screw Attack did. And it's like all right this is a collection of people giving like varied opinions as opposed to one [ __ ] But now we've gone the other way where people are looking for very uh siloed content. They want to find people that they understand perspectives and agree with or or change like they'll they'll sort of follow the journey of taste and they're gonna stick to that guy.

[00:06:38]>> I mean, again, these aren't hard videos to make. They could easily upload six of them a day. So, why wait for a small creator? Okay, this seems like a good time to maybe go anecdotal. Hi, my name is Voyan and I really like lists and I really like gaming and I really like Watch Mojo.

[00:06:53]>> Yeah. YEAH, THAT [ __ ] BANGED, BRO. You may have >> top 10 biggest twists in games.

[00:06:59]>> And if you've been on a Watch Mojo video between like these years, you might be able to scroll down and find some guy with the actual worst take. I mean, you've already found him, but ancient.

[00:07:07]>> Oh no, he was a commenter. Oh no, that's a never comment on YouTube unless you're watching this video.

[00:07:15]>> I really did like what they had going, but after like 2 or 3 years of watching this channel pretty often, I had a spiritual awakening and I realized Watch Mojo cared more about us than they did themselves. What does that mean?

[00:07:26]>> The first video I ever saw from them was top 10 Nintendo fails and it was number 10. The 3DS >> got a big ass dislike bar, which I think could just be because people actually like to stick up for Nintendo at the time, but maybe because Watch Mojo isn't really complaining about anything the community hasn't heard already for the entire decade.

[00:07:46]>> Well, I mean, it's not Who cares if it's accurate or not? I guess you cared back then. Back then, it was like a big deal.

[00:07:52]You It had to be right. It had to be correct. Now, we live in a post-truth era, so I guess it's different. But I think dislikes um engaged the algorithm before, too.

[00:08:02]Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe it still does. I don't know. But I think that like dislikes still pushed the video up.

[00:08:08]Maybe let's see what they can do on a positive, praise, happy video. Here we go. Top 10 horror themed video games.

[00:08:14]>> Number two, Mortal Kombat series.

[00:08:17]>> Kind of, >> you know, I kind of top 10 modern video game musical themes.

[00:08:23]>> Yeah.

[00:08:24]Woo! Y'all hate anything. All right, how about this? Couple years in the future, top 10 anime series. People love anime.

[00:08:30]How can anyone be sad about anime?

[00:08:31]>> Number 10, Pokemon.

[00:08:34]>> Oh, no. 10. Well, this they're following the formula. You know what the formula is? You put something engaging at the beginning cuz then people will be like, "No way. That's 10. What could be higher?" And then you watch it to like six and then somebody's like, "Well, I'm deep enough now." You want to know the worst thing? Okay, let me give you an example. I did a video doing 10 things in an hour. Okay, we did the do 10 things stream. Amazing stream. I think this is a great video. I love this video. The first two things are jump a rat and ow. Those are not good for engagement. Those are very very cuz we like what the [ __ ] does that mean? If they were normal things like a pizza or read a book, I think that'd be better.

[00:09:20]But I think people clicking on and they see dumb [ __ ] and they're like, "What is that? What does that even mean?" They click off. I don't think that's true, by the way. I think this video did pretty well. But I do think it could have done better if it was like that. What you do is you put engaging hook [ __ ] in early like Pokemon and then they stick around for the rest, you know?

[00:09:38]>> And today we're counting down our picks for the top 10 NFTts of 2021.

[00:09:43]>> Hell yeah, finally. Hold on.

[00:09:45]>> I've been wondering about that. We're counting down our picks for the top 10 AI generated songs.

[00:09:50]>> I want to know what that number one is.

[00:09:52]I heard one with Drake today. The poopy head one. Y'all hear that?

[00:09:58]>> That's pretty good.

[00:09:59]>> Welcome to Watch Mojo. And today we're counting down our picks for the top 10 cartoons brought to live action by AI.

[00:10:06]>> Okay.

[00:10:08]>> Okay. Now, >> I don't think Watch Mojo cares. I guess we're trying to show that like, you know, it loves AI and then it hates AI and it loves AI. Watch Mojo doesn't give a [ __ ] about any of that. They want you to click the video, bro. And I kind of like that about them. They're like, "Fuck it. We're going to give you whatever. It's a headless org." For the love of number one, >> I mean, it has to be Joker, right?

[00:10:32]>> Joker here.

