YouTube is loading slower for users with ad blockers yet again

It's not secret that Google has declared war on ad blockers , and the new year has only brought even more reports of annoying delays for YouTube users with ad blockers enabled. The only recourse? Disable your ad blocker or fork over the money for an ad free YouTube Premium subscription. The company's previous efforts to discourage ad blockers included tests such as onscreen pop up messages and a more aggressive three strikes policy, which disabled the video player altogether after watching three videos with an ad blocker installed.

Google experimented with a similar wave of slowdowns back in November when it warned that users "may experience suboptimal viewing" if an ad blocker is installed. As spotted by 9to5 Google , Reddit users are reporting that YouTube has started slowing down the entire site when an ad blocker is being used.

In one thread, several users came across the same issue, with some mistaking the slowdown for reduced internet speeds. Some users with adblockers reported having trouble loading previews and the inability to access certain features such as opening a video in fullscreen or theater mode. It was quickly discovered that disabling whatever ad blocker was being used improved the load times significantly.

When the folks at 9to5Google tried this out on their own, they saw video buffering take significantly longer than usual, previews refuse to load properly, and both fullscreen and theater modes were impossible to access without refreshing the page. We didn't have any luck trying to replicate this issue ourselves, which could mean that this new wave of ad block restrictions is limited to certain regions at this time.

The problem appears to stem from an artificial timeout written within YouTube’s code, which slows down the video player in much the same way it would when interfacing with a laggy internet connection. It's not a brand new tactic by any means, but more users are starting to come across it. If you're experiencing this issue, unfortunately, you only have two options: Either disable your ad blocker or pay for a YouTube premium subscription.

It wouldn’t be surprising if this was a deliberate measure to further try and dissuade people away from ad blockers — though the evidence remains anecdotal for now. But considering Google is reported to have made $224.47 billion of ad revenue in 2022, on total revenue of $279.8 billion, it stands to reason that it's going to do everything in its power to nip any threats to that revenue stream in the bud..