Blowing LIV Golf Out Of The Water - 1M+ subs and 200 million views is just the beginning for “Good Good”

Described in their own words as “6 dudes, 1 golf channel”, the trailblazing YouTube Channel “Good Good” have experienced astronomical growth since the group was first founded in July 2020, having amassed a loyal fanbase of over 1 million subscribers and clocked up over 200 million videos.

‍

Starring YouTube and social media sensations Garrett Clark (GM Golf), Matt Scharff, Grant Horvat, Stephen Casteneda, Thomas “Bubbie” Broders, as well as Micah Morris previously and more recently Luke Kwon, the guys over at Good Good have uploaded over 290 videos in two years, switching seamlessly between innovative golf challenges, knock-out competitions and straight-up stroke play, all whilst taking the digital golf world by storm.

‍

If unlike me you are not a 24 y/o golf fanatic who most definitely spends more time online than on the course, it may help to put the Good Good guys’ meteoric rise in perspective.

Unless you've been living under a rock, you’ll know who Rick Shiels is. A man who is not only a legend of golf YouTube in his own right but a former Nike ambassador, now the face of Lyle & Scott Golf as well as a regular on the amazing digital content produced by The Open.

So whilst it has taken just over 2 years for Good Good to reach 1 million subs, 290 videos and 200 million video views, since he founded his channel over 11 years ago, Rick’s schedule of more than regular uploads has led to him amassing 2.4m subscribers and 618 million video views from 2,089 uploads. Impressive, but not quite Good Good.

‍

Drilling down into these stats even further, at the time of writing, whilst Rick has averaged an impressive 296k views per video, Good Good are currently averaging well over double this figure from only 2 years of uploads, with average views per video standing at an astounding 679k (calculations made from stats via Social Blade).

Compare these figures to the controversial Saudi-backed LIV Golf tour, which has made a big deal out of providing free-to-watch coverage of some of the world’s best golfers via channels such as YouTube. Despite significant levels of “investment”, the official LIV Golf page (244k subscribers, 266 uploads, 23 million video views) has averaged a meagre 86k views per video since the channel was created in September 2021.

‍

Let me reframe that:

Good Good, a channel set up by 6 friends in their early twenties, whose collective love for the game and having fun with their mates has seen them rise to the very top of the digital golf world, has averaged nearly 8x the number of average views per video than LIV. EIGHT TIMES! All without the funding of billions of Saudi $$$ or the backing of a team of experienced marketers.

‍

Still not quite blown away? Let’s take a look specifically at the figures from YouTube uploads made over the last 30 days.

Whilst even a rushed search of the most watched golf videos on YouTube from the last month will result in almost exclusively Good Good content coming up, despite having half the subscribers of the legendary Rick Shiels, Good Good’s total video views for the last 30 days totals a gargantuan 13 million, whilst Shiels racks up an impressive 9.8 million views.

Bear in mind that NBC reported a peak of more than 7.1 million viewers across NBC and Peacock during the final round of the 150th Open Championship, the second most watched Open Championship in nearly a decade - 13 million views isn’t a number to be sniffed at.

‍

LIV Golf on the other hand?

Despite broadcasting 3 international events, including the flagship team invitational in Miami and dolling out $100 million in prize money in October alone, LIV Golf’s total for the last 30 days? Just 5.7m video views on YouTube - down 28% on their stats for the previous month and significantly less than HALF the Good Good boys managed to accumulate throughout October.

Contextualise this further with the fact that LIV have made a point of YouTube being their main broadcast channel (for now), especially given the issues they have had attempting to sell TV rights/pay for their tournaments to be shown on established TV channels.

‍

Without labouring the point, whilst the live-streamed finals of the LIV Golf 2022 Team Championship has just shy of 400k total views as this article is being written, Good Good’s immensely entertaining “Good Good Cup Major”, 2 hours and 32 mins of competitive pre-recorded golf content from golfers with handicaps between +3 and 15, stands at 1.6m views and counting (all in just 9 days).

Even LIV’s most viewed video can’t compete with those stats, with only 618k views on the 1st Rd highlights from their debut event held at the Centurion Club in June.

Good Good have not only built themselves a significant online community but an immensely engaged one, with viewers choosing to watch their videos and subscribing for more content.

In addition to their main channel, they also have their podcast (83k subs), shorts channel (39.3k subs), their “Labs” channel (which includes lessons, tutorials and behind-the-scenes content - 257k subs) PLUS over 2 million subscribers across their personal channels. Oh and nearly half a million Instagram followers (@GoodGood). And around 300k on TikTok.

But I know what you’ll say next. What does this mean in reality, outside of the digital world? Do subscribers and followers etc. actually count for something? At least LIV have tickets they can “sell” (*cough* give away *cough*) and team-related merchandise they can flog.

Well, Good Good have been able to build a pretty impressive business off the back of their YouTube successes, with an incredibly popular e-commerce store which specialises in selling top-quality clothing for both on and off the course.

Regular drops throughout the year often sell out and their recent and first foray into the world of golf club manufacturing has also been a triumph, with the Good Good Putter line-up fetching over $300 a club and, you guessed it, still sold out. Their own golf balls are on the way too and there’s no skimping on quality here - their gear has been very well received.

‍

So, with all that being said, what can we learn from the story of Good Good so far? Here are a few very brief points worth taking away:

• Relatability and personality sell - Good Good are so immensely popular because they are just normal golfers (not despite it) - golfers who often hit bad shots, sometimes hit great ones, but always have fun.
• Golf doesn’t have to be boring - although this sounds like words that Greg Norman might’ve come out with, it’s plain to see that with their innovative formats and even their competitive videos, Good Good aim to keep one thing at their core - keeping their fans entertained through fast-paced and highly engaging videos.
• High production but low-fidelity content is key to online growth - the master filming and editing team over at Good Good know this (shoutout to Colin and Max), which is why although their content is often raw and uncut, their skilled use of high-quality videography and editing works wonders to keep their audience engaged.

‍

What do you think? Had you heard of Good Good before? Will you be checking out their content in the future? What’s next for LIV? Between Good Good and LIV, who would you prefer to see succeed?