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 June 1, 2024, MrBeast is the most subscribed channel, however, PewDiePie currently holds the longest continuous reign of being the most subscribed YouTuber for 2,063 days (5 years & 7 months), in two different regions.
==Top 20 Most-subscribed YouTube Channels==
The Top 20 Most-subscribed Channels are listed in the table below as of August 25, 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 approximate number of videos the channel has uploaded.
Rank	Highest Rank 	Channel Name 	Subs 	Videos	Language
1 	1 (2024-present) 	MrBeast 	312MMrBeast's accurate subscriber count gets confirmed daily on the ViewStats Discord Server. The last update as of June 26, 2024 was 289,743,762 subscribers.	811 	EnglishDubbing in Arabic, Bangla, French, Hindi, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Thai, Turkish and Vietnamese.
2 	1 (2019-2024) 	T-Series 	272M 	21K 	Hindi
3 	2 (2021-2023) 	Cocomelon - Nursery Rhymes 	181M 	1.2K 	English
4 	3 (2021-2023) 	SET India 	176M 	144K 	Hindi
5 	5 (2020-present) 	✿ Kids Diana Show 	124M 	1.2K 	English
6 	6 (2024-present) 	Vlad and Niki 	123M 	754 	English
7 	6 (2022, 2024) 	Like Nastya 	119M 	898 	English
8 	1 (2013-2019) 	PewDiePie 	111M 	4.7K 	English
9 	7 (2021) 	Zee Music Company 	109M 	11K 	Hindi
10 	6 (2018-2021) 	WWE 	104M 	78K 	English
11 	11 (2023-present)	Goldmines 	99.3M 	8.9K 	Hindi
12 	12 (2024-present)	Sony SAB 	95M 	89K 	Hindi
13 	11 (2022-2023) 	BLACKPINK 	94.6M 	601 	Korean
14 	13 (2021, 2024) 	ChuChu TV Nursery Rhymes & Kids Songs 	92.6M 	806 	English
15 	15 (2024-Present)	Stokes Twins 	86M 	317 	EnglishDubbing in Arabic, Bangla, Chinese, French, German, Hindi, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Thai, Turkish, Urdu and Vietnamese.
16 	13 (2020) 	Zee TV 	83.2M 	182K 	Hindi
17 	3 (2018-2019) 	5-Minute Crafts 	80.8M 	7.1K 	English
18 	15 (2022-2024) 	BANGTANTV 	78.8M 	2.5K 	Korean
19 	15 (2024) 	Pinkfong Baby Shark - Kids' Songs & Stories	77.2M 	3.2K 	English
20 	15 (2021) 	HYBE LABELS 	75.6M 	2K 	Korean
*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, some online tools can be used 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 July 13, 2024).
Rank	Channel Name 	Subscribers	Language
21 	Colors TV 	75.5M 	Hindi
22 	Justin Bieber 	73.4M 	English
23 	T-Series Bhakti Sagar 	69.6M 	Hindi
24 	Shemarro Filmi Gaane 	69.3M 	Hindi
25 	Tips Official 	68.4M 	Hindi
26 	Canal KondZilla 	67.3M 	Portuguese
27 	Aaj Tak 	67.1M 	Hindi
28 	A4 	66.2M 	Russian
29 	El Reino Infantil 	65.7M 	Spanish
30 	Infobells - Hindi 	64.2M 	Hindi
31 	ZAMZAM ELECTRONICS TRADING 	63.9M 	Urdu
32 	Wave Music 	62.7M 	Bhojpuri
33 	Movieclips 	62.1M 	English
34 	EminemMusic 	61.7M 	English
35 	Sony Music India 	61.6M 	Hindi
36 	YRF 	61.4M 	Hindi
37 	Toys and Colors 	61.3M 	English
38 	Dude Perfect 	60.4M 	English
39 	Taylor Swift 	59.9M 	English
40 	HAR PAL GEO 	58.6M 	Urdu
41 	LooLoo Kids - Nursery Rhymes and Children's Songs 	57.8M 	English
42 	Alan Chikin Chow 	57.6M 	English
43 	Marshmello 	57.3M 	English
44 	BillionSurpriseToys - English Kids Songs & Cartoon	57.3M 	English
45 	UR · Cristiano 	56.8M 	Portuguese/English
46 	ARY Digital HD 	56.4M 	Urdu
