The drama between James Charles and Tati Westbrook has sent shockwaves throughout the YouTube community, with subscribers leaving Charles’ channel in their droves and moving on to Tati’s – but now, the tables have turned in a big way.
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James Charles subscribers immediately began leaving the channel on May 10 after the release of Tati’s Bye Sister video – where the fashion and beauty guru took 40 minutes to break down her relationship with Charles and called a close on their friendship after days of tension between the two.
The upload, which went viral almost instantly, has become the biggest talking point on the platform and swept into mainstream news after Charles lost a record-breaking number of subscribers.
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James Charles and Tati Westbrook: Live sub counts and gap
It didn’t take James long to respond to the drama though, after his channel lost 538,883 subs on May 10, although his apology video has quickly become one of the most disliked videos on YouTube ever. That number has since been eclipsed, twice, with the channel losing 1,261,460 subscribers on May 11 and a further 772,373 on May 12.
In a similar fashion to the PewDiePie and T-Series war for YouTube supremacy, onlookers have quickly started following the record-breaking losses with their own live trackers. FlareTV, a channel operated by two Canadian teens, followed the PewDiePie and T-Series battle to the bitter end and has now switched focus to the fashion and beauty YouTubers.
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At the height of their feud, Charles approached nearly three million subscribers lost – dwindling down from 16,014,696, and dipping below 13.5 million. At the same time, Tati saw a huge upswing in her own channel, skyrocketing from 6,382,321 to over 10 million subscribers in less than a week.
However, Charles uploaded a video on May 18 that completely changed up the narrative, exposing Tati for multiple “lies” in her story with screenshots of text messages as evidence.
Since then, Charles’ “No More Lies” video has given him a major leg up in his beef with Tati – as well as Jeffree Star, who cut ties with Charles’ clothing line and unfollowed him on social media after Tweeting about the situation in favor of Tati.
Will James Charles regain his subscribers?
The ‘race’ between two fashion and beauty YouTubers may not be as gripping as the war waged by PewDiePie and T-Series, or even have the same sort of fan support that impacts the changes, but being able to track such a huge loss because of one video is truly astonishing – as well as Charles’ subsequent comeback.
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Charles has since seen a major upswing in subscribers after uploading his second response video, with fans sounding out in favor of the once-disgraced beauty guru over Tati.
Tati is losing her quickly-gained subscriber base fast, dropping from over 10,675,000 subs to 10,668,000 subs just an hour after Charles’ video went live – a major development, considering the YouTuber gained over five million subs in response to the drama. In comparison, Charles himself has seen an increase in subscribers, gaining subs by the hundreds as his latest video gains traction across the web, which could see him restored to his 15 million subscribers.
Since the original upload of Tati’s video, a number of high profile stars have come out and criticized the beauty mogul, including Jeffree Star who labeled Charles a “danger to society” in a tweet posted on May 14. Singer Zara Larsson also called out the YouTuber, stating that he had messaged her boyfriend.
Before you believe anything that was said today, remember there are always two sides to every story.
— Jeffree Star (@JeffreeStar) May 18, 2019
Star has likewise seen a drop in subscribers following the release of Charles’ video, coming out with a statement after the fact that read, “there are always two sides to every story.”
While Tati appeared to have the definite upper hand, fans’ opinions are quickly shifting in favor of Charles – but with this story still developing, there’s no telling how matters will turn out, in the end.
This article was last updated on Wednesday, May 18 at 11:50 AM PST.
