system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5:How do YouTubers make money? Is it a combination of subscribers, views per video, ads?
gpt
YouTubers earn money through ads on their monetised videos. Viewing an ad provides a small amount of income towards their channel. Since it requires the ad to be displayed, if you run adblock, your view does not count towards what they get paid. Unless they acquire sponsors or a donation system, this is the only way they make money from their channel.

However, where figures like subscribers, views, likes and viewing time per video come in is marketing - the more watched/liked/subscribed you are, the more likely YouTube is to promote you to other people. As such, you don't actually make money from having subscribers, but they do represent a consistent source of income and help in sharing your video with the world.