47 	Mark Rober 	56.4M 	English
48 	Fede Vigevani 	55.6M 	Spanish
49 	PANDA BOI 	55.4M 	English
50 	Ed Sheeran 	55.6M 	English
51 	Shemaroo 	54.9M 	Hindi
52 	Ariana Grande 	54.6M 	English
53 	KL BRO Biju Rithvik 	54.4M 	Malayalam
54 	김프로KIMPRO 	54.1M 	Korean
55 	YOLO AVENTURAS 	52.8M 	Spanish
56 	Billie Eilish 	52.7M 	English
57 	Get Movies 	52.2M 	Russian
58 	Mikecrack 	52M 	Spanish
59 	SnyMusicIndiaVEVO 	51.7M 	Hindi
60 	Jess No Limit 	51.5M 	Indonesian
61 	आचार्य प्रशान्त - Acharya Prashant 	51M 	Hindi
62 	JuegaGerman 	51M 	Spanish
63 	Maшa и Meдвeдь 	49.5M 	Russian
64 	ABS-CBN Entertainment 	49.4M 	Filipino
65 	BETER BÖCÜK 	49M 	Turkish
66 	Masha and The Bear 	49M 	English
67 	Bad Bunny 	48.1M 	Spanish
68 	Fernanfloo 	47.8M 	Spanish
69 	Voot Kids 	47.7M 	Hindi
70 	Alejo Igoa 	47.6M 	Spanish
71 	Badabun 	47.6M 	Spanish
72 	Ricis Official 	47M 	Indonesian
73 	StarPlus 	46.9M 	Hindi
74 	Shakira 	46.7M 	Spanish
75 	Felipe Neto 	46.6M 	Portuguese
76 	Ishtar Music 	46.3M 	Hindi
77 	LUCCAS NETO - LUCCAS TOON 	46M 	Sanish
78 	shfa2 - شفا 	45.8M 	Arabic
79 	Alan Walker 	45.8M 	English
80 	Você Sabia? 	45.7M 	Portuguese
81 	Kimberly Loaiza 	45.6M 	Spanish
82 	MrBeast 2 	45.5M 	English
83 	Saregama Music 	45.3M 	Hindi
84 	Katy Perry 	45.3M 	English
85 	Real fools shorts official 	44.3M 	Hindi
86 	MrBeast Gaming 	45.3M 	English
87 	ABP NEWS 	45M 	Hindi
88 	shfa 	44.8M 	Arabic
89 	whinderssonnunes 	44.7M 	Portuguese
90 	Maria Clara & JP 	44.7M 	Portuguese
91 	Speed Records 	44.7M 	Punjabi
92 	BRIGHT SIDE 	44.6M 	English
93 	Dushyant kukreja 	44.3M 	Hindi
94 	Sony PAL 	44.1M 	Hindi
95 	HolaSoyGerman. 	44M 	Spanish
96 	DaFuq!?Boom! 	43.6M 	English
97 	Like Nastya Show 	43.6M 	English
98 	Rihanna 	43.5M 	English
99 	Goldmines Gaane Sune Ansune 	43.3M 	Hindi
100 	Total Gaming 	43.2M 	Hindi
101 	CarryMinati 	43.1M 	Hindi
102 	Luisito Comunica 	43.1M 	Spanish
103 	IndiaTV 	42.8M 	Hindi
104 	Shorts Break 	42.4M 	Hindi
105 	Super Simple Songs - Kids Songs 	42.4M 	English
106 	Topper Guild 	42.3M 	English
107 	PowerKids TV 	42.3M 	Hindi
108 	Techno Gamerz 	42.2M 	Hindi
109 	Genevieve's Playhouse - Learning Videos for Kids 	42.1M 	English
110 	T-Series Bollywood Classics 	42.1M 	Hindi
111 	AboFlah 	42M 	Arabic
112 	HUM TV 	42M 	Urdu
113 	Alfredo Larin 	42M 	Spanish
114 	MR. INDIAN HACKER 	42M 	Hindi
115 	Zhong 	41.9M 	English
116 	TheDonato 	41.6M 	Spanish
117 	YouTube 	41.4M 	English
118 	TEDx Talks 	41.4M 	English
119 	WorkpointOfficial 	41.4M 	Thai
120 	Ultra Bollywood 	41.3M 	Hindi
121 	GR6 EXPLODE 	41.2M 	Portuguese
122 	One31 	41.1M 	Thai
123 	ISSEI / いっせい 	41M 	Japanese
124 	Little Baby Bum - Nursery Rhymes & Kids Songs 	41M 	English
125 	Vlad và Niki 	40.9M 	Vietnamese
126 	Like Nastya ESP 	40.9M 	Spanish
127 	La Granja de Zenón 	40.9M 	Spanish
128 	XXXTENTACION 	40.8M 	English
129 	Anaya Kandhal 	40.7M 	Hindi
130 	Jingle Toons 	40.5M 	Hindi
131 	ElrubiusOMG 	40.4M 	Spanish
132 	Ashkay Nagwadiya 	39.8M 	Hindi
133 	LankyBox 	39.7M 	English
134 	Frost Diamond 	39.7M 	Indonesian
135 	Daddy Yankee 	39.2M 	Spanish
136 	One Direction 	38.7M 	English
137 	Enaldinho 	38.4M 	Portuguese
138 	BabyBus - Kids Songs and Cartoons 	38.3M 	English
139 	Bruno Mars 	38.3M 	English
140 	TheEllenShow 	38.2M 	English
