Most-subscribed YouTube channels

American YouTuber MrBeast (a.k.a Jimmy Donaldson) is currently the most-subscribed channel on YouTube, with 330 million subscribers as of November 2024.

Swedish YouTuber PewDiePie (a.k.a Felix Kjellberg) holds the record for having the most subscribed YouTube channel for 2063 days.

Ever since the first YouTube most-subscribed list was added on April 28, 2006, ten different channels have officially become the most-subscribed on YouTube. Since June 1, 2024, MrBeast is the most subscribed channel, however, PewDiePie currently holds the longest continuous reign of being the most subscribed YouTuber for 2,063 days (5 years & 7 months), in two different regions.

Top 20 Most-subscribed YouTube Channels

The Top 20 Most-subscribed Channels are listed in the table below as of October 26, 2024, with their subscribers being displayed by the nearest one hundred thousand, the highest rank the channel was on the most-subscribed list along with the time period it occurred, and the approximate number of videos the channel has uploaded.

Rank	Highest Rank	Channel Name	Subs	Videos	Language
1	1 (2024-present)	MrBeast	332M	819	English
2	1 (2019-2024)	T-Series	279M	21K	Hindi
3	2 (2021-2023)	Cocomelon - Nursery Rhymes	185M	1.2K	English
4	3 (2021-2023)	SET India	179M	145K	Hindi
5	5 (2024-present)	Vlad and Niki	128M	768	English
6	5 (2020-2024)	Kids Diana Show	127M	1.2K	English
7	6 (2022, 2024)	Like Nastya	122M	904	English
8	7 (2021)	Zee Music Company	112M	12K	Hindi
9	1 (2013-2019)	PewDiePie	110M	4.7K	English
10	6 (2018-2021)	WWE	105M	79K	English
11	11 (2023-present)	Goldmines	101M	8.9K	Hindi
12	12 (2024-present)	Stokes Twins	98.9M	331	English
13	12 (2024)	Sony SAB	97.2M	91K	Hindi
14	11 (2022-2023)	BLACKPINK	95.2M	603	Korean
15	13 (2021, 2024)	ChuChu TV Nursery Rhymes & Kids Songs	94M	810	English
16	3 (2018-2019)	5-Minute Crafts	81.0M	7.2K	English
17	15 (2022-2024)	BANGTANTV	79.2M	2.6K	Korean
18	15 (2024)	Pinkfong Baby Shark - Kids' Songs & Stories	78.5M	3.3K	English
19	19 (2024-Present)	Colors TV	76.9M	167K	Hindi
20	19 (2022)	HYBE LABELS	76.1M	2.21K	Korean

• Starting from January 23, 2018, YouTube combined the subscribers of VEVO channels with the musicians' personal channels and locked the ability for YouTube users to subscribe to the VEVO channels except through exploits. SonyMusicIndiaVEVO and a few more however were unaffected by this. VEVO channels (that have been affected) will not be listed.
• YouTube topic channels (Movies, Music, Sports, Gaming, News, Surfing - Topic etc.) will not be listed as they are not real user created accounts and have experienced artificial growth.
• This data can change every day, for a reason, some online tools can be used in order to check in real-time some stats like total uploaded videos, total video views, live subscriber count and more.

Channels by Subscribers (Beyond Top 20)

See also: Channels by Subscription

The following is a chart featuring a list of the top 150 most-subscribed YouTube channels past the top 20 (updated November 3, 2024).

