Top 10 YouTube Channels that Were Good but Went Downhill

We haven't had a title quite like this. This is about YouTube channels that were good but eventually went downhill. Yet YouTubers are people and channels are things.

Some of them I subscribed to, but once their channels took a downward fall, I unsubscribed.

The Top Ten

Logan Paul

Logan Alexander Paul, born April 1, 1995, is an American YouTuber, professional wrestler, and social media personality. He has hosted the Impaulsive podcast since November 2018 and is signed to WWE, where he currently holds the WWE United States Championship. Paul also maintains a large YouTube following... read more

Logan Paul used to have a decent channel (though hard to watch due to the rather intense vlogging techniques). However, on New Year's Eve 2017, during a trip to Japan, he captured a dead body on camera at a forest he called the "Suicide Forest," filmed it, and laughed at it. He made fun of it too.
He got so much hate and trouble for that. This was his absolute lowest point ever. His channel has never been viewed the same way since then. His "apology" video seemed pointless, and he monetized it. YouTube changed its guidelines in the wake of this one-of-a-kind scandal. He committed among YouTube's biggest scandals of all time.
Yet he even tased a dead rat and made fun of it even after the "apology" video. He eventually decided to quit daily vlogging for other projects. Like I said, his channel was fine but went downhill, WAY downhill, and that's an understatement.
Smosh

Smosh is an American sketch comedy YouTube channel created by Ian Andrew Hecox and Daniel Anthony Padilla. Anthony Padilla created a website called smosh.com in 2002 and was later joined by his friend Ian Hecox. The duo became one of the most popular creators on YouTube, and the channel has since expanded... read more

Smosh used to have one of the best, funniest, and most popular YouTube channels for more than a decade, with countless funny stunts. But eventually, on June 14, 2017, the founder Anthony Padilla announced he left the rest of Smosh and moved onto his own channel (which didn't even grow nearly as big, just ~4.8M subs compared to the whopping ~25.1M Smosh has).
The whole Smosh channel just collapsed into an absolute wreck. Now their videos aren't nearly as funny or entertaining anymore. They've gotten more random and are getting no more than a few thousand views (as opposed to the millions the ones with Anthony grew). Glad I unsubscribed to them knowing there's no more point watching this channel that went from a masterpiece to a disaster.
Fred

Fred Figglehorn is a fictional character created and portrayed by American actor Lucas Cruikshank. The character became popular in the early days of YouTube. Cruikshank retired the character in 2013 because he could no longer perform the Fred voice, and between 2010 and 2012, a trilogy of Fred movies... read more

What was one of the most popular channels (and the first to ever hit and pass 1M subs), a skit channel about a character talking in a sped-up voice with anger management issues in situations with crazy parents (an original storyline), didn't even make it into the first decade of use.
Lucas Cruikshank (the real guy who played the Fred character) decided to sell the Fred channel to kids on August 28, 2014, after less than 7 years (before he turned 21), putting his beloved and original fame to a permanent end. The Fred channel now has just ~2.93M subscribers since the beginning and is no longer active (not even by the kids he sold it to). Even I unsubscribed from it.
He had mixed reviews as many loved him and many others hated him, but at least it was more original than many (if any) of the YouTube channels we have now.
Filthy Frank

George Kusunoki Miller (born September 18, 1992), better known professionally as Joji and formerly known on YouTube as Filthy Frank and Pink Guy, is a Japanese-Australian R&B singer, comedian, songwriter, rapper, and former YouTuber.... read more

Founded by Joji Miller, it became one of the most popular channels on YouTube and also relied on skits and stories. He grew 6.61M subscribers throughout his time on this channel.
Eventually, after growing into music and developing a neurological condition that led to periodic seizures, he quit Filthy Frank after just over 8 years, so it didn't even make it into one decade. He gave it up, and it just died. Another channel I unsubscribed to.

Filthy Frank had a reason to quit. It was because of medical reasons.
Annoying Orange

What was one of the top comedy channels went downhill halfway through its current lifespan (in 2015), and the newer episodes aren't as good as the older ones.
Toadette Von Shroom
CoffieDog
SkyDoesMinecraft

Adam Dahlberg, born January 17, 1993, is better known online as Sky Does Everything or NetNobody, and was formerly known as SkyDoesMinecraft. They are an American YouTuber, video game commentator, and former animator who gained prominence for their early Minecraft content.... read more

Adam Dahlberg (his real name) used to do Minecraft on this channel, and it became the #1 channel about Minecraft (one of the most popular games of all time). But then he quit, putting this channel downhill to its death.
I chose to unsubscribe since it's no longer being used and since he's no longer relevant.
briancoukisthe90skid
Lily Orchard

The Newcomers

?
The Young Turks
?
Second Thought

The Contenders

LeafyIsHere

Calvin Lee Vail (born August 18, 1995), known online as LeafyIsHere or simply Leafy, is an American former YouTuber and Twitch streamer. From 2011 to 2017, and briefly in 2020, he created reaction, drama, and gaming videos but was primarily known for his commentary content.... read more

Leafy was actually a good commentary YouTuber. It was his fanbase that took everything out of control. He was obviously satirical about his roasting of the internet. So it was his fans who ruined his career, not Leafy himself.

