[Winning]

I've gotten more eyes on my content using specific hashtags that I saw other popular YouTubers using in my niche.
Seems like hashtags didn't have such an effect in years prior but as the platform evolved, hashtags have become more effective at getting views (assuming your content has a big enough audience).
If I had to guess I would say this is because the number of visitors using a mobile device has gone way up in recent years, and hashtags get more play by mobile users than they do desktop peeps.