This is a great example of one of the problems they faced, to the average Joe (like me) from a quick glance it just looks like they bought up a bunch of studios, like cowchop, rather than being like "hey these are cool guys, we're going to hang out with them" and eventually merging/partnering as if it's normal, so most people never gave them a second thought as quality content.

Roosterteeth also over estimates itself, make no mistake they made amazing content and it was loved but fans, but fans knew them for red vs blue, aside from that the public face for anything social/entertainment was achievement hunter, not roosterteeth, most people just considered roosterteeth a animation studio.

And no podcasts don't count for success, 90% of people (myself included, so I know) use podcasts as background when sleeping or when you need to focus on a task on hand, I actually find off topic very handy for this. No matter what you do a podcast is always going to have good retention rates.