Most-subscribed YouTube Channels

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 2,050 days (5 years & 7 months), in two different regions.

The Top 20 Most-subscribed Channels are listed in the table below as of March 04, 2023, 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 amount 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. VEVO channels (that have been affected) will not be listed.
YouTube topic channels (Music, Sports, Gaming, Surfing – Topic etc.) will not be listed as they aren’t real user created accounts and have experienced artificial growth.
This data can change every day, for this 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.

See also: Channels by Subscription

The following is a chart featuring a list of the 130 most-subscribed YouTube channels past the top 20 (updated March 04, 2023).

Channel

Subscribers

Date Achieved

Days Held

smosh

2,986

May 17, 2006

judsonlaipply

4,949

June 4, 2006

Brookers

8,114

July 3, 2006

geriatric1927

17,516

August 17, 2006

lonelygirl15

26,282

September 12, 2006

226

smosh

91,912

April 26, 2007

517

nigahiga

528,478

September 23, 2008

smosh

532,748

September 25, 2008

nigahiga

539,235

September 29, 2008

FRED

549,727

October 5, 2008

318

nigahiga

1,356,332

August 19, 2009

676

RayWilliamJohnson

3,894,608

June 25, 2011

567

smosh

6,779,250

January 12, 2013

215

PewDiePie

11,925,792

August 15, 2013

2050

T-Series

91,471,600

March 27, 2019

PewDiePie

92,150,100

April 1, 2019

T-Series

94,077,400

April 14, 2019

1420+

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 counted.
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.

#1 reigns under one day

See also: #1 Reigns of T-Series

This chart as of March 04, 2023, does not include companies, major celebrities/music channels, and kid/toy channels.

This chart as of March 04, 2023. YouTuber groups that have both males & females are not counted.

This list is as of March 04, 2023. YouTuber groups that have both males & females are not counted.

The earliest record of the most-subscribed channels dates back to May 17, 2006. Every year since then, eight channels have gained the most subscribers. T-Series holds the record as gaining the most subscribers in one year, which counts to over 46 million gained back in 2018. Ray William Johnson, PewDiePie and T-Series 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 and T-Series for four consecutive years through 2017-2020. All channels on this list has held the peak position at one point in YouTube history except for JennaMarbles which peaked 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

14,000,000

2014

PewDiePie

8,010,000

2015

PewDiePie

10,480,000

2016

T-Series

16,827,729

2017

T-Series

46,979,372

2018

T-Series

45,324,153

2019

T-Series

43,300,000

2020

MrBeast

37,500,000

2021

MrBeast

38,300,000

2022

The ability to subscribe to channels was first added on October 25, 2005. However, 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 propelled him past Smosh on June 12, 2006 at around 6,000 subscribers, taking #1. Other notable mentions during this time are boh3m3, digitalfilmmaker (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.

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 stabilized relatively 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.

When 2007 had come by, YouTube was sold to Google. The impacts were almost instantly seen, with the YouTube Partner Program created for YouTubers to earn money for their work. For the early 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. Smosh began gaining subscribers at an unmatchable pace, Lonelygirl15 still managed to be the most-subscribed for almost half the year. By the time it was May, Smosh had passed LonelyGirl 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.

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.

For the 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 not passed the 2.4 million subscriber mark as popularity of other, new YouTubers increases while his has dropped into almost nothing since the character was retired in 2014. Nigahiga on the other hand remained the most-subscribed for the rest of the year with relative ease.

Nigahiga remained the most-subscribed for the whole year, a feat which was never done 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 for Ryan to be the most-subscribed for more than a year.

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. 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.

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, causing the top ranks to stagnate for most of the year, until gains picked back up in November and December. 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 to 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.

At the very beginning of 2013, RayWilliamJohnson continued to be the most-subscribed. However less than two weeks later, Smosh would pass him to be for the fourth time the most-subscribed 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.

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, 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. 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.

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. 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 first seven months of the year, PewDiePie managed to remain the most-subscribed, in fact, PewDiePie had more than ten million subscribers ahead of HolaSoyGerman and Smosh. PewDiePie currently has more than 110 million subscribers, gaining an average of 3,000 to 9,000 subscribers a day.

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.

In January of 2015, PewDiePie became the fastest growing channel for that month. On March 23, 2015, gaming animation channel Machinima, was kicked from the top 10 list, after being surpassed by TaylorSwiftVEVO, which was the fastest growing channel at the time. 2015 also saw more Spanish-speaking channels reach the top ranks, such as elrubiusOMG, Fernanfloo, and whindersonnunes.

By the beginning of 2018, PewDiePie, Justin Bieber, and T-Series were the three most-subscribed channels at the time. 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. T-Series would 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 has remained the most-subscribed for the remaining of 2018 thanks to the help of many YouTubers who were promoting and supporting PewDiePie.

T-Series, PewDiePie, and 5-Minute Crafts are the three most-subscribed channels on Youtube. Two YouTube channels have reached the 100M subscriber milestone, which has been achieved by T-Series and PewDiePie and four YouTube channels have reached the 50M subscriber milestone, which has been 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 have surpass each other multiple times in February and March. T-Series offically became the most-subscribed for a full day on March 27, 2019 and have hold 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 have since kept the title. The subscriber gap today between the two channels is over 99M subscribers.

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 highest ranked YouTube Channel from 2005(after YouTube Spotlight), with more than 18 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 be 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 now got more than 296 Million Views as of the fourth of September 2016.

Geriatric1927 – Peter Oakley aka Geriatric1927, got world media attention when his introduction video, First Try, made him the most subscribe 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 got 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. He still continues to be in the top 100 for both total subscribers and 24 hour subscriber gains.

Fred – Lucas Cruikshank’s Fred videos made him the not 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 2012, the Fred channel has now become inactive, gaining less than 500 subscribers a day to his 2.2 million subscribers. He(Lucas Cruilshank) now co-runs a YouTube vlogging channel, calls Lucas and Jenny. The channel has now got more than 600,000 subscribers from 100 videos.

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 almost completely 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 top 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 occuring. 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. Boh3m3 hasn’t uploaded a video in almost 4 months.

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 currently has two channels in the top 120 most-subscribed. He also does collaborations with Joey Graceffa, etc

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 2.6 billion views. He is still in the top 50 most-subscribed YouTube channels, and the 6th most-viewed channel.

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, beating Tati. 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 unknown reasons, 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.

A theory that Smosh became the most-subscribed channel for a short period once more after the supposed first and only reign in 2006.
A theory that Smosh surpassed nigahiga on September 28, 2008 to become the most-subscribed channel for a third time, after nigahiga surpassed them in subscribers to become the most-subscribed for the first time.
A theory that nigahiga actually briefly surpassed RayWilliamJohnson on May 27, 2012, following a massive subscriber purge of nearly 200k on Ray’s channel (assuming YouTube purged Ray’s channel first and not Ryan’s, since both channels were purged on that day).