Most-subscribed YouTube channels (2024)

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 thenumber 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 April 10, 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.

• 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 April 10, 2024).

Historical Most-subscribed Channels on YouTube[]

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 circ*mstances 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. OnMarch 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-subscribedYouTubers[]

This chart as of April 9, 2024, does not include companies, major celebrities/music channels, and kid/toy channels.

Most-subscribed Male YouTubers[]

This chart as of April 9, 2024. YouTuber groups that have both males & females are not counted.

Most-subscribed Female YouTubers[]

This list is as of April 9, 2024. YouTuber groups that have both males & females are not counted.

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. MrBeastholds 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-Seriesand 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.

History of most-subscribed YouTube Channels[]

Most-subscribed channels 2005[]

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[]

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 Filthywhor* 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 & Pizzishot 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 toupload 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 pastSmosh 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 behindnigahiga 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 partneringwith 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 thetime, 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 competitionbetween 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 Craftsare the three most-subscribed channels onYoutube. Two YouTube channels eached the 100M subscriber milestone, which hadbeen achievedby T-Series and PewDiePieand 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-Seriescompetition, 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 titledCongratulations, which was another diss track against T-Series, PewDiePiethenagain 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 thetwo 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 rankedYouTube 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 YouTubersincluding 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 YouTubein 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

References[]