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 *** million subscribers. In total, videos on the PewDiePie channel have been viewed approximately ** 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 ** 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 *** billion views, and generating significant revenue in the process.

Jimmy Donaldson - operating on YouTube as MrBeast, saw approximately ************* 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 *** 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 *** million viewers. However, other famous YouTube channels were not far behind on the subscribers’ leaderboard. T-series and Cocomelon - Nursery Rhymes followed with *** and *** 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 *** billion views as of January 2025. Cocomelon and SET India followed with around *** and *** 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 ** billion views. Puerto Rican song Despacito and children’s rhyme Johny Johny Yes Papa followed, with **** and ***** 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 *** million to **** 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 ** 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 *** million video viewers. The United States and Brazil followed, with around *** and *** 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 ** percent of the total digital population used the platform. Israel and United Kingdom followed with YouTube penetration rates of **** and ****, respectively.

In February 2024, YouTube counted approximately 100 million paid subscribers across its Music and Premium services. This represents an increase from the 50 million paying subscribers across the platform's services from September 2021. During the third quarter of 2023, YouTube generated almost eight billion U.S. dollars in advertising revenues.

In 2020, the popular social video platform YouTube counted roughly 20 million paying users subscribing to its premium services in the United States. By the end of 2024, this number is forecasted to increase by almost eight million users, reaching 27.9 million paying subscribers in the U.S. YouTube premium plans allow users to have an ads-free experience, as well as video and music downloads.

T-Series was the most subscribed YouTube channel as at July 2021, with 186 million subscribers. The company has consistently recorded growth in number of subscribers as well as the number of YouTube video views since it joined the social media platform.

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.

As of February 2025, India was the country with the largest YouTube audience by far, with approximately 491 million users engaging with the popular social video platform. The United States followed, with around 253 million YouTube viewers. Brazil came in third, with 144 million users watching content on YouTube. The United Kingdom saw around 54.8 million internet users engaging with the platform in the examined period. What country has the highest percentage of YouTube users? In July 2024, the United Arab Emirates was the country with the highest YouTube penetration worldwide, as around 94 percent of the country's digital population engaged with the service. In 2024, YouTube counted around 100 million paid subscribers for its YouTube Music and YouTube Premium services. YouTube mobile markets In 2024, YouTube was among the most popular social media platforms worldwide. In terms of revenues, the YouTube app generated approximately 28 million U.S. dollars in revenues in the United States in January 2024, as well as 19 million U.S. dollars in Japan.

In the fourth quarter of 2024, ***percent of music streaming subscribers worldwide had a subscription with Spotify, more than ****** the share who were subscribed to the second-ranked Tencent Music. Other services in the list included Apple Music, Amazon, and YouTube. Beyond Spotify – other streaming services Spotify may be the biggest music streaming service in the world, but despite its arguably immense popularity and impressive number of subscribers, it hasn’t achieved global domination just yet. French service Deezer has more than tripled its worldwide subscriber base in the last few years, and although its subscriber numbers don’t come close to Spotify’s, Deezer’s growth goes to show that Spotify hasn’t quite won the hearts of every music streaming fans out there. Another popular streaming service used worldwide is Apple Music, which is in constant competition with Spotify in the United States in particular. Regardless of subscriber numbers though, in the U.S. Spotify is still considered more preferable than Apple Music. Apple is often reluctant to publish their customer numbers, though sources in early 2019 suggested that the service had overtaken Spotify in the U.S. in terms of paid subscribers. That said, Spotify still held the biggest share of overall users, and trends suggest that this will continue.

How many paid subscribers does Spotify have? As of the fourth quarter of 2024, Spotify had 263 million premium subscribers worldwide, up from 236 million in the corresponding quarter of 2023. Spotify’s subscriber base has increased dramatically in the last few years and has more than doubled since early 2019. Spotify and competitors Spotify is a music streaming service originally founded in 2006 in Sweden. The platform can be used from various devices and allows users to browse through a catalogue of music licensed through multiple record labels, as well as creating and sharing playlists with other users. Additionally, listeners are able to enjoy music for free with advertisements or are also given the option to purchase a subscription to allow for unlimited ad-free music streaming. Spotify’s largest competitors are Pandora, a company that offers a similar service and remains popular in the United States, and Apple Music, which was launched in 2015. While Pandora was once among the highest-grossing music apps in the Apple App Store, recent rankings show that global services like QQ Music, NetEase Cloud Music, and YouTube Music now generate higher monthly revenues.Users are also able to register Spotify accounts using Facebook directly through the website using an app. This enables them to connect with other Facebook friends and explore their music tastes and playlists. Spotify is a popular source for keeping up-to-date with music, and the ability to enjoy Spotify anywhere at any time allows consumers to shape their music consumption around their lifestyles and preferences.

Market leader Facebook was the first social network to surpass one billion registered accounts and currently sits at more than three billion monthly active users. Meta Platforms owns four of the biggest social media platforms, all with more than one billion monthly active users each: Facebook (core platform), WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and Instagram. In the third quarter of 2023, Facebook reported around four billion monthly core Family product users. The United States and China account for the most high-profile social platforms Most top ranked social networks with more than 100 million users originated in the United States, but services like Chinese social networks WeChat, QQ or video sharing app Douyin have also garnered mainstream appeal in their respective regions due to local context and content. Douyin’s popularity has led to the platform releasing an international version of its network: a little app called TikTok. How many people use social media? The leading social networks are usually available in multiple languages and enable users to connect with friends or people across geographical, political, or economic borders. In 2025, social networking sites are estimated to reach 5.42 billion users and these figures are still expected to grow as mobile device usage and mobile social networks increasingly gain traction in previously underserved markets.

With roughly three billion monthly active users as of the second quarter of 2023, Facebook is the most used online social network worldwide. The platform surpassed two billion active users in the second quarter of 2017, taking just over 13 years to reach this milestone. In comparison, Meta-owned Instagram took 11.2 years, and Google’s YouTube took just over 14 years to achieve this landmark. As of January 2022, Facebook’s leading audience base was in India, with almost 330 million users whilst the United States ranked second with an approximate total of 179 million users. The platform also finds remarkable popularity in Indonesia and Brazil. Social Media usage in the United States In January 2021, Facebook was the platform on which users in the United States spent the most time per day. The average time spent on Facebook was 33 minutes, followed by TikTok with 32 minutes and Twitter with 31 daily minutes. Due to the COVID-19 outbreak in 2020, all major social media platforms saw an increase in daily usage, which then either plateaued or decreased in 2021. At the end of 2021, over a quarter of all Facebook users in the United States belonged to the 25 to 34 year age group and 18.2 percent of users were in the 35 to 44 year age group. In general, Facebook users were more likely to be female. Meta Platforms Meta is Facebook’s recently renamed parent company and had a grand total of 3.59 billion core product users by the final quarter of 2021. Other Meta products include Instagram, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp and Oculus – Meta’s virtual reality subsidiary which produces VR headsets. In 2021, Meta's revenue amounted to 117 billion US dollars, up from around 86 billion U.S. dollars in the previous financial year.