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Linus Sebastian

Things Linus Says on Podcasts

Founded the YouTube channel Linus Tech Tips in 2008 and built it into Linus Media Group, a company covering computer hardware, tech news, and product testing across several channels with a combined audience in the tens of millions. He stepped down as LMG's CEO in 2023 to focus on content as chief vision officer. He co-hosts The WAN Show, LMG's weekly live talk show, where he covers subjects from game preservation to platform policy. On a recent episode he criticized YouTube for quietly removing public analytics tools that let outsiders track how views and attention move on the platform.

Where to Find Them

Linus Sebastian hosts The WAN Show . They have also been a guest on The Vergecast .

Recently: “AI Ruined The Deal And Gave Away His Address - WAN Show October 2, 2026” on The WAN Show (October 2026); “YouTube Is Getting Way Worse And Also Way Better - WAN Show September 25, 2026” on The WAN Show (September 2026); “DLSS 5 explained, with Linus Tech Tips” on The Vergecast (September 2026); “I’m a Tesla Driver Now - WAN Show September 18, 2026” on The WAN Show (September 2026); “Microsoft Did It First Apple - WAN Show September 11, 2026” on The WAN Show (September 2026); “PlayStation Says Buying Isn’t Owning - WAN Show September 4, 2026” on The WAN Show (September 2026).

What They Said

“I think if we're going to have respect for the art, we have to have respect for letting the artists cook for as long as their corporate overlords will allow them to and create the best finished products they can.” — Linus Sebastian, The WAN Show

The show was arguing about game preservation and whether studios should be compelled to release prototypes, cut content and unfinished builds. Sebastian flags his own position as the controversial one: he supports companies doing it voluntarily and opposes anyone forcing them. Lafreniere follows with the maker's version of the same worry, about work you abandoned being preserved in the state you hated.

The WAN Show · 2026-09-05 Permalink → Listen →
The WAN Show Around 2:14:48 into the episode
Linus Sebastian

And no, I'm actually, this is going to be... I don't

Luke Lafreniere

think there should be. This

Linus Sebastian

is going to be super controversial. Maybe. I fully support companies releasing pre-published work and concept art and concept files and whatever else. But I actually am not supportive of forcing them to do anything like that. I think if we're going to have respect for the art, we have to have respect for letting the artists cook for as long as their corporate overlords will allow them to and create the best finished products they can. Process

Luke Lafreniere

might like just really hate something about what you had and then be really happy that you updated it and never released it in that state. And now that thing that you never wanted to see the light of day is now being preserved and that just sucks. Like try to apply that to anything you've done.

Linus Sebastian

TunaFish 6 in Floatplane Chat says, I demand beta Mona Lisa.

Luke Lafreniere

Yeah, I mean, that would be preserved 1,000%. I also, like, I don't, yeah, I don't, I'm not surprised. I don't even necessarily blame the Reservus. Preservus, I guess. But yeah, I wouldn't want that.

Speaker names from our own diarization · position estimated from where the line sits in the episode
“…My big issue with this is that YouTube was the one platform that I could still point at and go, hey, there's a shred of integrity left in publicly available analytics that help us all understand how the attention economy is working. And they're basically just torpedoing it.” — Linus Sebastian, The WAN Show

The show was working through a YouTube change to how views are counted and displayed. Sebastian, whose business depends on the platform, brushes past the creator-tactics angle to object on different grounds: YouTube was the last place where outsiders could see how attention actually moves. He puts it in a sequence with the removal of public dislikes and the loss of lifetime view tracking.

The WAN Show · 2026-08-22 Permalink → Listen →
The WAN Show Around 10:09 into the episode
Linus Sebastian

just low-rise boobies all over the thumbnails? Yep. Even if

Luke Lafreniere

it has nothing to do with the video.

Linus Sebastian

The second somebody engages with it at all, it will get a view. However, it is worth noting that that view will be a low-quality view, which will hurt that video's ability to be exposed to more potential viewers. So I actually would recommend against that. My bigger problem with this. Actually, none of those things, though. My big issue with this is that YouTube was the one platform that I could still point at and go, hey, there's a shred of integrity left in publicly available analytics that help us all understand how the attention economy is working. And they're basically just torpedoing it. This is yet another erosion along the lines of losing access to dislikes. Yeah,

Luke Lafreniere

yeah, yeah.

Linus Sebastian

Losing the ability for sites like Social Blade to track views over the entire lifetime of a channel. We're just chipping away one thing after another, after another. I mean, at what point is YouTube just going to be another video app that you watch on your TV? They might as well just get rid of comments at this point. Why even show a publicly accessible light counter if they want to level the playing field to that level? Is that the point that you just will have no idea what the quality of something is or how much momentum there is around it until you just watch whatever it is that they put in front of you? Why have subscription feeds? Why have any of these publicly accessible metrics? Why not just watch what the algorithm deems is best for you? Watch it right now. Go, go, go, watch, watch, watch. Give us more watch time.

Luke Lafreniere

You know, it's weird too. You know how Steam feels like, people make jokes about this all the time, but Valve seems to just win by doing nothing.

Speaker names from our own diarization · position estimated from where the line sits in the episode

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