Most Viewed YouTube Channels

A video view is when someone clicks and views a YouTube video for a certain length of time. This is based off of YouTube's current algorithm, where a "view" on a video is based on retention time. Prior to 2012, the YouTube algorithm was based on a view bases, where even clicking on a video for even as short as a second counted as a view for that video. However, in 2012, YouTube's algorithm shifted to where views were based on retention time and watch minutes. Since this algorithm shift, several YouTube channels have gained millions to even tens of billions of views.

Channels by Viewership
The following is a chart featuring a list of the 200 most viewed YouTube channels, including VEVO channels (Updated February 20, 2018). This list will not include any terminated or deleted channels, nor channels with their view count hidden.

Most Viewed Channel History Timeline
Note: emimusic's channel stats were inaccessible from March 2011 to March 2014. Therefore, the date on which it became the most viewed channel is estimated.

Note II: Due to this, RihannaVEVO was recognized by YouTube historians and viewers as the most viewed YouTube channel from March to July 2014. PewDiePie surpassed her Vevo channel on July 19 that year and was considered by most to have the most viewed channel on YouTube, but actually didn't until he surpassed emimusic's channel later that year.

Note III: From 2010-2011, VEVO was listed on the official YouTube charts page as #1 (at one point being listed as having over 100 billion views), but this combined the views from all the VEVO channels. Also in 2010, UMG disappeared from the YT charts page (in similar fashion to emimusic), however, the channel still had the most views.

Details
The first recorded most viewed channel on YouTube was Smosh. In the first half of 2006, Smosh became YouTube's most subscribed and most viewed channel, aside from their comedy and music sketches, was mostly due to the success of their "Pokemon Theme Music Video".

However, the channel was surpassed by Judson Laipply's in the middle of the same year as his "Evolution of Dance" propelled him to the top of the most viewed and most subscribed channels on YouTube. Similar to Smosh's Pokemon Theme Music Video, it also experienced a reign as YouTube's most viewed video.

Smosh overtook him afterwards as unlike Laipply, was begining to become more consistent on their YouTube channel but by posting more sketches, mostly comedy. Smosh holds the record as being the most viewed channel the most amount of times which is two.

However, CBS' high abundance of videos at a consistent rate on their YouTube channel which included television and news from America's most watched network overtook Smosh in the early part of the next year and became the first channel to reach 100,000,000 views. Arvil Lavinge's "Girlfriend" became the first video to reach that number in August the same year, making the last milestone where a YouTube video hit the same view count than a YouTube channel as a whole did in the same year.

Vevo since then, specifially since 2012, has had their "VEVO certified award", awarded to Vevo artists who has videos which exceeds 100,000,000 views.

CBS' reign and it's glory of historically proclaiming the title of being the first channel to reach 100,000,000 views was short lived however. Universal Music Group surpassed the channel around the same time the first YouTube video reached 100,000,000 views.

The channel had gained popularity on YouTube in just it's first year of existence by posting the top music videos at the time, even peaking as YouTube's second most subscribed channel by the end of that year, a feat and achievement no other music channel would reach on YouTube until JustinBieberVEVO did so on December 2, 2017.

For nearly six years, Universal Music Group held the top title which is the longest reign a channel has ever been the most viewed. During it's reign, it was the first channel to reach one to six billion views but due to a view purge of the channel shortly after Valentine's day 2013, Machinima took the title who at the time had recently hit 4 billion total video views on YouTube.

Becoming the first gaming channel to reach the milestone, Machinima still managed to lose the most viewed channel title to emimusic less than a month later as though gaming had an increasing presence on YouTube and online culture in general, music was and still is more of a global phenomenon.

Since UMG's view purge happened, no channel had reached it's peak until emimusic surpassed UMG in most views ever on YouTube which was close to 7 billion, the only billion milestone they gained during their reign, doing so on November 25, 2014.

The gears shifted then again however as PewDiePie, the first channel to become the most viewed during it's most subscribed reign since Smosh's first reign, the first and only post-2006 channel to become the most viewed and the third non company channel to have the most viewed channel on YouTube behind Judson Laipply and Smosh, surpassed emimusic towards the end of 2014 at around 7.2 billion views to have the most viewed YouTube channel of all time. By then, PewDiePie was already YouTube's biggest star, having 11 million more than the second most subscribed channel.

PewDiePie, whose channel was the first country other than America to become YouTube's most viewed channel became the first channel to reach eight to fourteen billion video views, surpassing UMG's record as getting the most views as the most viewed channel, until T-Series surpassed him on YouTube's 12th anniversary, Valentine's Day of 2017, when both were near 15 billion views, becoming the first Hindi and non English speaking YouTube channel to become the most viewed.

So far, T-Series' views has more than doubled since becoming the most viewed channel, surpassing PewDiePie as gaining the most views as the most viewed channel and UMG as having the most view gap to any other channel, which was over 5 billion achieved in the middle of it's reign, in August 2017.

T-Series has since become the fastest growing YouTube channel in views, even holding the record for the YouTube channel to gain the most views in a day, which was 77,104,09978,849,141 views gained on February 24, 2018..

Aftermath

 * Smosh now sits as the 70th most viewed channel of all time after flip flopping in and out of the top ten most viewed YouTube channels from 2006 to 2014. In 2015, it got out of the top twenty after being surpassed by TheEllenShow for the twentieth spot.


 * CBS hit 1 billion views on YouTube in late 2017 although hundreds of channels have before it.


 * Universal Music Group has tens of thousands of channels with more views than them since it's video and view purge.


 * Machinima has over five billion views but is far from as watched or subscribed to as it was before.


 * emimusic became the second music and second overall channel that has been the most viewed to have a view purge, doing so in November 2016. Peaking at over eight billion views, the channel's views dropped under three billion, now having slighly over 3 billion.


 * PewDiePie has dropped down to the fifth most viewed channel. His channel's view growth has dropped down signifcantly since mid 2017 and many other channels seem to have gotten a better view gain than him but he still remains in one of the fastest growing channels in views, even surpassing JustinBieberVEVO in views at around 16.752 billion views in early New Years Day of 2018 after his monthly view gain increased some, exactly 30 days after JustinBieberVEVO surpassed HolaSoyGerman. to become the second most subscribed channel, just behind PewDiePie. JustinBieberVEVO would lose the second peak position a month and a half later to T-Series, a position T-Series still holds today.


 * Due to T-Series becoming the fastest growing YouTube channel in views, it has become one of the fastest growing in subscribers of all time as well.