[00:10:34]>> He's the most popular. If they had chosen Persona 3 or four protagonist for this thumbnail as a company based out of North America, you could make the argument. But Persona 5 is the first game to drop the prefix on top of all THE OTHER REASONS.

[00:10:46]>> OH, I SEE. SO, it's not You know what? I fell for it. My bad. Cuz I I thought he was Shimaga. I was like, why are we mad at that?

[00:10:53]>> Misinformation is likely at play here, but I think it's more a case of misrepresentation.

[00:10:58]And I know they have writers, editors, researchers, but it's almost like a company with the goal of turnurning out as much content as possible with as little connection to the stuff they are speaking on has no business talking about Shinmagami Tensei. I disagree actually. I think the opposite. I think it's great that there's one monolith of culture that has extremely surface level dumb [ __ ] about all of that. You can find a channel that is specialized in your interest elsewhere, but I think it's cool to have just like the the ivory tower of content raining down their opinions on [ __ ] they know nothing about with the most obvious base level surface observations you could think of.

[00:11:38]They are a company. This could have played out differently if it were a solo creator, but we got a whole ass.com in the channel, so duh. If it's not obvious by now, they aren't going to feel shame and leave the internet or apologize because people are blasting them for having ass opinions or being wrong.

[00:11:52]They're just going to have with everyone else and then hopefully, if they are lucky, continue to have more ass opinions that keep them being talked about.

[00:12:01]>> I think it's great to have a creator that can't be swayed by public opinion.

[00:12:08]They can't be strong armed into like doing this weird apology thing because even if somebody does or doesn't do it then like they're like that becomes part of the conversation too. If you say something that wrong and get blown up like the individual has to weigh the consequences of like bending the knee or not. It's not a creator. But that's what I'm saying. I think that's cool. I think it was cool. I think we've kind of moved on from that. But I can see the value in it. You know, >> this type of social media strategy is called I think it's called flooding the market. what I call it brute forcing the algorithm where you just create so much it and has a higher chance of ending up in front of people regardless of quality. I'm not going to say old works of art the everyday masterpiece that is gallon smashing but watch is cheap conveyor belt entertainment literally just designed for the passing of time. At least I can say I took lessons home from gallon smashing cuz what is uploading six times a day even worth? Are we just looking at a snapshot of a spinning wheel from a different angle every single time? I think it is a fine top level uh summary of a topic that you may or may not have interest in. Imagine if you see something like top 10 jump scares in games and you're going in there looking for the one from Eternal Darkness where Alex is in the bathtub. And then you go in and you see something from, I don't know, The Five Nights at Freddy's. That's like the biggest one. And you might be like, "Oh, maybe I'll check that out. That might be something I'm interested in." Right? I could see, you know, a little bit of value there. I could and and by putting out so much at any given time, maybe they'll get pulled in with more stuff.

[00:13:37]Watch Mojo never claims to be anything more than slop. It is what it is, but I find it hard to get worked up about it.

[00:13:43]Yeah, I think it's fine for stuff to be bad. I think it's fine to have popcorn past the time. It's content. There's a difference between art and content. It's worse on topics you're not informed about because you can't distinguish the misinformation, though. I guess I think it's one thing if somebody watches this and then acts like an expert or thinks they know something. It's another thing if somebody watches this and they're like, "Oh, now I have a very base level of understanding of something. I'm gonna go look at more or I'm not going to tell people that." But I guess stupid people are always going to be around and like think that now they know the answer. I don't know. When it comes to Watch Mojo, nothing is ever set in stone. To be fair, nothing really is ever set in stone, but it's sort of this unspoken top 10 rule that you kind of got to act like it is. Watch Mojo, on the other hand, praise on the recycle. They are thrilled about the lack of permanence.

[00:14:30]They love making the same video twice, three times, four times. Watch Mojo did the best games of the year 2014 through 2017. And these lists are innocent enough. But in 2018, they had the best games of the year so far.

[00:14:42]>> Oh, hell yeah. In August, >> I'D DO THAT [ __ ] IN JUNE. IT'S almost June now. You think I DON'T BE DO I'D BE DOING THIS halfway through the year?

[00:14:49]Right now, it's Soros. It could be anything. I got the chart and everything. We have halfear updates, bro.

[00:14:55]>> And then, of course, four months later, they had the best GAMES OF 2018. PERIOD.