141 	Zach King 	38.1M 	English
142 	Jkk Entertainment 	38.1M 	Hindi
143 	Gulshan Kalra 	38M 	Hindi
144 	Priyal Kukreja 	37.8M 	Hindi
145 	Heroindori 	37.8M 	Hindi
146 	Ryan's World 	37.7M 	English
147 	Jason Derulo 	37.6M 	English
148 	Juan De Dios Pantoja 	37.6M 	Spanish
149 	KAROL G 	37.6M 	Spanish
150 	Zee News 	37.4M 	Hindi
==Historical Most-subscribed Channels on YouTube==
Channel 	Subscribers 	Date Achieved 	Days Held
smosh 	2,986 	May 17, 2006 	18
judsonlaipply 	4,949 	June 4, 2006 	29
Brookers 	8,114 	July 3, 2006 	45
geriatric1927 	17,516 	August 17, 2006 	26
lonelygirl15 	26,282 	September 12, 2006	226
smosh 	~92,000 	April 26, 2007 	517
nigahiga 	~528,500 	September 24, 2008	1
smosh 	~532,700 	September 25, 2008	4
nigahiga 	~539,200 	September 29, 2008	10
FRED 	~560,000 	October 9, 2008 	315
nigahiga 	~1,356,000 	August 20, 2009 	675
RayWilliamJohnson	~3,880,000 	June 26, 2011 	566
smosh 	~6,769,000 	January 12, 2013 	215
PewDiePie 	~11,915,000 	August 15, 2013 	2050
T-Series 	91,473,502 	March 27, 2019 	5
PewDiePie 	92,150,158 	April 1, 2019 	14
T-Series 	94,077,453 	April 14, 2019 	1876
MrBeast 	~266,680,000	June 1, 2024 	71
===Notes===
*The earliest archive of the YouTube leaderboards available is from May 17, 2006. It is unknown the day when Smosh became #1, and which channels were #1 before them.
*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 allowed in the list .
* 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.
*Since September 17, 2019, subscriber counts has been abbreviated to only show the first three digits, meaning it is unknown how many subscribers T-Series had when it was surpassed by MrBeast (who had his accurate subscriber count provided by ViewStats).
===#1 reigns under one day===
See also: #1 Reigns of T-Series
==Other Most-subscribed Charts==
===Most-subscribed YouTubers===
This chart as of July 16, 2024, does not include companies, major celebrities/music channels, and kid/toy channels.
Rank	Channel Name 	Subs 	Videos	Language
1 	MrBeast 	303M 	804 	English
2 	PewDiePie 	111M 	4.7K 	English
3 	Stokes Twins 	74.9M	311 	English
4 	ZAMZAM ELECTRONICS TRADING 	60.4M	17.8K 	Urdu
5 	Dude Perfect 	60.3M	440 	English
6 	A4 	60.2M	926 	RussianDubbing in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, German, Hindi, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese and Spanish.
7 	PANDA BOI 	55.4M	1.1K 	English
8 	Mark Rober 	54.2M	160 	EnglishDubbing in Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Hindi, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Thai, Turkish and Vietnamese.
9 	Fede Vigevani 	52.9M	1.3K 	Spanish
10 	KL BRO Biju Rithvik 	52.1M	2.5K 	Malayalam
11 	Mikecrack 	50.8M	2K 	Spanish
12 	JuegaGerman 	50.6M	2.1K 	Spanish
12 	YOLO AVENTURAS 	50.5M	2.3K 	Spanish
14 	Jess No Limit 	50.3M	2.9K 	Indonesian
15 	आचार्य प्रशान्त - Acharya Prashant	50.2M	10.3K 	Hindi
16 	Alan Chikin Chow 	48.5M	1.2K 	English
17 	BETER BÖCÜK 	48.1M	4.4K 	Turkish
18 	Fernanfloo 	46.6M	546 	Spanish
19 	Ricis Official 	46.5M	4.4K 	Indonesian
20 	Felipe Neto 	46.4M	4.9K 	Portuguese
===Most-subscribed Male YouTubers ===
This chart as of July 8, 2024. YouTuber groups that have both males & females are not counted.
