TOP 20 Most Subscribed YouTube Channels (2006-2021)

Data:
Social Blade, Wayback Machine, YouTube, own calculations, among many others

Music:
- 1. "Claim of Thrones" by RKVC. (YouTube Audio Library)
- 2. "Hot Pursuit" by Kevin MacLeod. (Incompetech, Creative Commons Attribution 3.0)
- 3. "Movement Proposition" by Kevin MacLeod. (Incompetech, Creative Commons Attribution 3.0)
- 4. "Dark in the Night" by FLASH☆BEAT. (DOVA-SYNDROME)
- 5. "End of Time" by Ugonna Onyekwe. (YouTube Audio Library)

Animation framework by Flourish

[davidjl]

UPDATE 2024:

TOP 20 Most Subscribed YouTube Channels (2006-2021)
Notes:
- Social Blade began tracking daily channel data from July 21, 2010, so you can expect near perfect accuracy from that date.
- It is not confirmed whether mystoandpizzi took the top spot. However, according to simulated scenarios based on the existing data-points it is more likely that they did. It should be added that their growth in 2006 is rather suspicious, but we'll probably never know for sure.
- Topic channels have been artificially boosted by YouTube for large portions of their history, so they are not included. This includes the official YouTube channel.
- Starting from January 2018, musicians' VEVO and personal channels were merged.

[SzaSzabiYT]

The is the best TOP 20 Most Subscribed YouTube Channels video I've ever seen, you'd deserve more.

[theportuguesehistorian]

This video is an absolute masterpiece, couldn’t imagine how long it took to put together all of the data and information from certain websites. I am currently working on a Top 20 Most Followed Twitch Channels, and I started it a year ago, so I can understand the amount of work that went into this project. This deserves millions of views!

[qKitti]

60fps, extremely high quality, well timed music, daily data. My man, congratulations, you've made the best bar chart race I've ever seen. I can't imagine how long this must've took to make..

[NiHaoFilms]

This is truly the best Bar graph video ive ever seen, great job David.

[darkalligraph]

This really is the most accurate thing I have seen. Of course, 3 months ago, so a bit outdated, but I just have to appreciate how complete this video is.

One of the best visualisations I have ever seen.

[fridayyy.]

This man right here is too underrated. 1k subscribers? He deserves at least 50k.

[CTGReviews]

I love how the music goes intense once T-series comes in, like every channel is giving up their spots except for PewDiePie.

[heemanmcspeed]

now this is the good shit. I’m surprised you managed to get all top 20 channels back earlier than 2010

[__.]

This is the best video i have seen in this topic.

[longknoll]

Excellently put together with clinical accuracy! Well done!

[jsu]

LOL this guy probably used every bit of data there is from way back machine. That takes TONS of work very impressive.

[bennyboy]

Wow, this was really interesting to watch, it's kinda sad though, I remember when I was a kid I was subscribed to all the top youtubers and watched every single video. Now I don't even recognize half the channels on this list. Youtube as a whole used to feel like a community, but now it's just way too big for that to work.
I guess it's inevitable that as youtube became international, non-english channels would become popular too, that's perfectly fine. But it sucks that there are so many faceless corporations and content farms rising to the top over actual creators. I wonder if things will get better or worse in the future.

[Apersonfarfaraway]

You guys have no idea how many times i’ve rewatched this

[TRAINAlytics]

What's your evidence for mystoandpizzi taking #1 in July 2006?

[SeniShorts]

Great and also thx for not having vevo and regular channels like Justin Bieber and Justin Bieber vevo

[suigahfjklasitdfgy]

everything changed... when T-series attacked!

[coocoostryker]

there is a minor mistake on 4:09 with the Fastest Growing Channels of February 2013, Taylor Swift is below One Direction even though she gained 951K, and One Direction 930K, same with Ariana Grande and Nicki Minaj in August 2014 5:04, PewDiePie gaining 633k in June 2015 despite it being 663k 5:34, ERB gaining 218.42k on January 2012 despite it happening in February 3:29

[christaltaylor]

T-series: on leaderboard
pewdiepie: why do i hear boss music?

[HolaSoyOliver]

mystoandpizzi as #1? They must be proud that they were in the same spot as T-Series.