Wikitubia

Warning:

You are not currently logged in. You will still be able to browse Wikitubia, but you will be unable to edit without an account. Please go here to create a Fandom account.

READ MORE

Wikitubia
Register
Advertisement
Wikitubia
T-series-logo

The logo of Indian music label T-Series, who currently owns the most-subscribed channel on YouTube.[1][2]

MrBeast

American YouTuber MrBeast (a.k.a Jimmy Donaldson) currently holds the record for the most-subscribed individual YouTube channel and overall second most subscribed YouTube channel with 243 million subscribers as of March 2024.[3]

Felix Kjellberg

PewDiePie 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 April 14, 2019, T-Series has been the most-subscribed channel, with MrBeast being the most-subscribed YouTuber. However, PewDiePie currently holds the longest continuous reign of being in the number one spot for 2,063 days (5 years & 7 months),[4] in two different regions.

Top 20 Most-subscribed YouTube Channels[]

The Top 20 Most-subscribed Channels are listed in the table below as of March 5, 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 number of videos the channel has uploaded.

Rank Highest Rank Channel Name Subs Videos Language
1 1 (2019-present) T-Series 261M 20.2K Hindi
2 2 (2023-present) MrBeast 245M 780 English
3 2 (2021-2023) Cocomelon 173M 1K English
4 3 (2021-2023) SET India 169M 128K Hindi
5 5 (2020-present) ✿ Kids Diana Show 120M 1.1K English
6 6 (2024-present) Vlad and Niki 114M 662 English
7 6 (2022-2024) Like Nastya 113M 865 English
8 1 (2013-2019) PewDiePie 111M 4.7K English
9 7 (2021) Zee Music Company 105M 9.9K Hindi
10 6 (2018-2021) WWE 100M 73.7K English
11 11 (2023-present) Goldmines 95.1M 7.6K Hindi
12 11 (2022-2023) BLACKPINK 93.1M 592 Korean
13 13 (2023-present) Sony SAB 90.1M 79.1K Hindi
14 3 (2018-2019) 5-Minute Crafts 80.6M 6.8К English
15 15 (2024-present) Pinkfong Baby Shark 79.3M 3.1K English
16 13 (2020) Zee TV 78.3M 169K Hindi
17 15 (2022-2024) BANGTANTV 77.6M 2.4K Korean
18 15 (2021) HYBE LABELS 74.2M 1.6K Korean
19 2 (2017-2018) Justin Bieber 72.7M 249 English
20 20 (2023-present) Colors TV 71.1M 131K Hindi
  • 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 you can use some online tools 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 March 5, 2024).

