People need to stop equating followers to fanbase.
Most people who follow and watch Akademiks is for the news, just cause I follow Donald Trump, Akademiks and Irans foreign minister doesn't mean that I'm their fan. If you check his instagram, it could've been called Hiphop News, nothing on his page is about him.
Akademiks reports on news about hiphop, just like the Shaderoom or HiphopDx. His fanbase are the people who care about what he has to say when he's not reporting news. Like if he put up a Joe Budden type of podcast, would he have of their numbers? I doubt it.
Lil Uzi did 300k first week due to 10s of millions of people (in the us), not 50k Akademiks fans (globally).
And yes I appreciate his work.