17 million views does not mean 17 million people.... I would say relatively few have heard of Hall
Where does 17 million come from... Just looked at one made in 2016...when Madeline died... 8.1k views... And that's not 8.1 thousand people
OK, I'll let you in to how video sharing works - so Hall has 17 million 'views' on this Youtube channel. Granted that doesn't mean 17 million people have seen them, let alone watched them.
By far and away his most popular are the McCann videos - maybe a couple of million views on this Youtube channel?
But they're free to share. And they are shared many, many times on thousands of other Youtube channels, existing and now defunct. So Youtube alone is generating millions of potential views, perhaps many millions.
In addition, other video sharing sites exist.
His website also generates 10's of thousands of 'watches' - and 11 million page views according to 'Worth of Web', generating a healthy income stream to boot. I'm not saying it's right, but free speech permits him to peddle whatever he wants within their t's and c's.