In a nutshell

  • Hiding YouTube subscribers is an easy way to conceal your channel subscriber count from being publicly visible on YouTube
  • Hiding subscribers is helpful when your channel has low subscribers or if your YouTube channel is in its early days
  • YouTube algorithm does not punish you for hiding subscribers

YouTube channels offer you a variety of privacy settings, one of which is the option to hide subscriber counts so they won’t be publicly visible to others on YouTube. If you are a YouTube creator, the question should be why, how and when to hide your subscriber count. Also, if you hide subscribers, will it hurt the growth of your channel? Let’s explore the pros and cons of hiding YouTube subscribers, and if you decide to do it, we will give you a walkthrough on how to hide YouTube subscribers.

Does hiding subscribers hurt your YouTube channel?

Your YouTube subscriber count is displayed by default when you create a new channel. However, you can hide your subscriber count if you like. If you’re wondering if YouTube punishes you for doing so, the answer is it doesn’t. Hiding your subscribers could be a privacy decision, meaning that you don’t want people comparing your numbers with other channels. Once you hide your subscribers and set it to private, only you can see how many subscribers you have. So, YouTube does not punish you for hiding subscribers, but why do it at all?

Why hide subscribers?

One of the main reasons to hide subscribers is if you are a new channel with little to no subscribers. A viewer could check your subscriber count and find you have a small number of subscribers — say less than 500 — then they could be reluctant to subscribe to your channel because it’s too small. If you’re in the situation, hiding your subscribers in the early days could be beneficial. Once you reach a decent amount of subscribers, you could make it visible again for visitors to see your growth. If you decide to move forward with hiding subscribers, here are the steps.

How to hide YouTube subscribers

Follow the steps below to hide your subscribers:

  1. Go to your YouTube channel by logging in
  2. Navigate to the YouTube Studio
  3. Click on Settings > Channel > Advanced Settings
  4. Scroll down to subscriber count and untick the check box that says: “Display the number of people subscribed to my channel.”
  5. Hit the Save button to save the changes

After finishing all the steps, your viewers won’t see the subscriber count on your YouTube channel.

When should you show your subscriber count again?

We mentioned before that you could use the hide subscribers feature when you have low subscribers, but once you hide them, when is the best time to unhide subscribers and show them again? A good time to show your subscribers again is when you reach 1,000 subscribers. The reason is that 1,000 subscribers are the minimum number needed to join the YouTube Partners Program. As a strategy, hide your subscribers, and when you reach 1,000 subscribers, you show them again and keep growing your channel.

Can people see your subscriber count after you hide it?

The answer is yes. There are sites like Social Blade that give you a good idea of how many subscribers a YouTube channel has, even with the subscriber count turned off.

Should you hide your YouTube subscriber count?

Although we mentioned viewers may not subscribe to you because of your low subscribers and you are hiding your subscribers in hopes of growing, there is also the alternative that people still subscribe to you because your video content is fantastic. Also, if someone watched your videos and did not subscribe, there’s a possibility that your new or older videos could still show up on the YouTube homepage for other viewers. This means that even if your subscriber count is low, people may subscribe anyway because your content is good. If you are looking to become famous, you may be in a situation where you would need to show numbers. The higher the subscriber count is and the faster it grows, in one way or another, it symbolizes how excellent and exciting your content is. 

What does the community think about hiding subscribers? 

In a popular Reddit thread titled “Hiding Subscriber Count,” most comments say not to hide subscriber count. The reasons stated are that hiding subscribers are pretty sketchy, with some saying they never subbed to a channel with subscribers hidden, and most commenters never concealed their subscribers’ numbers.

It is a personal decision to hide subscribers on your channel

Your channel will grow little by little if your content is good and you have a consistent upload schedule. If you’re confident about your content, don’t feel bad because we all start from zero. Have fun and enjoy your YouTube journey.