Rank	Channel Name 	Subs 	Videos	Language
1 	MrBeast 	303M 	804 	English
2 	PewDiePie 	111M 	4.7K 	English
3 	Stokes Twins 	73.6M	311 	English
4 	ZAMZAM ELECTRONICS TRADING 	60.4M	17.8K 	Urdu
5 	Dude Perfect 	60.3M	440 	English
6 	A4 	60.2M	926 	Russian
7 	PANDA BOI 	55.2M	1.1K 	English
8 	Mark Rober 	54.4M	160 	English
9 	Fede Vigevani 	52.9M	1.3K 	Spanish
10 	Mikecrack 	50.8M	2K 	Spanish
11 	JuegaGerman 	50.6M	2.1K 	Spanish
12 	YOLO AVENTURAS 	50.4M	2.3K 	Spanish
13 	Jess No Limit 	50.3M	2.9K 	Indonesian
14 	आचार्य प्रशान्त - Acharya Prashant	50.2M	10.3K 	Hindi
15 	Alan Chikin Chow 	48.5M	1.2K 	English
16 	BETER BÖCÜK 	48.1M	4.4K 	Turkish
17 	Fernanfloo 	47.6M	546 	Spanish
18 	Felipe Neto 	46.4M	4.9K 	Portuguese
19 	Você Sabia? 	45.5M	1.6K 	Portuguese
20 	whinderssonnunes 	44.7M	783 	Portuguese
===Most-subscribed Female YouTubers ===
This list is as of July 8, 2024. YouTuber groups that have both males & females are not counted.
Rank	Channel Name 	Subs 	Videos	Language
1 	Ricis Official 	46.5M	4.2K 	Indonesian
2 	Kimberly Loaiza 	45.2M	316 	Spanish
3 	Priyal Kukreja 	36M 	1K 	Hindi
4 	SSSniperWolf 	34.5M	3.6K 	English
5 	Celine Dept 	33.4M	784 	English
6 	DONA 도나 	32.9M	174 	Korean
7 	Karla Bustillos 	32M 	1.1K 	Spanish
8 	Neetu Bisht 	27.8M	2.2K 	Hindi
9 	The Geeta gurjar 	26.4M	1.7K 	Hindi
10 	jaanvi patel 	26.1M	644 	Hindi
11 	Chapitosiki 	25.3M	3.8K 	Russian
12 	Chloe Ting 	25.3M	444 	English
13 	Yuya 	24.7M	672 	Spanish
14 	Susy Mouriz 	23.8M	1.6K 	Spanish
15 	Pink Shirt Girl 	23.4M	1K 	English
16 	Pragati Verma Shorts 	23.3M	1.1K 	Hindi
17 	ANNA KOVA 	22.9M	3.9K 	English
18 	Nasya Official 	22.2M	944 	Indonesian
19 	Naisa Alifia Yuriza (N.A.Y)	21.6M	180 	Indonesian
20 	CookieSwirlC 	21.3M	1.3K 	English
===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. MrBeast holds 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-Series and 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.
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 	14,037,306 	2014
PewDiePie 	8,004,749 	2015
PewDiePie 	10,485,353 	2016
T-Series 	16,765,882 	2017
T-Series 	46,981,058 	2018
T-Series 	44,830,628 	2019
T-Series 	43,300,000 	2020
MrBeast 	37,500,000 	2021
MrBeast 	38,300,000 	2022
MrBeast 	99,000,000 	2023
==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. 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(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 & 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 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 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. 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 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, 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 partnering with 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 the time, 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 competition between 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 Crafts are the three most-subscribed channels on Youtube. Two YouTube channels eached the 100M subscriber milestone, which had been achieved by T-Series and PewDiePie and 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-Series competition, 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 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 has kept this title until June 1, 2024. The subscriber gap today between the two channels is over 155M 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 channels 2024===
By the beginning of 2024, T-Series had been gradually slowing in down in growth, to between 1-2 million subscribers per month on average. Meanwhile, MrBeast, who had gained over 99 million subscribers in 2023, was rapidly approaching T-Series in subscriber count. MrBeast started the year with 225M subscribers, with T-Series having 256M subscribers. However, with MrBeast growing much more rapidly, the subscriber gap between MrBeast and T-Series continued to shrink throughout the first 5 months of 2024. By the middle of May, it was becoming apparent that MrBeast would overtake T-Series in subscribers in the beginning of June, claiming the #1 spot. On June 1, 2024, MrBeast surpassed T-Series in subscribers by both estimates and the API, officially certifying MrBeast as the most-subscribed YouTube channel in the world. As of July 1, 2024, MrBeast has 294M subscribers, with T-Series having 268M subscribers. 
===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 ranked YouTube 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 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 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 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 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==
Category:History of YouTube