Rank Channel Name Subscribers
21 ChuChu TV 70.3M
22 Shemaroo Filmi Gaane 67.8M
23 Canal KondZilla 67M
24 T-Series Bhakti Sagar 66.5M
25 Tips Official 64.4M
26 El Reino Infantil 63.1M
27 Aaj Tak 62.7M
28 Wave Music 61.2M
29 Movieclips 60.9M
30 Infobells - Hindi 60.6M
31 Dude Perfect 60M
32 Sony Music India 59.5M
33 EminemMusic 59.2M
34 YRF 58.8M
35 Taylor Swift 56.9M
36 Marshmello 56.9M
37 LooLoo Kids 56.2M
38 BillionSurpriseToys 55.7M
39 Ed Sheeran 54.3M
40 Ariana Grande 53.7M
41 Toys and Colors 52.9M
42 Shemaroo 52.3M
43 A4 52.2M
43 ARY Digital HD 51.7M
45 HAR PAL GEO 51.5M
46 Get Movies 49.8M
47 JuegaGerman 49.5M
48 SonyMusicIndiaVEVO 49.5M
49 Billie Eilish 49.2M
50 ZAMZAM ELECTRONICS TRADING 48.7M
51 Mikecrack 48.2M
52 Bad Bunny 47.5M
53 Badabun 47.3M
54 Voot Kids 47.1M
55 Fernanfloo 46.9M
56 ABS-CBN Entertainment 46.7M
57 Maшa и Meдвeдь 46.5M
58 Masha and The Bear 46.2M
59 Felipe Neto 46.1M
60 Shakira 45.4M
61 Jess No Limit 45.2M
62 Você Sabia? 45.2M
63 Alan Walker 44.9M
64 Katy Perry 44.7M
65 whinderssonnunes 44.5M
66 BRIGHT SIDE 44.5M
67 BETER BÖCÜK 44.2M
68 Kimberly Loaiza 44.2M
69 Ishtar Music 43.8M
70 YOLO AVENTURAS 43.7M
71 HolaSoyGerman. 43.6M
72 Speed Records 43.3M
73 Like Nastya Show 42.9M
74 Rihanna 42.7M
75 Ricis Official 42.5M
76 shfa2 - شفا 42.2M
77 LUCCAS NETO - LUCCAS TOON 41.8M
78 MrBeast Gaming 41.7M
79 Luisito Comunica 41.7M
80 Sony PAL 41.3M
81 CarryMinati 41.3M
82 Super Simple Songs 41.0M
83 Little Baby Bum 40.9M
84 shfa 40.7M
85 Goldmines Gaane Sune Ansune 40.7M
86 Fede Vigevani 40.6M
87 ABP NEWS 40.3M
88 elrubiusOMG 40.3M
89 WorkpointOfficial 40.2M
90 GR6 EXPLODE 40.1M
91 TEDx Talks 40.1M
92 Vlad và Niki 40.0M
93 XXXTENTACION 39.9M
94 Like Nastya ESP 39.6M
95 KL BRO Biju Rithvik 39.6M
96 Total Gaming 39.6M
97 Maria Clara & JP 39.6M
98 TheDonato 39.6M
99 DaFuq!?Boom! 39.5M
100 Saregama Music 39.5M
101 YouTube 39.4M
102 ช่อง one31 39.3M
103 PowerKids TV 39.3M
104 T-Series Bollywood Classics 38.7M
105 Daddy Yankee 38.6M
106 Ultra Bollywood 38.5M
107 IndiaTV 38.4M
108 One Direction 38.4M
109 Genevieve's Playhouse - Learning Videos for Kids 38.3M
110 La Granja de Zenón 38.3M
111 StarPlus 38.2M
112 TheEllenShow 38.2M
113 Techno Gamerz 38.0M
114 Bruno Mars 37.6M
115 Jkk Entertainment 37.5M
116 Dushyant kukreja 37.4M
117 AboFlah 37.0M
118 PANDA BOI 36.9M
119 Alan Chikin Chow 36.8M
120 Jingle Toons 36.8M
121 Maroon 5 36.8M
122 MrBeast 2 36.6M
123 Ozuna 36.6M
124 Markiplier 36.3M
125 Ryan's World 36.2M
126 T-Series Apna Punjab 35.8M
127 MR. INDIAN HACKER 35.6M
128 Shorts Break 35.3M
129 Frost Diamond 35.2M
130 Rajshri 35.2M
131 Galinha Pintadinha 35.1M
132 CVS 3D Rhymes & Kids Songs 34.9M
133 Geet MP3 34.9M
134 WowKidz 34.8M
135 HUM TV 34.6M
136 Ch3Thailand 34.6M
137 BabyBus - Kids Songs and Cartoons 34.4M
138 Selena Gomez 34.4M
139 The Weeknd 34.3M
140 SSSniperWolf 34.3M
141 J Balvin 34.3M
142 Lucas and Marcus 34.1M
143 GMA Network 34.1M
144 DisneyMusicVEVO 34.1M
145 Zee News 34.0M
146 KAROL G 34.0M
147 VEGETTA777 34.0M
148 Enaldinho 33.9M
149 Peppa Pig - Official Channel 33.8M
150 Desi Music Factory 33.8M

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 91,912 April 26, 2007 517
nigahiga 528,478 September 24, 2008 1
smosh 532,748 September 25, 2008 4
nigahiga 539,235 September 29, 2008 7
FRED 549,727 October 6, 2008 318
nigahiga 1,340,305 August 20, 2009 675
RayWilliamJohnson 3,880,199 June 26, 2011 566
smosh 6,769,250 January 12, 2013 215
PewDiePie 11,692,830 August 15, 2013 2050
T-Series 91,473,502 March 27, 2019 5
PewDiePie 92,150,158 April 1, 2019 13
T-Series 94,077,453 April 14, 2019 1780+

Notes[]

  • 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.
  • On April 14, 2019, T-Series surpassed PewDiePie, and has remained the most-subscribed channel ever since then .

#1 reigns under one day[]

See also: #1 Reigns of T-Series

Other Most-subscribed Charts[]

Most-subscribed YouTubers[]

This chart as of March 5, 2024, does not include companies, major celebrities/music channels, and kid/toy channels.

