List of most-subscribed YouTube channels
Wikimedia list article
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. As of 2026, YouTube does not publish lists of most-subscribed channels.
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.
As of June 12, 2026, the most-subscribed YouTuber is MrBeast, having 500 million subscribers and gaining an average of 133,000 subscribers per day.
100 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.
The public source identifies “List of most-subscribed YouTube channels” as wikimedia list article. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around List, most-subscribed and YouTube.
Why this record matters
A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “List of most-subscribed YouTube channels”, the useful work is to connect “wikimedia list article” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.
Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 22, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q15995322. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2005, 2006 and 2026.
A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “List of most-subscribed YouTube channels”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow List of most-subscribed YouTube channels primary sources, List of most-subscribed YouTube channels archive and List research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “List of most-subscribed YouTube channels”?
- Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
- What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “List of most-subscribed YouTube channels” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.