It had better days before plummeting in a downward spiral with bad content that was rude and violated many rules. I unsubscribed once it went downhill. Later, he quit due to burnout, and the next year YouTube terminated his channel. He had over 5 million subscribers.
KidBehindACamera
Dan Howell
DanAndPhilGAMES

It was a thing for years and made Daniel Howell and Phil Lester incredibly popular. Dan was once named DanIsNotOnFire, and Phil was named TheAmazingPhil. For 8 years (not even the first decade), they later went on indefinite hiatus in 2019, putting the channel into a standstill and making them less relevant to this day.
It was originally entertaining enough to subscribe to, but it's impossible to know when they'll use it or if they ever will, so I decided to unsubscribe.

Daniel and Phil are the best, but they should be in Locke & Key season 5.
Jake Paul

Jake Joseph Paul (born January 17, 1997) is an American social media personality and professional boxer. He first gained fame on the video-sharing app Vine, and later starred as Dirk Mann on the Disney Channel series Bizaardvark for two seasons. Throughout his career, Paul has drawn controversy for his... read more

His channel wasn't originally as bad as it has become. It eventually became racist (with him eventually saying the N-word) and it all went totally downhill from there. He became creepier and had a worsening influence on people.
Good thing he isn't growing very popular anymore. I'm glad I didn't even subscribe to him in the first place.
Phil Lester

Philip Michael "Phil" Lester is an English YouTuber and former radio personality. He is originally from Rawtenstall, located in the Rossendale Valley of Lancashire. Lester is best known for his YouTube channel AmazingPhil, where he posts vlogs and collaborates with other content creators.
Daniel Howell
Hannah Stocking

What was once one of the most popular comedy skit channels on YouTube took a sudden drop after TikTok star Ondreaz Lopez (from the Lopez Brothers) decided to date Hannah out of the blue. She does vlogs now, and they are pretty generic to say the least. There are no more than one, two, or three things going on in them as opposed to her skits, which had a lot more going on.
Not to mention, Hannah is 28 and Ondreaz is 23, even while engaged. Yet Ondreaz is the brother of Tony Lopez, who has a history of racism and sexual abuse. I originally subscribed to her channel in 2017, but she ruined it in September 2020, making me unsubscribe.
Plus, she grew subscribers really fast in the past (now ~7.68M), but now she is losing many subscribers (like ~10K). Some of her videos used to get over 1M views per day (including the lyric video of "Hard 2 Face Reality" by Poo Bear, Justin Bieber, and Jay Electronica, which now has ~212M views). Now her latest videos (or vlogs) get much less than 1M views per day, even less than 100K views per day.
Plus, she has been giving friends tattoos illegally (without a license), which is dangerous and can cause harm and infections to others. She really went downhill in 2020.
Cinemassacre

He used to post such epic content, and now he doesn't post such anymore.
Death Battle
DanTDM

Daniel Robert Middleton (born November 8, 1991), better known online as DanTDM (formerly TheDiamondMinecart), is a British YouTuber and gamer known for his video game commentaries. His online video channels have covered many video games, including Minecraft, Roblox, and Pokémon. DanTDM has received several... read more

Honestly, basically all people who got onto Minecraft circa 2012 and originally aimed at adults have basically turned into man-children.

He was once good, but he doesn't post relevant content anymore.
Liza Koshy

Elizabeth Shaila Koshy is an American actress, television host, comedian, and YouTuber. She first became popular through her short comedic videos on Vine and then expanded her reach through YouTube, where she gained millions of followers. Koshy has hosted television shows such as Double Dare, appeared... read more

It was a good channel until she moved on from Wednesdays With Liza to Liza On Demand. She quit her original comedy in 2018 and is now a YouTube Premium star. Yet she isn't even posting frequently on her main channel anymore.
Channel Awesome

This is kind of cheating, as the YouTube channel is merely another outlet for the website. Regardless, the downfall of Channel Awesome in 2018 was one of the biggest bombshells to hit YouTube.
Even then, the quality of the videos from its biggest content creator, Doug Walker, has been going downhill for quite some time now.
Charles Trippy

His channel was one of the most successful and historic as he's done more daily vlogs than anyone else in history (from 2009 to 2019). A whopping 3,653 in 10 years. He decided to end his historic project to move onto other things and has been along with the stress he's been through in his daily vlogging days.
His channel was the greatest vlog channel in history, and now it's not even growing big anymore. Now he's just somebody that we used to know.
SuperMarioLogan

Logan Thirtyacre, born on November 17, 1994, is better known as SuperMarioLogan or SML. He is an American YouTuber and puppeteer who creates comedy videos using puppets, action figures, and plush dolls, and his content often features characters based on or inspired by the Mario franchise. He has gained... read more

Jeffy is a very problematic character, using autism as a joke. I mean, the fans like to pretend he's just really, really stupid, but several videos contradict that.