Unpopular opinion: Thumbnails with text beat super clean minimal ones every time

I ran a test on my gaming channel over the last 3 months. One set of videos I did the whole clean look with just the game art. The other set I plastered a big bold word or question right on the thumbnail. The ones with text pulled 2x the click rate easy. Has anyone else seen this or am I just getting lucky with my niche?

2 comments

2 Comments

jenniferw8216h ago

Makes sense to me... I can barely get my own thumbnails to load without a typo in them. My click rate tends to match my attention span, which is pretty short.

claire_ramirez12h ago

Oh man, I once spent an hour on a thumbnail only to realize I spelled my own name wrong in the corner.