Jimmy Donaldson - operating on YouTube as MrBeast, saw approximately seven million new subscribers on his popular YouTube channel in December 2024. In November 2022, MrBeast overtook PewDiePie as the most subscribed YouTuber on the platform. PewDiPie counted approximately 111 million subscribers on YouTube as of June 2024. Most engaging YouTube channels and content As of January 2025, MrBeast counted the largest number of subscribers on YouTube, with an audience of around 343 million viewers. However, other famous YouTube channels were not far behind on the subscribers’ leaderboard. T-series and Cocomelon - Nursery Rhymes followed with 284 and 188 million subscribers, respectively, during the same examined period. When it comes to the most viewed YouTube channels of all time, T-series had the highest viewership, with over 281 billion views as of January 2025. Cocomelon and SET India followed with around 194 and 174 billion lifetime views, respectively. With a viewership of billions of users, content for children and music were the most popular types of videos on YouTube. As of January 2024, Baby Shark Dance was the most watched YouTube video of all time, with around 14 billion views. Puerto Rican song Despacito and children’s rhyme Johny Johny Yes Papa followed, with nine and seven billion lifetime views, respectively. Who uses YouTube? The number of YouTube global users has been continuously growing over the years. Between 2020 and 2029, the number is expected to increase from 608 million to 1.17 billion users. As of July 2024, more than 54 percent of the YouTube audience comprised of men, while women held 45.7 percent of YouTube’s audience share. Over 12 percent of the YouTube global audience were men between the age of 25 and 34 years during the same examined period. The region with the largest number of YouTube users was India, with an audience of approximately 476 million video viewers. The United States and Brazil followed, with around 240 and 150 million users accessing the popular video platform, respectively. As of July 2024, YouTube exhibited the highest penetration rate in the United Arab Emirates, where more than 94 percent of the total digital population used the platform. Israel and United Kingdom followed with YouTube penetration rates of 93.2 and 90.4, respectively.

What is the most subscribed YouTube channel? MrBeast made the first place in the ranking of the most-subscribed YouTube channels in January 2025. With 343 million subscribers, the U.S. based videographer and internet personality managed to surpass Indian music network T-Series, which held the number one place for several years, and sat at 284 million subscriber as of the examined period. How many hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute? YouTube was launched in 2005 as a platform for sharing user-generated videos such as vlogs, tutorials, or original series. The site grew rapidly and reportedly had 100 million video views per day and more than 65 thousand daily uploads only a year later. As of February 2022, more than 500 hours of video were uploaded to YouTube every minute, up from a mere 24 hours of content uploads per minute in 2010. YouTube Partner Program In the first quarter of 2024, YouTube’s ad revenue amounted to over eight billion U.S. dollars. Through its Partner Program, YouTube also rewards uploaders of popular videos with a share of the advertising revenues the content generates. This, paired with the fact that many users of the video sharing platform tend to have favorite channels that they revisit regularly, has given rise to another phenomenon: YouTube celebrities. Although some of these well-known figures were discovered on the website but then carved a successful career outside of YouTube, for many others the site is their primary platform for delivering content and staying in contact with fans, all while signing lucrative deals or promotional partnerships. Highest earning YouTubers In November 2022, MrBeast surpassed long-standing most subscribed YouTuber PewDiePie, having reached approximately 112 million subscribers. Due to the high number of subscribers and even higher number of views, these out-of-the-box stars not only have millions of fans, but also considerable earnings from their YouTube activities. In 2023, MrBeast was estimated to have earned around 82 million U.S. dollars, topping the ranking of the highest-earning YouTube creators. The ranking also included social media personality Jake Paul and Mark Fischbach, as well as Ryan Kaji from Ryan's World (formerly known as ToysReview), who started his YouTube career reviewing toys at three years old.

Few individuals better represent the rise of the YouTube celebrity than Felix Arvid Ulf Kjellberg, operating on YouTube as PewDiePie. The Swedish YouTuber was the content creator with the largest audience on YouTube for several years, until he was surpassed by American YouTuber MrBeast. As of January 2025, the popular creator had around 110 million subscribers. In total, videos on the PewDiePie channel have been viewed approximately 29 billion times. Subscribe to PewDiePie meme The surge in subscriber numbers from the end of 2018 onwards is attributable to PewDiePie’s “Subscribe to PewDiePie Meme“, a demonstration of his immense ability to mobilize his subscribers. In the campaign to overtake T-Series and become the channel with the most subscribers, PewDiePie’s challenge required followers to plaster words to the effect of ‘Subscribe to PewDiePie’ wherever possible, either in the physical or digital realms. Despite the obvious success of the campaign in terms of subscriptions, PewDiePie recently called for the campaign to be stopped following three major incidents. In the first a World War II memorial was defaced in New York City, and in March 2019 a gunman uttered the phrase before opening fire on a mosque in Christchurch, New Zealand, killing 50 people and wounding several more. In April 2019, the gunman who opened fire on a Southern California synagogue, killing one and wounding at least three others, also referred to the campaign.   The rise of the YouTuber Now a decade old, YouTube’s ability to connect content creators with massive audiences has led to the emergence of channels that rival mainstream media outlets in terms of audience size. In some cases, videos can reach 100 million views in just a matter of days . It isn’t just traditional celebrities that are finding audiences either, with channels for kids such as Cocomelon - Nursery Rhymes attracting over 194 billion views, and generating significant revenue in the process.