Plainly Difficult

Subscribers 1.1M

Videos 419

Views 215.9M

Channels Like Plainly Difficult

Plainly Difficult publishes short to mid-length educational history videos focused on disasters, scientific discovery, transportation, and related civil engineering topics, with a style that leans toward informative, documentary-like content. The channel also produces music and uses Creative Commons licensed videos, posting regularly since September 2016, with an average of about 183K views per video across 419 published works.

Similar Channels

We found 47 YouTube channels similar to Plainly Difficult

#1

Top Fives view on YouTube ▶

84% relevance

Subscribers 3.1M

Videos 2.3K

Views 1.3B

Appearances 9

SERP 100%

Similarity 73%

engineering failures civil engineering disasters safety engineering failures

Shares a strong audience interest in engineering failures and disasters with high search overlap (100% for searches; 73% content similarity), aligning on topics like engineering failures and civil disasters, though Top Fives presents in a quick-list, punchy format versus Plainly Difficult's deeper analysis.

Scary Interesting YouTube channel thumbnail

#2

Scary Interesting view on YouTube ▶

81% relevance

Subscribers 1.9M

Videos 264

Views 311.5M

Appearances 15

SERP 95%

Similarity 72%

industrial disasters historic disasters history of disasters

Targets industrial and historic disasters with high search alignment (95% searches) and substantial content overlap (72%), indicating a similar subject matter focus on disasters and history, albeit Scary Interesting emphasizes eerie storytelling over Plainly Difficult’s analytical tone.

Fascinating Horror YouTube channel thumbnail

#3

Fascinating Horror view on YouTube ▶

72% relevance

Subscribers 1.4M

Videos 444

Views 309.1M

Appearances 11

SERP 56%

Similarity 83%

industrial disasters historic disasters railway accidents history

Covers industrial and historic disasters with strong content overlap (83%) and broad search relevance (56%), suggesting similar disaster-history topics but a more sensational or horror-oriented framing compared to Plainly Difficult’s factual depth.

#4

Dark Records

72% relevance

Subscribers 641K

Videos 136

Views 140.5M

Appearances 4

SERP 53%

Similarity 85%

railway accidents history funicular and transit disasters railway accident history

Focuses on railway and transit disasters with substantial content similarity (85%) and similar search interest (53%), indicating overlap in historical rail incidents, though Dark Records leans more into archival storytelling than Plainly Difficult’s analytical approach.

OSHA Outreach Courses YouTube channel thumbnail

#5

OSHA Outreach Courses view on YouTube ▶

71% relevance

Subscribers 12.9K

Videos 390

Views 1.7M

Appearances 6

SERP 74%

Similarity 68%

crane and construction accidents crane accident analysis construction site accidents

Centers on crane and construction accidents with solid search overlap (74%) and moderate content similarity (68%), meaning they address construction safety topics that appeal to a similar safety-focused audience, but in an instructional/course format rather than documentary narration.

#6

Wonder

71% relevance

Subscribers 2.3M

Videos 1.1K

Views 381.2M

Appearances 6

SERP 57%

Similarity 79%

civil engineering disasters safety engineering failures bridge and tunnel collapses

Explores civil engineering disasters and safety failures with meaningful search overlap (57%) and high content similarity (79%), aligning on engineering-risk content while Wonder often presents in a broad, wonder-at-human-scale style versus Plainly Difficult’s detailed case analysis.

Content Landscape

Top competitors include Top Fives (84% match) and Scary Interesting (81% match) as the closest rivals, both sharing overlap in engineering failures, civil engineering disasters, and safety engineering queries. Fascinating Horror (72% match) and Dark Records (72% match) also compete on industrial and historic disaster topics, including railway and transit disasters. OSHA Outreach Courses (71% match) appears as a smaller player focusing on construction and crane-related accident analysis. Plainly Difficult has 1.1M subscribers, while Top Fives leads with about 3.1M and Scary Interesting with about 1.9M; the others range from 641K to 12.9K. The common search themes across these channels include disaster analysis, railway and civil engineering disasters, and safety/engineering failure queries, which directly align with Plainly Difficult’s identified search terms.

Video Highlights

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#14	58%	Pilot Institute Airplanes	68%	103K	42%	6
#15	57%	WIRED ▶	69%	12.8M	39%	2
#16	56%	Sabin Civil Engineering ▶	78%	7.0M	23%	3
#17	56%	Grunge	71%	2.5M	33%	2
#18	56%	Sideprojects	73%	1.3M	31%	3
#19	55%	NEWS9 Live	64%	2.2M	41%	6
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#21	55%	IT'S HISTORY	74%	859K	25%	3
#22	54%	Air Safety Institute	75%	238K	23%	6
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#27	53%	Chat History ▶	73%	981K	21%	3
#28	52%	India Today ▶	63%	11M	37%	4
#29	52%	CBS News ▶	67%	7.0M	30%	3
#30	52%	OSHA Education Center	73%	1.2K	20%	3
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#45	45%	The Statesman	63%	12.4K	17%	1
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Search Queries Used

disaster analysis industrial disasters transportation accidents historic disasters engineering failures urban infrastructure collapse catastrophe documentaries aviation accidents analysis railway accidents history civil engineering disasters disaster case studies safety engineering failures bridge and tunnel collapses crane and construction accidents funicular and transit disasters history of disasters industrial accident case studies catastrophe analysis engineering failure lessons infrastructure collapse cases transportation safety lessons aviation disaster reports railway accident history bridge collapse incidents tunnel collapse history crane accident analysis construction site accidents funicular railway disasters urban infrastructure failures disaster response case studies historical engineering failures hazard analysis methods catastrophe chronology risk assessment in engineering

Frequently Asked Questions

Which YouTube channels are most similar to Plainly Difficult?

Top Fives — 84% match, 3.1M subscribers; Scary Interesting — 81% match, 1.9M subscribers; Fascinating Horror — 72% match, 1.4M subscribers. They share a focus on history, education, and documentary-style content that dissects disasters, mysteries, and lesser-known events, similar to Plainly Difficult.

What type of content does Plainly Difficult make?

Plainly Difficult creates short to mid-length documentary-style videos about historical and educational topics, often focusing on disasters and safety failures as seen in titles like The Dark Side of Science: Electro-Shock Therapy ECT, The AirAsia Flight 8501 disaster, and various infrastructure failures. The channel averages about 183K views per video with a mix of uploads, including several recent disaster-focused pieces, and maintains a consistent history/education orientation.

How do we determine which channels are similar to Plainly Difficult?

We analyze Plainly Difficult's recent videos, generate topic-relevant search queries, check YouTube search results, and compare the meaning of each channel's content to measure similarity. The result is a ranked list sorted by SERP overlap, semantic similarity, and search appearances.

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