Youtubes algo killed animation. Notice how all the big animated youtube videos are about 10 years old now. Its impossible to make money on it. The only channels that can survive are the ones that can pump out a video per week or more.
Kurzgesagt make high quality animated videos and seem to be doing quite well. 13 million subscribers on the English channel alone. All of that despite only releasing about one video a month.
I doubt they make much YouTube revenue, they also have 14,856 patrons on Patreon. Probably the only reason that it's worthwhile for them to continue to make such high quality animated videos.
CGP Grey is another animator. Looking at his Patreon, he's current at over $40k/month. Considering he's mentioned having a staff now, I'm sure that gets split between his entire project, but it still seems like it's significantly funded by supporters over ad revenue.
To be fair though, the animation part of the content is only a minor part of it. The educational and entertainment value of what's actually said is much more important.
Do you mean YT algo does not recommend animated videos enough?
From my experience I don't watch as many, except may be crash course history, and therefore don't get much reco either.
I think it's rather that the YT algo promotes channels that put out a steady stream of content more than channels that put out content once in a while. Animation takes a lot of work and thus time. This makes them much less likely to put out a lot of content.
Its also the fact that the payments are fairly equal. One animation that takes months to do gets as many views as someone playing a videogame for an hour.
