Why Did YouTube Suddenly Unlist Rewind Videos And Can You Still Watch Them?

In a puzzling move, YouTube unlisted all of its yearly Rewind videos. This meant that YouTube’s year-end recap videos, which famously featured the platform’s top creators, are no longer accessible to users.

The much-anticipated yearly video recap series was launched in 2010 and ran until 2019, before the video-sharing platform officially cancelled it. While the decision to unlist its Rewind videos may have generated ample buzz across social media platforms, the decision to “remove” the videos from YouTube may not have come as news to many.

Why?

“YouTube Rewind documented the downfall of YouTube. It started off wholesome with real content creators, and then it turned into corporate BS with celebrities and ads that have nothing to do with YouTube,” an X account (@DeepHumour) remarked on YouTube’s move.

What Is YouTube Unlisting?

Unlisting a video on YouTube makes it disappear from the platform. It would no longer show up in recommendations, searches, or any playlists. This doesn’t mean the video has vanished from the face of Earth, but it’s now accessible via a direct link. Anyone with access to that link can still watch the video on YouTube.

Does YouTube Unlisting Help?

YouTube videos can be watched from anywhere in the world. If a YouTube user desires to upload a glimpse of their baby taking its first steps, cooking videos, wedding videos, proposal videos, prom videos, home videos, or any DIY video, they can. However, if they choose to keep it away from the public eye, they can do so by unlisting them.

By doing this, the family members or friends the uploader shares the direct link with can view it as many times as they like. The video still exists on YouTube, but it is not in public mode.

Influential creators can also use the unlisting option on YouTube to share exclusive content with their Patreon subscribers.

YouTuber’s Rewind Series

YouTube began its Rewind series, a yearly recap, in 2010 by bringing together popular creators from varied genres. The idea was simple: get YouTubers on board at a year-end party. There were memes, skits, dancing, and infinite cameos. Rewind essentially recreated and revisited the top viral moments of the year as seen on its platform. YouTube Rewind typically garnered millions of views each year as it became a collaborative effort between celebrated YouTubers.

YouTube Rewind: 2018

“That’s hot!”

Perhaps a year YouTube would want to erase from the history books was 2018.

YouTube needed only six days to beat Justin Bieber’s “unlike” record of 9.8 million downvotes he received on his song Baby.

The video giant was accused of making a “politically correct” and “advertiser-friendly” video. The platform distanced itself from old-school YouTubers such as PewDiePie, Shane Dawson, Jacksepticeye, Smosh, Jacksfilms, Vsauce, Logan Paul, MrBeast: all creators who pulled in a major chunk of viewers to the website were excluded.

(PS: The above video is current unlisted by YouTube but we had access to the direct link!)

The PewDiePie vs T-Series subscriber war, which has had the entire Internet hooked for months, got no mention. Logan Paul’s boxing match with KSI, Jake Paul’s match with Deji, legend Stan Lee’s departure, the great Laurel-Yanny debate, and surgery on the grape meme were all left out, too.

Will Smith’s cameo became the meme for the ages, but not in any flattering way.

In short, the YouTube Rewind 2018 was a disaster of epic proportions, and it pretty much made a massive dent in the platform’s reputation to the point of no return. In fact, YouTube’s own video became YouTube’s most disliked video of all time, registering over 19 million thumbs down.

YouTube Rewind: 2020 – Cancelled

YouTube took a brave decision to return to its Rewind series with 2019 Rewind, but it was a massive dud. Viewers remarked that the 2019 Rewind was “so boring” that it alienated the audience from forming any opinion, as they couldn’t even hate it.

However, when the global pandemic hit humanity in 2020, YouTube closed the curtain on its ever-declining Rewind series.

“Since 2010, we’ve ended the year with Rewind: a look back at the year’s most impactful creators, videos, and trends. Whether you love it — or only remember 2018 — Rewind was always meant to be a celebration of you.”

“But 2020 has been different. 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 created 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.”

The global content creators who were confined to their homes during the pandemic were in disagreement with the platform’s decision to ignore 2020 completely– a year, according to them, when humans had to work doubly hard to stay afloat.

YouTube Unlists Rewind: 2025

After being humbled by its own user base, YouTube decided to unlist all of its Rewinds.

While there was no official word by YouTube as to why it decided to distance itself from the highly-produced yearly recaps, the reactions on Reddit’s r/YouTube pretty much sum up the dumpster fire the Rewind series had eventually become towards the fag end.

“When you can’t live with your own failure,” remarked one.

“last one they did almost broke the dislike button. No wonder why (sic).”

YouTube should have accepted its 2018 debacle and tried to fix what went wrong, wrote one.

“I really don’t understand why YouTube didn’t just accept they had a bad rewind and try and make up for it the following year. The rewinds are fun little time capsules to look back on to see what people were mostly interested in that year and what was popular, I really hate that so many companies seem to take the mindset of this one thing failed that must mean that all of this stuff is hated.”