Does anyone want to replay 2020? YouTube thinks not.
The video-sharing platform is cancelling its annual Rewind video, which got its start in 2010 and is usually released every December. The video celebrates the creators, trends, and music that defined the year. However, 2020 is an unprecedented year.
“2020 has been different,” YouTube tweeted. “And it doesn’t feel right to carry on as if it weren’t. So, we’re taking a break from Rewind this year.
“We know that so much of the good that did happen in 2020 was by all of you. You’ve found ways to lift people up, help them cope, and make them laugh. You made a hard year genuinely better,” it concluded.
Maybe a video celebrating the good is exactly what we need in such a difficult year. But Rewind might not be the best way to do it. The video has had mixed reaction in recent years. Rewind 2018: Everyone Controls Rewind and Rewind 2019: For the Record are the first and fifth most disliked videos on YouTube, with 18.51 million and 9.23 million dislikes, respectively.
In 2018, YouTuber Marques Brownlee, who was featured in YouTube Rewind that year, said the platform had turned Rewind into a “a giant ad for YouTube.” Rather than focusing on creators and content, it pushes “advertiser-friendly” things, he argued.