Rank	Channel Name	Subscribers	Language
21	Justin Bieber	74.3M	English
22	T-Series Bhakti Sagar	72.2M	Hindi
23	Tips Official	70.4M	Hindi
24	A4	69.9M	Belarusian
25	Shemaroo Filmi Gaane	70.1M	Hindi
26	김프로KIMPRO	69.7M	Korean
27	UR · Cristiano	68.8M	English
28	Aaj Tak	68.4M	Hindi
29	ZAMZAM ELECTRONICS TRADING	68.1M	Urdu
30	Alan Chikin Chow	67.7M	English
31	Canal KondZilla	67.4M	Portugese
32	Toys and Colors	66.9M	English
33	El Reino Infantil	66.8M	Spanish
34	Infobells	66.3M	Hindi
35	Wave Music	63.4M	Bhojpuri
36	EminemMusic	63M	English
38	Movieclips	62.5M	English
39	Sony Music India	62.3M	Hindi
40	YRF	62.3M	Hindi
41	HAR PAL GEO	61.7M	Urdu
42	Dude Perfect	60.5M	English
43	Taylor Swift	60.2M	English
44	KL BRO Biju Rithvik	59.3M	Malayam
45	Mark Rober	58.8M	English
46	ARY Digital HD	58.7M	Urdu
47	LooLoo Kids - Nursery Rhymes and Children's Songs	58.4M	English
48	Fede Vigevani	57.8M	Spanish
49	Marshmello	57.5M	English
50	BillionSurpriseToys	57.5M	English
51	PANDA BOI	55.8M	English
52	Shemaroo	55.8M	Hindi
53	Ed Sheeran	55.3M	English
54	YOLO AVENTURAS	55M	Spanish
55	Ariana Grande	54.8M	English
56	Billie Eilish	53.5M	English
57	आचार्य प्रशान्त - Acharya Prashant	53.1M	Hindi
58	Get Movies	53M	Russsian
59	Mikecrack	52.8M	Spanisch
60	SonyMusicIndiaVEVO	52.6M	Hindi
61	Jess No Limit	52.7M	Indonesian
62	Alejo Igoa	51.6M	Spanish
63	JuegaGerman	51.4M	Spainsh
64	Maшa и Meдвeдь	51.3M	Ruissan
65	ABS-CBN Entertainment	50.2M	Filipino
66	BETER BÖCÜK	49.6M	Turkish
67	Masha and The Bear	49.6M	English
68	JioCinema Kids	49.4M	Hindi
69	StarPlus	49M	Hindi
70	LUCCAS NETO	48.6M	Portugese
71	Saregama Music	48.5M	Hindi
72	Bad Bunny	48.3M	Spanish
73	Fernanfloo	47.9M	Spanish
74	Real fools shorts official	47.9M	Hindi
75	Badabun	47.6M	Spanish
76	Ricis Official	47.6M	Indonesian
77	Shakira	47.1M	Spainsh
78	Ishtar Music	47M	Hindi
79	Felipe Neto	46.8M	Portugese
80	Topper Guild	46.3M	English
81	shfa2	46.7M	Arabic
82	MrBeast 2	46.4M	English
83	Dushant kukreja	46.1M	Hindi
84	Alan Walker	46M	English
85	shfa	46M	Arabic
86	Você Sabia?	45.9M	Portugese
87	Kimberly Loaiza	45.8M	Spainsh
88	ABP NEWS	45.4M	Hindi
89	MrBeast Gaming	45.6M	English
90	Maria Clara & JP	45.6M	Portuguese
91	Katy Perry	45.5M	English
92	Speed Records	45.1M	Punjabi
93	Anaya Kandbal	45M	Hindi
94	whinderssonnunes	44.7M	Portugese
95	Sony PAL	44.7M	Hindi
96	Bright Side	44.6M	English
97	CarryMinati	44.5M	Hindi
98	Alfredo Larin	44.3M	Spanish
99	Zhong	44.2M	English
100	DaFuq!?Boom!	44.2M	English
101	HolaSoyGerman.	44M	Spansih
102	Goldmines Gaane Sune Ansune	44M	Hindi
103	Like Nastya Show	44M	English
104	Luisito Comunica	43.3M	Spanish
105	Total Gaming	43.2M	Hindi
106	IndiaTV	43.2M	Hindi
107	HUM TV	43.1M	Urdu
108	Shorts Break	43M	Hindi
109	PowerKids TV	42.9M	Hindi
110	Zhong	42.8M	English
111	ISSEI / いっせい	42.7M	Japanese
112	Super Simple Songs - Kids Songs	42.7M	English
113	T-Series Bollywood Classics	42.7M	Hindi
114	Genevieve's Playhouse - Learning Videos for Kids	42.6M	English
115	AboFlah	42.6M	Arabic
116	Techno Gamerz	42.6M	Hindi
117	MR. INDIAN HACKER	42.3M	Hindi
118	YouTube	41.7M	English
119	TheDonato	41.7M	Spanish
120	Ultra Bollywood	41.7M	Hindi
121	TEDx Talks	41.6M	English
122	WorkpointOfficial	41.6M	Thai
123	One31	41.4M	Thai
124	GR6 EXPLODE	41.3M	Portuguese
125	La Granja de Zenón	41.2M	Spanish
126	Vlad và Niki	41.2M	Vietnamese
127	Little Baby Bum - Nursery Rhymes & Kids Songs	41.1M	English
128	Like Nastya ESP	41.1M	Spanish
129	XXXTENTACION	40.9M	English
130	Jingle Toons	40.8M	Hindi
131	ElrubiusOMG	40.5M	Spanish
132	Ashkay Nagwadiya	40.4M	Hindi
133	Frost Diamond	40M	Indonesian
134	LankyBox	39.9M	English
135	Zach King	39.5M	English
136	Daddy Yankee	39.3M	Spanish
137	Juan De Dios Pantoja	39M	Spanish
138	Enaldinho	38.9M	Portuguese
139	Gulshan Kalra	38.8M	Hindi
140	BabyBus - Kids Songs and Cartoons	38.8M	English
141	Priyal Kukreja	38.7M	Hindi
142	One Direction	38.7M	English
143	Jason Derulo	38.6M	English
144	Bruno Mars	38.5M	English
145	Dangal TV Channel	38.3M	Hindi
146	Heroindori	38.3M	Hindi
147	TheEllenShow	38.3M	English
148	Jkk Entertainment	38.1M	Hindi
149	WowKidz	37.9M	Hindi
150	KAROL G	37.9M	Spanish

