What's Your Reaction?

Have you ever binge-watched reaction videos on YouTube for hours, clicking on every video you come across? We delve into the reaction channel culture, the creators, and what about these channels clicks with its audience

- Jigar Shah

The way we consume content today is determined by a lot of factors — streaming services, what our attention span is (you don’t need more than 15 seconds, courtesy Reels) et al. Not to mention, the pandemic has increased our screen time, with people spending more and more time on their smartphones and other devices. But reaction videos made it big way before we stared at our phones only because we’re locked down.

Reaction videos are videos wherein creators watch other videos, and give spontaneous/planned reactions. People are glued to these channels to know their favourite creators’ opinion. Discussing the rise in the number of reaction channels, Viraj Sheth, co-founder & CEO at Monk Entertainment, says, “Yes, there has been a meteoric rise. Creators like Tanmay Bhat, Triggered Insaan, and Myth Pad have made reaction videos that have reached crazy numbers like 10-15 million views. So, there is an audience for sure.”

The pandemic threw my sleep cycle into a tizzy. So, with lots of time on hand, cheap internet on my smartphone, I wandered on YouTube one night, and I stumbled upon a bunch of reaction videos. One thing led to another, and before I knew it, I spent two hours watching Tanmay Bhat’s reaction videos. Bhat is now making a lot of YouTube content, including reaction videos. In an interview with Economic Times, he reportedly said he doesn’t consider reaction videos a genre. This is after he has made nearly 50 reaction videos. His YouTube channel has over three million subscribers, and his content ranges from vlogs to standup videos to reviews and reactions. In the same interview, he reportedly also said, “If you look at it, news debates are also primarily a reaction to the news. Live stream gaming videos also involve gamer’s reaction to the game. So, it’s too broad to be called a genre. This format allows you to make 20 back-to-back jokes. It is basically making