[00:14:59]THE AUGUST LIST GOT BOOTED BECAUSE A CERTAIN thing called the holiday window exists. It completely renders the August list kind of useless unless you want to know the best games from 2018 in a pre-match Ultimate Red Dead 2 entanglement, but it's hard now to want to watch their list knowing they could just grind it up to dust at any point in the future with a new one. I think Yeah, but that's fine cuz it's about that it's it's not definitive. These things are not definitive. The point isn't to make the final ever list on this thing and to have it be set in stone forever. It is at the time. Time is always moving. It is transient. Right. I think that's kind of cool. I think it's kind of cool because then you have the discussion about it. And obviously they're not having a discussion cuz it's Watch Mojo.

[00:15:40]But I like talking about games with my stream halfway through the year talking about what's coming up. Maybe I'm wrong about things. I think that's neat.

[00:15:47]Cony's slowly realizing this video about himself. Don't get me wrong, I am a content person. I am not a YouTuber. I am a Twitch streamer who does YouTube.

[00:15:55]If I was a YouTuber, I'd be making art.

[00:15:57]I understand it from the art perspective, right? But when you do four streams a week, when you put out six videos a week, it's not going to be definitive. That's just how it is. The so far videos are at least honest and implying that there will be more to come. Are you guys ready for the psychosis demo? Top 10 actors most difficult to work with. Another top 10 actors most top 20, TOP 30, TOP 100. OKAY, that one's a little I get that piece. I get why we're mad at that.

[00:16:27]There are a lot of actors and there are always new stories, right? So, the first list is a top 10 regular and then they found more and hit us with another top 10. Nothing wrong with that. The top 20 is like a combined list, just those first two videos mashed together with a few dialogue changes, you know, enhanced port HD plus deluxe type. The top 30 is the same as the top 20, but they've added 10 more entries.

[00:16:49]>> You know how many YouTubers do this, by the way? You go to December, you ever see those best of X in 2026 videos? I've never done one of those, but I need to.

[00:16:57]Not because I don't want to. Not because I don't want to make a lot of money in December. I definitely should and I probably will this year because like it's a it's a fun thing for somebody to watch and they're like, "Oh, I remember that. Haha, that's great. You're just lazy." I'm not lazy. My editor would be I'd be giving it to my editor. Hey, do some [ __ ] Go through my clips. Figure it out. Can we get worse of Coney? Um, that would be fun. One of the first John Trron videos I ever saw was the top 10 video game commercials. This is what happens when an opinion reaches maturity and becomes a creation. He made this whole video funny like he always is talking about the weird conceptual PS.

[00:17:34]>> Like these videos are better. It is better if a YouTuber makes a video about something they care about than if the corporation makes some [ __ ] >> But when he hits number one, the tone completely shifts because his number one choice is the Halo 3 believe ad, an emotional pick that should disrupt the flow of the video. But you can tell Jon loves it so much that making jokes or playing silly music would undermine its value. That's not what you do to your favorite video game commercial. So he says a couple words and leaves us with it and the video ends. There's passion and meaning behind this and you only need to see the editing to realize that this is rooted in someone's personal perspective, someone's humanity. I don't think we needed 30 minutes to describe this. I don't think we needed 30 minutes to give this perspect. Yeah, this is an awesome video because it's actually the story of a guy growing up and slowly learning that Watch Mojo was not his friend. I'm not trying to be mean to this guy. I I get the the idea. I just I wonder if it's like I'm older, so my engagement with YouTube was never the idea that these creators are my personal individual friend that I know all of their perspectives and opinions of. They are a channel on the internet. Like, I can't be parasocial for Watch Mojo. And it's okay to like have creators or or YouTubers that you like or you you think their uh their perspectives or opinions are interesting or like there's nothing wrong with that, but like to to be mad at the corporation for being a I don't know. It's a little surprising, right?

[00:18:57]>> I got tired of the automation. I got tired of people who cared more about the video than the games they were discussing. Tired of people reciting opinions completely out of their possession. I like when people have actually played or watched or read or listened to whatever they are talking about. Yeah, it's fatigue. Taste changed. And I think taste changed on a massive level, not on an individual level. It's not just this one guy.

[00:19:18]People don't like this [ __ ] anymore. And that's okay. Maybe I'm wrong, but I don't think this video needed to be 27 minutes. I think we're stretching it out with individual examples and maybe more specific uh refined pieces because we wanted to hit 30 minutes because every video essay is 30 minutes. Now, I think we're playing the game the same way they are. Maybe I'm wrong, but I get the vibe that this was like a 20 minute video that we wanted to stretch to 30 and so we put in a thing about, you know, making the number one a big deal. I think everybody's playing the game. You just do it in different ways.

