Indian record label T-Series is the most-subscribed channel, with over 257 million subscribers as of January 2024.
American YouTube personality MrBeast is the most-subscribed individual and second most-subscribed channel overall, with 231 million subscribers as of January 2024.

A subscriber to a channel on the American video-sharing platform YouTube is a user who has chosen to receive the channel's content by clicking on that channel's "Subscribe" button, and each user's subscription feed consists of videos published by channels to which the user is subscribed.[1] The ability to subscribe to users was introduced on 25 October 2005.[2] YouTube began publishing a list of its most-subscribed channels in April 2006.[3] An early archive of the list dates to 17 May 2006.[4]

Since mid-2006, when Smosh occupied the top position with less than 3,000 subscribers,[4] at least 10 other YouTube channels have held the top spot; these include American fictional character Bree Avery, American comedian Brooke "Brookers" Brodack, American fictional character Fred Figglehorn, Swedish gamer Felix "PewDiePie" Kjellberg, American comedian Ryan Higa, American media personality Ray William Johnson, American public speaker Judson Laipply, and English geriatric Peter Oakley.

The most-subscribed channel is the Indian record label T-Series, which hosts its music videos on its channel. With over 257 million subscribers as of January 2024, the channel has held the top position since April 14, 2019.[5][6] The most-subscribed channel which is not 'branded' (i.e., does not belong to an organization or company) is that of American YouTuber MrBeast, who is the second most-subscribed channel on YouTube, with over 231 million subscribers as of January 2024.[6]

50 most-subscribed channels

The following table lists the 50 most-subscribed YouTube channels,[upper-alpha 1][6] as well as the primary language and content category of each channel. The channels are ordered by number of subscribers. Those whose displayed subscriber counts are identical, are listed so that the channel whose current growth rate indicates that its displayed subscriber count will exceed that of the other channel is listed first. Automatically generated channels that lack their own videos, such as Music and News, and channels that have been made effectively obsolete as a result of the transferral of their content, such as JustinBieberVEVO and TaylorSwiftVEVO[upper-alpha 2] are excluded.

As of December 2023, 20 of the 50 channels listed primarily produce content in English while 17 primarily produce content in Hindi. All 50 channels have surpassed 45 million subscribers, 41 of them have surpassed 50 million subscribers, 28 of them have surpassed 60 million subscribers, 19 of them have surpassed 70 million subscribers, 14 of them have surpassed 80 million subscribers, 12 of them have surpassed 90 million and 9 of them have surpassed 100 million subscribers.

  1. ↑ TheSoul Publishing is currently based in Cyprus; it was originally based in Russia and is still Russian-owned.[15]

Historical progression of most-subscribed channels

The following table lists the 19 distinct runs as the most-subscribed YouTube channel recorded since May 2006. Only runs lasting at least 24 hours are included. 11 different channels have held the position, with PewDiePie holding the title a record four times. In second place is Smosh, which held it three times, while third place is tied between nigahiga, T-Series, and YouTube's own channel, which have all held it twice each.

  Former record for days held
  Current record for days held
Channel name Date achieved Days held Reference
Smosh (1) May 17, 2006 18 [4][17]
Judson Laipply June 4, 2006 29 [18][19][20]
Brookers July 3, 2006 45 [21][22][23]
geriatric1927 August 17, 2006 26 [24][25]
lonelygirl15 September 12, 2006 226 [26][27][28][29]
Smosh (2) April 26, 2007 517 [17][30]
nigahiga (1) September 24, 2008 12 [31][32]
FЯED October 6, 2008 318 [32][33]
nigahiga (2) August 20, 2009 675 [31][34][35]
Ray William Johnson June 26, 2011 564 [36][37][38]
Smosh (3) January 12, 2013 215 [17][39][40]
PewDiePie (1) August 15, 2013 79 [41][42]
YouTube Spotlight[upper-alpha 3] (1) November 2, 2013 36 [43][44][45]
PewDiePie (2) December 8, 2013 4 [46][47]
YouTube Spotlight (2) December 12, 2013 11 [48][47]
PewDiePie (3) December 23, 2013 1920 [49][50][51]
T-Series (1) March 27, 2019[upper-alpha 4] 5 [55][57]
PewDiePie (4) April 1, 2019 13 [56][58][59]
T-Series (2) April 14, 2019 1736 [60][61]
As of January 14, 2024 UTC

Timeline

Timeline of the most-subscribed YouTube channels (May 2006 – present)

T-Series (company)YouTube (channel)PewDiePieRay William JohnsonFred FigglehornPeter OakleyBrooke BrodackJudson LaipplySmosh

Milestones and reactions

Channel Subscriber milestone Date achieved Reference
Brookers 10,000 July 7, 2006 [62]
geriatric1927 20,000 August 18, 2006 [63]
lonelygirl15 50,000 October 23, 2006 [64]
Smosh 100,000 May 15, 2007 [65]
FЯED 1 million April 7, 2009 [66]
nigahiga 2 million March 13, 2010 [67]
RayWilliamJohnson 5 million November 15, 2011 [68]
Smosh 10 million May 25, 2013 [69]
PewDiePie 20 million January 9, 2014 [70]
50 million December 8, 2016 [71]
T-Series 100 million May 29, 2019 [72]
200 million November 30, 2021 [73]

Following the third time that Smosh became the most-subscribed YouTube channel, Ray William Johnson collaborated with the duo.[74] A flurry of top YouTubers including Ryan Higa, Shane Dawson, Felix Kjellberg, Michael Buckley, Kassem Gharaibeh, the Fine Brothers, and Johnson himself, congratulated the duo shortly after they surpassed Johnson as the most-subscribed channel.[75]

PewDiePie vs T-Series

In mid-2018, the subscriber count of the Indian music video channel T-Series rapidly approached that of Swedish web comedian and Let's Player PewDiePie, who was the most-subscribed user on YouTube at the time.[76][77] As a result, fans of PewDiePie and T-Series, other YouTubers, and celebrities showed their support for both channels. During the competition, both channels gained a large number of subscribers at a rapid rate, and surpassed each other's subscriber count on multiple occasions in February, March, and April 2019.[52][53][54][56] T-Series eventually permanently surpassed PewDiePie, and on May 29, 2019 it became the first channel to reach 100 million subscribers.[72]

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ The total number of channels listed may exceed 50 if a tie exists for the 50th-highest subscriber count.
  2. ↑ These are not to be mistaken for the channels Justin Bieber and Taylor Swift, both of which are included.
  3. ↑ Although now called simply "YouTube", YouTube's official channel was named "YouTube Spotlight" in 2013.
  4. ↑ T-Series surpassed PewDiePie in subscriber count on numerous occasions, each lasting fewer than 24 hours, from February to late March 2019.[52][53][54] The first incident to last at least 24 hours began on March 27 and ended on April 1.[55][56]

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