List of most-subscribed YouTube channels
A subscriber to a channel on the American video-sharing platform YouTube is a user with an account who chooses to follow a channel's content by clicking on that channel's "Subscribe" button, and each user's subscription feed consists of videos published by channels to which the user is subscribed. The ability for users to subscribe was introduced in October 2005. YouTube began publishing a list of its most-subscribed channels in April 2006. An early archive of the list dates to May 17, 2006.
Since May 2006, when Smosh occupied the top position with just 2,986 subscribers, at least 11 other YouTube channels have held the top spot; these include the channel for the American fictional web series lonelygirl15, American comedian Brooke "Brookers" Brodack, American fictional character Fred Figglehorn, Swedish gamer Felix "PewDiePie" Kjellberg, American comedian Ryan Higa, American media personality Ray William Johnson, American public speaker Judson Laipply, English pensioner Peter Oakley, and the official channels for Indian music record label T-Series, as well as YouTube itself.
The most-subscribed YouTube channel is MrBeast, having 460 million subscribers as of December 31, 2025, and gaining subscribers by an average of about 444,000 per day.
105 most-subscribed channels
The following table lists the top followed 100 YouTube channels, as well as the primary language, country, date they joined YouTube, and content category of each channel. The channels are ordered by number of subscribers. Those whose displayed subscriber counts are identical, are listed so that the channel whose current growth rate indicates that its displayed subscriber count will exceed that of the other channel is listed first. Automatically generated channels that lack their own videos, such as Music and News, and channels that have been made effectively obsolete as a result of the transferral of their content, such as JustinBieberVEVO and TaylorSwiftVEVO are excluded., 32 of top 100 channels listed primarily produce content in English while 30 primarily produce content in Hindi. All 100 channels have surpassed 48 million subscribers. All Top 50 channels have surpassed 65 million subscribers. Fourteen of the channels have surpassed 100 million subscribers, of which three have surpassed 200 million, two have surpassed 300 million and one has surpassed 400 million.
Historical progression of most-subscribed channels
The following table lists the 20 distinct runs as the most-subscribed YouTube channel recorded since May 2006. Only runs lasting at least 24 hours are included. Twelve different channels have held the position, with PewDiePie holding the title a record four times. He also holds the records for the longest time as the most-subscribed channel, the shortest time as the most-subscribed channel, and the longest overall combined time as the most subscribed channel. In second place is Smosh, which held it three times, while third place is tied between nigahiga, T-Series, and YouTube's own channel, which have all held it twice each. YouTube's own official channel, then known as "YouTube Spotlight", briefly held the title in late 2013; one factor that contributed to the channel's rise to the top spot was the site's autosuggestion for new users to subscribe to the channel upon registration.Overall of the twelve channels who have held the record, seven featured individual males ; one featured an individual female; three have been operated by brands as opposed to individuals ; one was a duo of males which later became a collective and production company; and one was a web series. Nine of the channels were based in the United States, one was based in England, one was based in India, and one was based in Sweden, and later in England.
Timeline
'''Timeline of the most-subscribed YouTube channels '''Milestones and reactions
Following the third time that Smosh became the most-subscribed YouTube channel, Ray William Johnson collaborated with the duo. A flurry of top YouTubers including Ryan Higa, Shane Dawson, Felix Kjellberg, Michael Buckley, Kassem Gharaibeh, the Fine Brothers, and Johnson himself, congratulated the duo shortly after they surpassed Johnson as the most-subscribed channel.PewDiePie vs T-Series
In mid-2018, the subscriber count of the Indian music video channel T-Series rapidly approached that of Swedish web comedian and Let's Player PewDiePie, who was the most-subscribed user on YouTube at the time. As a result, fans of PewDiePie and T-Series, other YouTubers, and celebrities showed their support for both channels. During the competition, both channels gained a large number of subscribers at a rapid rate, and surpassed each other's subscriber count on multiple occasions in February, March, and April 2019. T-Series eventually permanently surpassed PewDiePie, and on May 29, 2019, it became the first channel to reach 100 million subscribers.In 2024, when MrBeast surpassed T-Series, he tweeted that his fans had "avenged" PewDiePie. In the lead-up to MrBeast's channel becoming the most-subscribed, T-Series issued a call for subscribers. Meanwhile, MrBeast urged his fans to not see the competition between his channel and T-Series as "this country versus that country", while also warning against anyone becoming hateful.