[00:19:49]Individuality, life experiences, opinions, and the ability to communicate that to others is what it means to be human. And in this digital ecosystem, trust me, we are going to need to hold on to that humanity.

[00:20:01]>> That's true. It's way worse now because like now they literally like they could get a lot more you said AI than most channels.

[00:20:08]>> Watch Mojo was is the same way. When people say they felt like AI slop before AI slop, it's probably because they're stuck in that same uncanny valley. True.

[00:20:16]But I believe that's what makes this ending more bittersweet than happy because now we've crossed the event horizon of industrializing content. People do not care about the intention or ethical sourcing of it.

[00:20:27]They just want something to look at.

[00:20:29]Watch Mojo knows that. Yeah, y'all are trying to get food video to eat food with, right? Is to make something so signaturely yours. It cannot be traced anywhere else. And that's what we should be doing on YouTube. Opinions are expressions. They are reflections. They are who we are. So wield that because it's your identity. Make it more you.

[00:20:49]Broadcast yourself. Yes and no. I mean that's true but then if you if you give too many of your opinions you are a hot take contrarian that doesn't actually believe anything you say right that's going to be the other thing you got to like ally align with public opinion a lot of the time too speaking from experience a little people think like as somebody who will always say what I think about something people have this weird conception that you're doing things for attention I don't disagree that people do that and sometimes I'll play up the [ __ ] that I think but I think that like there is a large portion of the internet that want their opinions spit back to them. Enter uh another player in this moist critical. Okay, this is Charlie who by the way I got no beef with. I like Charlie a lot. Very nice guy, great YouTuber. Whatever. He's found the infinite money glitch, which is talking about the thing of the day and telling you what you already think or know. I think a lot of people want to hear that.

[00:21:54]And that's okay. That's okay. There's nothing wrong with it. The reason that I'm bringing this up, he is the next player in this. So, on this video about Watch Mojo, the rest is him. Hey, by the way, I like the video. I'm going to like it. I hope you guys will, too. Shout out to Voyan. Okay, I'm even going to subscribe. Watch Mojo responds. Never heard of your channel and I didn't see the video but a few points. Didn't watch the video. Yeah, right. In 2006 when we started, we were obviously a bit ahead of the curve. That's true. In 2012, when every channel was some vlogger sitting on the couch, we mastered our signature style and many cried as it looked more like VH1 or like a TV show. Right. The challenge in media is staying relevant, keeping audience guessing. Yeah, staying relevant. I don't know about keeping audience guessing. Some people get all get by very far with one idea. Shout out to Well, this is kind of guessing. I have so much respect for Tzu. I love Tzu. Tzu got one thing and he's very good at it and he makes interesting concepts of that one thing. I think that's really [ __ ] cool. Terzu is the most ass smash opinions.

[00:23:00]That's okay. I think it's okay for somebody to have their own individual opin Wait, weren't we just talking about how opinions are important and individual for every human and we should be able to express those. Tiu doesn't like wave dashing. He's been pretty open about that. But that's okay. We we he's allowed to think that or feel that, right? Only if they agree with me. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. Regardless, uh I I don't necessarily disagree with them, but they shouldn't be talking. Why is the robot speaking to me? Why are you leaving a comment? You definitely watched that video talking about haters with a dot dot dot. I know the person that responded to this is 50 or 60. That is the most Gen X ellipses I've ever seen. But yeah, they responded. And the reason I bring this up, Charlie Moyes Critical made a video about the cringe response and then Watch Mojo commenting on Moyes Critical's video talking about their initial response. Admittedly, commenting on a video and addressing a bunch of points before actually seeing set video, not the best idea. That seems like GPT. That sounded very AI. Uh, in any case, is something where a content farmer slop. Agree to disagree. Oh. Um, okay. I thought they were in on it. All right. My whole opinion has shifted.

[00:24:15]Never mind. Everything I've been saying.

[00:24:17]Oh, you don't know that you're bad. Oh, you don't you think it's good what you're doing? Oh, watch what you going to thank Con for his kind words on the video. I thought you knew you were. I thought you were in on the bit. Uh, whatever you do, don't visit the channel and definitely don't leave angry comments. Oh, there we go. Haters make me famous. There we go. Because now the algorithm thinks you're obsessed with us and we'll happily serve you. Watch Mojo clips for the next seven years. Mission accomplished. That guy's hurt. This guy is [ __ ] hurt. All of this is to say um content is always changing I guess is the moral of the story. You can have a formula and ride it till the end of time. Your numbers will go up and go down. Uh and things change and viewer habits will always adapt.