Rank Channel Name Subs Videos Language
1 MrBeast 244M 780 English
2 PewDiePie 111M 4.7K English
3 Dude Perfect 60.0M 420 English
4 A4 52.0M 861 Russian
5 JuegaGerman 49.5M 2.0K Spanish
6 Mikecrack 48.2M 1.9K Spanish
7 Fernanfloo 47.0M 544 Spanish
8 Jess No Limit 46.3M 2.6K Indonesian
9 Felipe Neto 46.2M 4.6K Portuguese
10 Você Sabia? 45.2M 1.6K Portuguese
11 whinderssonnunes 44.6M 724 Portuguese
12 BETER BÖCÜK 45.1M 3.9K Turkish
14 YOLO AVENTURAS 45.9M 2.1K Spanish
13 Kimberly Loaiza 44.5M 317 Spanish
15 HolaSoyGerman. 43.7M 136 Spanish
16 Ricis Official 43.4M 3.7K Indonesian
17 Fede Vigevani 42.9M 1.2K Spanish
18 LUCCAS NETO - LUCCAS TOON 42.4M 2.5K Portuguese
19 MrBeast Gaming 42.3M 141 English
20 Luisito Comunica 42.2M 1.3K Spanish

Most-subscribed Male YouTubers[]

This chart as of March 5, 2024. YouTuber groups that have both males & females are not counted.

Rank Channel Name Subs Videos Language
1 MrBeast 243M 780 English
2 PewDiePie 111M 4.7K English
3 Dude Perfect 60.0M 420 English
4 A4 51.0M 861 Russian
5 JuegaGerman 49.2M 2.0K Spanish
6 Mikecrack 48.2M 1.9K Spanish
7 Fernanfloo 47.0M 544 Spanish
8 Jess No Limit 46.3M 2.6K Indonesian
9 Felipe Neto 46.2M 4.6K Portuguese
10 YOLO AVENTURAS 45.9M 2.1K Spanish
11 Você Sabia? 45.2M 1.6K Portuguese
12 BETER BÖCÜK 45.1M 3.9K Turkish
13 whinderssonnunes 44.6M 724 Portuguese
14 HolaSoyGerman. 43.7M 136 Spanish
15 Fede Vigevani 40.6M 1.2K Spanish
16 LUCCAS NETO - LUCCAS TOON 42.4M 2.5K Portuguese
17 MrBeast Gaming 42.3M 141 English
18 Luisito Comunica 42.2M 1.3K Spanish
19 CarryMinati 41.4M 193 Hindi
20 Mark Rober 41.2M 701 English

Most-subscribed Female YouTubers[]

This list is as of March 5, 2024. YouTuber groups that have both males & females are not counted.

Rank Channel Name Subs Videos Language
1 Kimberly Loaiza 44.2M 317 Spanish
2 Ricis Official 42.5M 3.7K Indonesian
3 SSSniperWolf 34.3M 3.4K English
4 Priyal Kukreja 28.5M 954 Hindi
5 Karla Bustillos 25.1M 950 Spanish
6 Chloe Ting 25.0M 426 English
7 Yuya 24.7M 672 Spanish
8 Tina Pontes 23.8M 1.3K Portuguese
9 jaanvi patel 22.8M 593 Hindi
10 Neetu Bisht 22.5M 1.8K Hindi
11 Pragati Verma Shorts 22.1M 1.1K Hindi
12 Celine Dept 21.4M 522 English
13 CookieSwirlC 21.0M 3.8K English
14 Susy Mouriz 20.8M 1.5K Spanish
15 Noor Stars 20.6M 698 Arabic
16 Chapitosiki 20.2M 3.3K Russian
17 Naisa Alifia Yuriza (N.A.Y) 20.0M 203 Indonesian
18 JennaMarbles 19.7M 250 English
19 Aphmau 19.4M 4.7K English
20 ANNA KOVA 18.7M 3.4K 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, and MrBeast which his peak is currently at #2.

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[]

Screenshot 2023-05-26 131044

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[]

Situation2006

Situation in 2006.

In 2006, YouTube was bought out by Google for 1.65 billion US dollars.[5][6] 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[]

Most Subscribed Youtube 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 recieved 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 autosubscribing 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 since kept the title. The subscriber gap today between the two channels is over 140M 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 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.[]

References[]

  1. Stegner, Ben. "The Top 10 Most Popular YouTube Channels: Should You Subscribe?", MakeUseOf, March 26, 2018. Retrieved on 2023-08-18. 
  2. "Top 100 YouTubers sorted by Subscribers - Socialblade YouTube Stats", SocialBlade. Retrieved on 2023-08-18. 
  3. "Top 100 YouTubers sorted by Subscribers - Socialblade YouTube Stats", SocialBlade. Retrieved on 2023-08-18. 
  4. Cohen, Joshua. "PewDiePie Breaks 20 Million YouTube Subscribers", Tubefilter, September 1, 2014. Retrieved on 2023-10-08. 
  5. La Monica, Paul R.. "Google to buy YouTube for $1.65 billion", CNN Money, October 6, 2023. Retrieved on 08-18-2023. 
  6. Arrington, Michael. "Google Has Acquired YouTube", TechCrunch. Retrieved on 2023-08-18. 
Advertisement