Historical Most-subscribed Channels on YouTube

Channel	Subscribers	Date Achieved	Days Held
smosh	2,986	May 17, 2006	18
judsonlaipply	4,949	June 4, 2006	29
Brookers	8,114	July 3, 2006	45
geriatric1927	17,516	August 17, 2006	26
lonelygirl15	26,282	September 12, 2006	226
smosh	~92,000	April 26, 2007	517
nigahiga	~528,500	September 24, 2008	1
smosh	~532,700	September 25, 2008	4
nigahiga	~539,200	September 29, 2008	10
FRED	~560,000	October 9, 2008	315
nigahiga	~1,356,000	August 20, 2009	675
RayWilliamJohnson	~3,880,000	June 26, 2011	566
smosh	~6,769,000	January 12, 2013	215
PewDiePie	~11,915,000	August 15, 2013	2050
T-Series	91,473,502	March 27, 2019	5
PewDiePie	92,150,158	April 1, 2019	14
T-Series	94,077,453	April 14, 2019	1876
MrBeast	~266,680,000	June 1, 2024	71

Notes

• The earliest archive of the YouTube leaderboards available is from May 17, 2006. It is unknown the day when Smosh became #1, and which channels were #1 before them.
• mystoandpizzi may have passed Brookers as #1 for a few days; this would split her reign in two. However, in addition to this possibility, the circumstances in which this channel initially grew are suspicious and does not match up with its popularity and views at the time.
• YouTube Spotlight's growth from February 2013 to February 2014 is considered illegitimate and therefore its reigns at #1 are not allowed in the list .
• PewDiePie and T-Series have overtaken each other numerous times since February 22, 2019. On March 27, 2019, T-Series officially became the most-subscribed YouTube channel after holding the #1 spot for more than 24 hours. PewDiePie reclaimed his top spot on April 1, 2019 and remained most-subscribed until April 14, 2019.
• Since September 17, 2019, subscriber counts has been abbreviated to only show the first three digits, meaning it is unknown how many subscribers T-Series had when it was surpassed by MrBeast (who had his accurate subscriber count provided by ViewStats).

#1 reigns under one day

See also: #1 Reigns of T-Series

Other Most-subscribed Charts

Most-subscribed YouTubers

This chart as of September 20, 2024, does not include companies, major celebrities/music channels, and kid/toy channels.

Rank	Channel Name	Subs	Videos	Language
1	MrBeast	316M	815	English
2	PewDiePie	111M	4.7K	English
3	Stokes Twins	89.2M	321	English
4	A4	66.9M	948	Russian
5	ZAMZAM ELECTRONICS TRADING	64.4M	18.5K	Urdu
6	UR · Cristiano	62.4M	41	English
7	Dude Perfect	60.4M	450	English
8	Alan Chikin Chow	58.5M	1.3K	English
9	김프로KIMPRO	57.8M	3.4K	Korean
10	Mark Rober	56.9M	173	English
11	Fede Vigevani	56.3M	1.3K	Spanish
12	PANDA BOI	55.7M	1.1K	English
13	KL BRO Biju Rithvik	55.6M	2.7K	Malayalam
14	YOLO AVENTURAS	53.4M	2.5K	Spanish
15	Mikecrack	52.3M	2K	Spanish
16	Jess No Limit	51.8M	2.8K	Indonesian
17	आचार्य प्रशान्त - Acharya Prashant	51.6M	11.2K	Hindi
18	JuegaGerman	51.1M	2.2K	Spanish
19	BETER BÖCÜK	49.2M	4.4K	Turkish
20	Alejo Igoa	48.4M	1.1K	Spanish

Most-subscribed Male YouTubers

This chart as of July 8, 2024. YouTuber groups that have both males & females are not counted.

