YouTube Starts Showing More Unskippable Ads to Some Users

YouTube has apparently started testing showing more unskippable ads to free users. In some cases, users who don’t have YouTube Premium may be asked to watch up to 10 ads during ad breaks.

Most YouTube Free users usually see up to 2 pre-roll ads, plus some ad breaks while watching long videos. However, there are multiple threads on Reddit and Twitter (via 9to5Google) from users complaining about the increasing amount of ads on the video platform.

In some cases, users have been seeing 5 unskippable pre-roll ads before a video starts playing. Other users have also been seeing longer ad breaks with up to 10 ads, as seen in the image below from a Reddit user. Even though these unskippable ads are pretty short, this isn’t exactly a great user experience.

Google has yet to announce any changes regarding the number of ads YouTube Free users are seeing. However, the YouTube team did reply to a user who complained about these unskippable ads on Twitter. “This may happen with a certain type of ad format called bumper ads, since they’re only up to 6 seconds long,” the team said.

hmm…this may happen with a certain type of ad format called bumper ads, since they're only up to 6 seconds long. if you'd like, you can send feedback directly from YouTube via the send feedback tool

— TeamYouTube (@TeamYouTube) September 7, 2022

If you find the amount of ads on YouTube to be unbearable, you can still get rid of all ads by paying for YouTube Premium. The $11.99/month subscription also lets you download videos to watch on the go, and you also listen to videos in the background on mobile. YouTube Music Premium is also included with the subscription, making it pretty good value.

Did you notice more ads on YouTube in recent weeks? Let us know in the comments below.