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 August 2, 2017).

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 2: There is evidence proving UMG was surpassed by other channels at least in 2010 and 2011 according to Web Archive. However, there is no specific indication on who the channel(s) was and when exactly it happened, so currently, UMG's reign on the list would potray when it first became YouTube's most viewed channel to when it was last YouTube's most viewed channel.