Rank	Channel Name	Subs	Videos	Language
1	MrBeast	316M	815	English
2	PewDiePie	111M	4.7K	English
3	Stokes Twins	89.2M	321	English
4	A4	66.9M	948	Russian
5	ZAMZAM ELECTRONICS TRADING	64.4M	18.5K	Urdu
6	UR · Cristiano	62.4M	41	English
7	Dude Perfect	60.4M	450	English
8	Alan Chikin Chow	58.5M	1.3K	English
9	Mark Rober	56.9M	173	English
10	Fede Vigevani	56.3M	1.3K	Spanish
11	PANDA BOI	55.7M	1.1K	English
12	YOLO AVENTURAS	53.4M	2.5K	Spanish
13	Mikecrack	52.3M	2K	Spanish
14	Jess No Limit	51.8M	2.8K	Indonesian
15	आचार्य प्रशान्त - Acharya Prashant	51.6M	11.2K	Hindi
16	JuegaGerman	51.1M	2.2K	Spanish
17	BETER BÖCÜK	49.2M	4.4K	Turkish
18	Alejo Igoa	48.4M	1.1K	Spanish
19	Fernanfloo	47.9M	546	Spanish
20	Felipe Neto	46.6M	5.1K	Portuguese

Most-subscribed Female YouTubers

This list is as of July 8, 2024. YouTuber groups that have both males & females are not counted.

Rank	Channel Name	Subs	Videos	Language
1	Ricis Official	46.5M	4.2K	Indonesian
2	Kimberly Loaiza	45.2M	316	Spanish
3	Priyal Kukreja	36M	1K	Hindi
4	SSSniperWolf	34.5M	3.6K	English
5	Celine Dept	33.4M	784	English
6	DONA 도나	32.9M	174	Korean
7	Karla Bustillos	32M	1.1K	Spanish
8	Neetu Bisht	27.8M	2.2K	Hindi
9	The Geeta gurjar	26.4M	1.7K	Hindi
10	jaanvi patel	26.1M	644	Hindi
11	Chapitosiki	25.3M	3.8K	Russian
12	Chloe Ting	25.3M	444	English
13	Yuya	24.7M	672	Spanish
14	Susy Mouriz	23.8M	1.6K	Spanish
15	Pink Shirt Girl	23.4M	1K	English
16	Pragati Verma Shorts	23.3M	1.1K	Hindi
17	ANNA KOVA	22.9M	3.9K	English
18	Nasya Official	22.2M	944	Indonesian
19	Naisa Alifia Yuriza (N.A.Y)	21.6M	180	Indonesian
20	CookieSwirlC	21.3M	1.3K	English

Most subscriber gains by year

The earliest record of the most-subscribed channels dates back to May 17, 2006. Every year since then, nine channels have gained the most subscribers. MrBeast holds the record as gaining the most subscribers in one year, which counts to over 99 million gained back in 2023 and beat T-Series Subscriber Gains Record from 2018 with over 46 million subscribers within 7 months. Ray William Johnson, PewDiePie, T-Series and MrBeast are the only channels to get the most subscribers in a year more than once, Ray William Johnson consecutively in 2010-2011, PewDiePie for four consecutive years through 2013-2016, T-Series for four consecutive years through 2017-2020 and MrBeast for three consecutive years 2021-2023. All channels on this list have held the peak position at one point in YouTube history except for JennaMarbles which peaked at #2 from May-July of 2013.

Channel	Subscribers Gained	Year Achieved
lonelygirl15	71,596	2006
smosh	182,724	2007
Fred	659,663	2008
nigahiga	1,049,612	2009
RayWilliamJohnson	1,992,213	2010
RayWilliamJohnson	2,660,000	2011
JennaMarbles	3,530,000	2012
PewDiePie	15,720,000	2013
PewDiePie	14,037,306	2014
PewDiePie	8,004,749	2015
PewDiePie	10,485,353	2016
T-Series	16,765,882	2017
T-Series	46,981,058	2018
T-Series	44,830,628	2019
T-Series	43,300,000	2020
MrBeast	37,500,000	2021
MrBeast	38,300,000	2022
MrBeast	99,000,000	2023

History of most-subscribed YouTube Channels

Most-subscribed channels 2005

Most Subscribed Channels of 2005, an estimate based off known data.

The ability to subscribe to channels was first added on October 25, 2005. There are many estimates based off old screenshots of old channels subscriber counts, but it was likely Smosh took over in November.

Most-subscribed channels 2006

Situation in 2006.

In 2006, YouTube was bought out by Google for 1.65 billion US dollars. The most-subscribed charts were added on April 28, 2006, with May 17, 2006 being the first archived date of those charts. By this point, Smosh was number one with 2,986 subscribers. It is unknown which channels preceded Smosh for the most-subscribed title. It can be inferred that Smosh was the first channel to surpass 1,000 subscribers, with viral dancer sexxiebebe23 taking second place before being passed by blogger FilthyWhore in mid-May 2006.

In the very first few months of YouTube, the most-subscribed channels were mainly those that reuploaded content from elsewhere. For example, a large portion of the top 20 channels by May 2006 (including schizoar, strawberrie, & animextenshi which were all eventually terminated for copyright) were involved in the Korean drama subbing community. It was only after mid 2006 that traditional vloggers began to take shape on the site.

