"Shocked face meta is over?": Fans react as MrBeast reveals changing his YouTube thumbnail style might have boosted views

In his latest post on X, popular internet personality Jimmy "MrBeast" revealed that YouTube videos got more views after he replaced his shocked facial expression with a normal one in the thumbnails. The revelation has since gone viral, with many other content creators and streamers giving their insights on the phenomenon.

MrBeast is known for making almost all his videos go viral. Only recently, he set new records for the most viewed YouTube video in a day, three weeks in a row, making him one of the most successful content creators of all time. Therefore, when he shared that changing his thumbnails got him better results, a lot of people took notice.

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"I have a deep twisted theory": MKBHD and other creators react to MrBeast's revelation about YouTube thumbnails

Going viral in today's day and age might not be a unique quality, with several personalities across social media garnering mass recognition for their content. However, MrBeast has become a master at going viral, crafting his videos with eye-catching titles and thumbnails.

Case in point, in the month of August, all of his videos reached over 45 million views within the first 24 hours of being uploaded. This helped him set the YouTube record for the most-viewed non-music video on the platform three weeks in a row.

When MrBeast, as the undisputed master of creating viral content, revealed on X that removing the 'shocked face' from the thumbnail of his videos resulted in increased views, many fellow creators started rationalizing it.

Popular tech YouTuber MKBHD opined that people who click on the shocked face thumbnails may feel they are being click-baited. According to them, this has led to the videos featuring thumbnails with normal facial expressions having more viewer retention.

In his reply, MKBHD wrote:

"I have a really deep twisted theory about how the open mouth is actually getting a higher clickthrough rate, but slightly more people feel click baited and leave the video slightly earlier, so actually the thumbnails with *worse* clickthrough rate will have the *best* watch time"

On the other hand, fans in the comments joked that other YouTubers will follow suit and close their mouths in their thumbnails, too:

Here are some more general reactions to the revelation:

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MrBeast, who recently won his fourth consecutive Creator of the Year award at the Streamy Awards but did not show up, also joked about other creators changing their thumbnails following his findings, saying he will not rest until "mouths are closed in everyone's thumbnails."