The pace of the YouTube environment began to pick up considerably by June 2006, with notable rising users such as Brookers, Emmalina, and thewinekone. However, Judson Laipply benefited the most in June 2006 as his viral video Evolution of Dance(which has 312M views as of January 26 2024) propelled him past Smosh on June 12, 2006 at around 6,000 subscribers, taking #1. Other notable mentions during this time are boh3m3, digital filmmaker (Ask a Ninja), and littleloca.

The hype of Laipply's virality would eventually wear off, and Brookers used her steady high growth to take #1 at around 8,000 subscribers in late June. It is highly likely that Smosh managed to pass Laipply before being passed by Brookers, adding a very short reign. Just after, aspiring music producers Mysto & Pizzi shot up (albeit in a suspicious manner) to at least the top 3 in late June to early July; they may have passed Brookers around the 10,000 subscriber mark but the required information is lost to time unfortunately.

78-year-old Peter Oakley, known as geriatric1927, gained virality after commencing his autobiographical series on the young site. Oakley took the #1 spot for 37 days, while also being the first user to reach 25,000 subscribers. However, 5 weeks and 2 days later, another viral channel, lonelygirl15, became #1, fueled by the teenage protagonist's vlogs and the revelation that the channel was in fact a fictional series posing as a regular diary.

The environment started to relatively stabilize in late 2006, with lonelygirl15 gaining a considerable lead over the rest of the site while being the first to reach 50,000 subscribers. CBS was one of the first corporations to earn a sizable following on YouTube, peaking at #2 on January 15, 2007. Other honorable mentions in the latter half of 2006 include BaratsAndBereta, William Sledd, GayGod, and LisaNova.

Most-subscribed channels 2007

The impacts were almost instantly seen, with the YouTube Partner Program created for YouTubers to earn money for their work. For the first part of 2007, Lonelygirl15 was still the most-subscribed channel on YouTube. When she finally got revealed as actress Jessica Rose, the Lonelygirl15 channel suffered heavily in subscriber growth, while Smosh began gaining subscribers at an unmatchable pace. But, Lonelygirl15 still managed to be the most subscribed user for around a third of the year. By the time it was May, Smosh had passed lonelygirl15 and amassed a massive lead nearly a month prior. Smosh remained number one for the rest of the year, increasing their subscriber base and popularity every day. Unfortunately, after losing the title of Most-subscribed YouTube Channels of all Time, Lonelygirl15 never recovered since then. Even though she still continued to upload until mid-2009, at that point she was still under 120,000 subscribers as Smosh was almost at a million by then. That still puts her in the top 60 most subscribed. As of now, she has 182K subscribers and last uploaded 7 years ago.

Most-subscribed channels 2008

In 2008 the top three channels at any one point became the most subscribed. But for the large majority of the year, Smosh remained number 1. However, Nigahiga's "How to Be" series skyrocketed him past Smosh on September 24, 2008. However, his original run as most-subscribed didn't last long as controversial Lucas Cruikshank and his Fred channel, who was behind nigahiga and Smosh for some time, finally surpassed Smosh, then nigahiga to become the most-subscribed on YouTube, making him the youngest person at 15 years old to have become the most subscribed channel.

Most-subscribed channels 2009

For most of the year, Lucas Cruikshank's Fred channel would be the most subscribed on YouTube. He would go on to be the first channel on YouTube to pass one million subscribers on April 7, 2009. He remained the most subscribed up until August 19, 2009, when Nigahiga passed him. The Fred channel would go to the two million subscriber mark before stalling. To this day, the Fred Channel has 3 million subscribers but is very slow in terms of subscriber growth after the Fred character was retired back in 2014, and after being sold, the last video was uploaded to the channel in mid 2015. Lucas can still be found uploading on Lucas. Nigahiga on the other hand remained the most subscribed for the rest of the year with relative ease. New rising competitor ShaneDawsonTV appeared to be providing a slight threat to Ryan's reign.

Most-subscribed channels 2010

Nigahiga remained the most subscribed for the whole year, which was a feat that had never happened before. In 2010 alone, he became the first YouTube Channel to pass two million and three million subscribers. For the duration of the year, Nigahiga had almost no competition, as his successor, RayWilliamJohnson and his popular show Equals Three was still far enough away for Ryan to be the most subscribed for more than a year.

Most-subscribed channels 2011

For slightly over half the year, Nigahiga continued his dominance of the YouTube most-subscribed charts. Rising YouTuber RayWilliamJohnson finally caught up to Nigahiga after being the YouTuber that gained the most subscribers for a while. RayWilliamJohnson surpassed Nigahiga on June 25, 2011. At the time RayWilliamJohnson was partnered with Maker Studios that funded his successful music channel, Your Favorite Martian, early in the year. He kept the title of the most-subscribed YouTube Channel for the rest of 2011, extending his lead largely while Your Favorite Martian became the most-subscribed to music channel. At the time he had no troubles partnering with Maker Studios. His music channel, Your Favorite Martian became one of the most-subscribed channels on YouTube. RayWilliamJohnson hit 5M subscribers towards the end of the year. Channels Smosh and Machinima found themselves in a "subscriber war"(in which the subscriber count of both channels was relatively close, and they kept passing each other) from mid 2011 towards the end of the year, where Smosh won.

Most-subscribed channels 2012

2012 was the second year a YouTuber was the most subscribed for the whole year, as RayWilliamJohnson kept his lead for the entire year. RayWilliamJohnson, nigahiga, smosh and many others suffered large losses of subscribers in January and May 2012 due to YouTube removing inactive subscribers from their channels, causing the top ranks to stagnate for most of the year, until gains picked back up in November and December due to presumed changes within the YouTube algorithm and changes to where the subscriber button was, leading users to click it more. Despite these crippling losses, RayWilliamJohnson was able to maintain the lead, albeit tentatively. In October 2012, however, he got in a dispute with his Multi-Channel Network, Maker Studios. Maker Studios demanded a 50% stake in the show which made almost singlehandedly made RayWilliamJohnson the most subscribed, Equals Three. When he declined, Maker Studios cut funding of Ray's music channel, Your Favorite Martian, resulting in the planned album to be cancelled. This sent hate to Maker Studios for being too greedy while at the same time praising Ray for standing up to Maker. After the dispute, RayWilliamJohnsons channel was run by himself. Since Maker Studios promoted Ray's channel heavily compared to others, his views dropped significantly, but his subscriber gain was unaffected. At the end of 2012, Ray barely had a lead over Smosh. The most-subscribed channel at the end of 2013, PewDiePie, was at the time rising rapidly with more than three and a half million subscribers, gaining almost all of them that year. Popular female creator JennaMarbles gained over 3M subscribers in 2012, ending the year as the 5th most subscribed channel.

Most-subscribed channels 2013

At the very beginning of 2013, RayWilliamJohnson continued to be the most subscribed. However less than two weeks later, on January 12th, 2013, after a small bit of resistance, Smosh would pass him to be for the fourth time the most-subscribed channel on YouTube. RayWilliamJohnson's decline as also mentioned in the previous section, could have been due to his music channel, Your Favorite Martian. Your Favorite Martian was liked by the majority of the public, with some videos passing 30 million views, more than RayWilliamJohnsons most-viewed video, "Don't Call Me Fat!". At one point, at the pinnacle of their success, Your Favorite Martian became the most-subscribed music channel on all of YouTube. The channel was discontinued after Ray split with Maker Studios and musical partner Jesse Cale. Chilean creator HolaSoyGerman. also received a major surge in subscriber rate, along with channels such as RihannaVEVO and PewDiePie.

When Smosh passed RayWilliamJohnson on January 12, 2013, many YouTubers applauded the duo on becoming the most subscribed for the fourth time in the history of YouTube. Former most subscribed YouTubers such as nigahiga and the new second placed RayWilliamJohnson congratulated Anthony and Ian. The YouTuber who would go on to pass Smosh in the future, PewDiePie, also applauded their achievement. The duo, who have been signed under Alloy Digital since 2011, went on to be the most subscribed for about eight months when the fast growing PewDiePie finally surpassed them on August 15th. By mid-2013 it was clear only one channel would be the most-subscribed for the next while; the current most-subscribed, PewDiePie. As YouTube Rewind's popularity increased, PewDiePie increased his lead further, making him the most subscribed at the end of 2013 with more than 19 million subscribers. In total, PewDiePie held the most-subscribed spot for four months in 2013, before stalling in early 2014. Over the course of 2013, PewDiePie went from 3.5 million subscribers to 19.5 million subscribers. His subscriber gain for 2013 was unmatched by any other YouTube channel. It is to be noted that YouTube's own channel, YouTube Spotlight, had a short battle with PewDiePie in late 2013 for the number 1 spot, but due to their rapid sub growth being caused by people auto subscribing to them, they are largely not counted.

Most-subscribed channels 2014

By the start of 2014, once big YouTube channels such as Shane Dawson TV and FPSRussia were now outside the top ten. RayWilliamJohnson, who was the most-subscribed a year earlier, had now lost almost all momentum he had gained through Equals Three, and would reach his (then) subscriber peak of 10.83M. New YouTubers like VanossGaming and FouseyTUBE and traditional media celebrities like Jackass's Steve-O started making an impact with gaming, comedy, pranks and music videos being more popular than ever before. Despite new competition, for the entire year, gaming channel PewDiePie managed to remain the most subscribed, in fact, PewDiePie had more than ten million subscribers ahead of HolaSoyGerman and Smosh.

On March 14, 2014, the majority of YouTubers, including PewDiePie, suddenly had their subscriber gain decreased by about 60-80%. PewDiePie's channel started gaining less than one-third of his usual peak despite still being the fastest-growing channel until August. There is no explanation for this as the decreased subscriber gain trend affected both big and small channels.

Most-subscribed channels 2015

In January of 2015, PewDiePie became the fastest growing channel for that month. On September 4th, 2015, gaming animation channel Machinima, was kicked from the top 15 list, after being surpassed by JustinBieberVEVO, which was the fastest growing channel at the time. 2015 also saw more Spanish-speaking channels reach the top ranks, such as elrubiusOMG, Fernanfloo, JuegaGerman and VEGETTA777.

Most-subscribed channels 2018

By the beginning of 2018, PewDiePie, Justin Bieber, and T-Series were the three most-subscribed channels at the time, Justin Bieber having recently passed up Chilean YouTuber HolaSoyGerman for the 2nd place spot in December 2017. T-Series became the second most-subscribed YouTube channel after surpassing Justin Bieber on January 27, 2018, and was also the fastest growing channel of 2018, gaining 46M subscribers that year. T-Series would almost become the most-subscribed YouTube channel by October 27, 2018, however due to an online competition between PewDiePie and T-Series for the most-subscribed title, PewDiePie remained the most-subscribed for the remaining of 2018 thanks to the help of many YouTubers who were promoting and supporting PewDiePie, such as MrBeast, Markiplier and Logan Paul.

Most-subscribed channels 2019

T-Series, PewDiePie, and 5-Minute Crafts are the three most-subscribed channels on Youtube. Two YouTube channels eached the 100M subscriber milestone, which had been achieved by T-Series and PewDiePie and four YouTube channels have reached the 50M subscriber milestone, which was achieved by 5-Minute Crafts, Cocomelon, SET India, and Canal KondZilla. Throughout the PewDiePie vs. T-Series competition, T-Series was getting close in surpassing PewDiePie in subscribers and they surpassed each other multiple times in February and March. T-Series officially became the most-subscribed for a full day on March 27, 2019, and held the most-subscribed title for 5 days. However, when PewDiePie released a music video titled Congratulations, which was another diss track against T-Series, PewDiePie then again became the most-subscribed channel on April 1st, 2019, with the subscriber gap peaking at 503K on April 8, 2019. On April 14, 2019, T-Series then again became the most-subscribed and has kept this title until June 1, 2024. The subscriber gap today between the two channels is over 155M subscribers. 

Most-subscribed channels 2020

T-Series continued to dominate in 2020, even with the pandemic spreading across the world, and got a 58 million gap with 2nd place at the time. Rising kids channel Cocomelon hit 100M Subscribers on December 12th 2020. More kids channels like ✿ Kids Diana Show and Like Nastya entered into the top 10 this year. American philanthropist MrBeast gained around 20 million subscribers in 2020, while PewDiePie's decline truly started, although staying as the 2nd most subscribed channel.

Most-subscribed channels 2024

By the beginning of 2024, T-Series had been gradually slowing in down in growth, to between 1-2 million subscribers per month on average. Meanwhile, MrBeast, who had gained over 99 million subscribers in 2023, was rapidly approaching T-Series in subscriber count. PewDiePie remained stuck at 111M subscribers, which allowed rapidly growing kids channels such as Vlad and Niki to surpass him. MrBeast started the year with 225M subscribers, with T-Series having 256M subscribers. However, with MrBeast growing much more rapidly, the subscriber gap between MrBeast and T-Series continued to shrink throughout the first 5 months of 2024. By the middle of May, it was becoming apparent that MrBeast would overtake T-Series in subscribers in the beginning of June, claiming the #1 spot. On June 1, 2024, MrBeast surpassed T-Series in subscribers by both estimates and the API, officially certifying MrBeast as the most-subscribed YouTube channel in the world. MrBeast would then become the first channel to hit 300 million subscribers. As of October 20, 2024, MrBeast has 322M subscribers, with T-Series having 276M subscribers and Cocomelon having 184M subscribers.

Most-subscribed through viral videos/series

Smosh - Anthony Padilla and Ian Hecox, more popularly known as YouTube comedy duo Smosh rose to fame in late 2005 with their two videos, Pokémon Theme Song and Mortal Kombat Theme Song. They became so popular early on that by the time the subscribe feature and most-subscribed lists came out, they topped them with relative ease. They are currently the 2nd highest ranked YouTube Channel from 2005 (after YouTube Spotlight), with more than 26 million subscribers.

Judsonlaipply - His video, The Evolution of Dance became a worldwide phenomenon as it earned the title of the first most-viewed video. * His subscriber count rose rapidly and as a result he became the second channel to officially become most subscribed within a month of his main upload. Publicity further increased his views, though he got passed by Brookers for the most subscribed after being number one for less than three weeks. 'Evolution of Dance' has more than 312 Million Views as of January 2024.

Geriatric1927 - Peter Oakley aka Geriatric1927, got world media attention when his introduction video, First Try, made him the most subscribed in twelve days. He showed the world that you don't have to be young to be popular and inspired many other seniors to create their own YouTube channels. He continued to upload videos about his life until a month and a half before his death on the 23rd of March 2014. After his death, many popular YouTubers including Renetto, WhatTheBuckShow, Shaycarl mourned on his last YouTube Video, a conclusion to his second autobiographical series. Renetto also uploaded a video about Geriatric1927's death, which has more than 2,600 views to date.

nigahiga - Ryan Higa's "How to Be" series proved to be the vital push in his bid to be the Most-subscribed Channel on YouTube. His videos How To Be Gangster, How To Be Ninja and How To Be Emo gave his comedy/skit channel much needed exposure. All three of his videos have accumulated 125 million views to date.

Fred - Lucas Cruikshank's Fred videos made him the most subscribed and most recognizable YouTubers of 2008. He got so popular that his channel as bought by Nickelodeon, with a movie as well. Unfortunately, as his YouTube popularity decreased (Supported by the Fred Prank), his movie and animated series flopped. Since 2015, the Fred channel has now become inactive, gaining less than 100 subscribers a day to his 3 million subscribers. He (Lucas Cruikshank) now co-runs a YouTube vlogging channel, calls Lucas and Jenny. The channel has now got more than 600,000 subscribers from 100 videos.

Most-subscribed list through viral videos/series

Like the YouTubers above, these people became extremely popular on YouTube, gaining many subscribers as a result. However, these YouTubers did not become the most subscribed on YouTube at any point, though they did rank very highly.

boh3m3 (Went Viral 2006) - Now inactive, boh3m3 (Real Name: Ben Going) became one of the most popular YouTubers in the period between late 2006 and mid 2007 with a few of his early videos (of which some are deleted) going viral. His videos "Save The Internet" and "Ask A Spaz" made him one of the tops YouTubers, with him once in the top 5 most subscribed at one point. His popularity has massively declined since his peak in early 2007, both on his YouTube Channel and his official website Boh3m3, possibly due to the incredible growth occurring. The growth resulted in new varieties of videos, with Vlogging declining considerably. No matter what, he is still remembered as one of the pioneers of YouTube.

Shane Dawson (Went Viral September 2008) - His FRED IS DEAD! Video made him one of the most-subscribed on YouTube (But Not Number One) in just a few months. At his peak, he was at number three on the most-subscribed charts. He also used fake thumbnails and titles which gave him views but much hate. He also does collaborations with Joey Graceffa.

officialpsy (Went Viral July 2012) - His video, Gangnam Style, made him one of the twenty most-subscribed channels on YouTube. It also made him one of the most-viewed channels on YouTube in a few months, with him peaking at number 4 most-viewed. His follow up, Gentleman, helped rise his subscriber and view count even more, with the two videos having a total of more than 5.5 billion views. As of October 2023, he is the 496th most subscribed YouTube channel and ranks as 421st most viewed channel on the platform.

CarryMinati (Went Viral May 2020) - His video, TIKTOK VS YOUTUBE: THE END, made him go viral. His growth rate increased on, to become the fastest of all individual YouTubers, gaining 9.1 million subscribers that month, beating PewDiePie's record of 6M Subscribers in December 2018. This video made him the most-subscribed Indian individual YouTuber, surpassing previously prestigious Amit Bhadana. Though the video was later taken down by YouTube for apparent harassment, his growth rate remained constant and brought him to the milestones. The video mentioned above also formed a new record of reaching 10 million likes the fastest, the time taken being only five days.

MrBeast (Went Viral October 2023) - His short, I NEED ONE MORE SUBSCRIBER, telling his audience to subscribe to help him reach 225M(previously 190M), propelled his already high subscriber growth throughout 2023 to new levels, releasing on October 5th, his sub count went from 187M to 206M by the end of the month, gaining 2M subscribers per day sometimes, beating his previous world record of 10M Subscribers gained in December 2022. He would reach 200 million subscribers this month on October 15th and make the gap with T-Series go below 50 million.

See also

• Subscription
• Most-viewed YouTube Channels
• Most Subscribers Gained in One Day
• Most Subscribers Lost in One Day
• List of most-subscribed YouTube channels by month