HOW MANY SUCCESSFUL YOUTUBE CHANNELS ARE THERE? 

YouTube has over 100 million YouTube channels as of January, 2024. Only 4.4% of the 2.6 billion active YouTube users created their own YouTube channel. It's Estimated 65M+ YouTube Channels are currently active and uploading at least 1 video per month.

Here are some shocking data points for you to consider when it comes to YouTube:

• 90% of Channels NEVER Get to 10,000 Subscribers 
• Less than 6% of Channels are Monetized in the YouTube Partner Program
• 3M YouTube Channels Monetized in YPP as of 2024 (According to YouTube CEO)
• Less than 550,000 Channels Have Play Buttons World Wide as of 2024
• 88%+ of Videos on YouTube (not counting shorts) have less than 1000 views as of 2020
  
• Less than 65,000 Channels in the U.S. have 100,000 Subscribers as of 2024
• Less than 55,000 Channels World Wide have 1 Million Subscribers as of 2024
• Less than 1,800 Channels World Wide Have 10 Million Subscribers as of 2024
• India is the Country with the MOST total YouTube Play Buttons
• 9 Channels as of Spring 2024 Have 100M Subscribers with 3 More on the Way
• YouTube Has over 2.6 Billon Users World Wide
• YouTube Shorts Gets over 50 Billion Views Per Day as of 2024
• 70% of YouTube Traffic Comes from Mobile Devices 
• 60%+ Of YouTube Content is Produced in English 
• YouTube Generated $29B in Revenue during 2022
• 70% of What Viewers Watch is Recommended by the Algorithm 

This data is sourced from using available open-source data and case studies from a number of websites and paywalled reports from ThinkWithGoogle, Google Ads, Pex, Playboard, GlobalWebIndex, YouTube, SEMrush, SocialBlade, Statista, Oxford Economics, and other sources.

Break Down of YouTube By Subscriber Counts

Subscriber Count	Number of Channels
100 million or more	9
50 million or more	40
10 million or more	1,800
1 million or more	55,000
100,000 or more	450,000
10,000 or more	2,000,000
1,000 or more	10,000,000
100 or more	28,000,000
0 or more	110,000,000

 **Most Data Updated Data Based on January 2024

Looking at this data could make you think that it's impossible to grow on YouTube but actually, that's not the case. What it actually indicates is that there is still plenty of room and opportunity at the top, and it suggests the majority of uploaders are not meeting the standards that viewers will accept. 

 

% Of Video By View Count Based on Casestudy by Pex.com in 2019/2020

View Count Range	Percentage of Videos
Less than 1,000 views	88%
1,000 to 10,000 views	9.3%
10,000 to 100,000 views	1.9%
100,000 to 1 million views	0.77%
1 million to 10 million views	0.069%
10 million to 100 million views	0.0081%
More than 100 million views	0.00069%

 

This data might discourage some of you but it shouldn't. You should actually look at this as an OPPORTUNITY. It also doesn't matter that the view data doesn't include YouTube Shorts. Most videos were created before YouTube Shorts, and so what we are saying is HISTORICALLY of ALL VIDEOS UPLOADED TO YOUTUBE 88% of them up until 2020 NEVER managed to get 1000 views.

Take that into context and think about it for a moment. If most videos are not ever achieving 1000 views means that most videos don't SERVE viewers' interests and desires. This means the majority of videos are not your competition, to begin with, if you are trying to reach a specific group of viewers, this is why it's important to choose your audience avatar and your style of storytelling or what we call finding your niche. It also is important to produce a standard of quality on par with what viewers are giving their attention to.

References and Sources for this Articles Data Points

https://www.statista.com/statistics/1364763/youtube-shorts-total-daily-views/

https://blog.youtube/inside-youtube/2024-letter-from-neal/

https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=2021-01-01%202021-12-31&gprop=youtube

https://blog.hootsuite.com/how-the-youtube-algorithm-works/

https://www.demandsage.com/youtube-stats/

https://blog.youtube/news-and-events/youtube-gaming-2020/

https://www.uscreen.tv/blog/youtube-statistics/

https://www.twinword.com/blog/features-of-top-250-youtube-channels/

https://datareportal.com/essential-youtube-stats?rq=youtube

https://www.statista.com/forecasts/1144088/youtube-users-in-the-world

https://socialblade.com/youtube/top/100

https://bloggingwizard.com/youtube-statistics/

https://www.musicbusinessworldwide.com/88-4-of-videos-on-youtube-generate-fewer-than-1000-views/

https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/marketing-strategies/video/2021-youtube-trends/

https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/marketing-strategies/video/2022-youtube-trends/

https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/marketing-strategies/video/youtube-live-streaming-statistics/

https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/marketing-strategies/video/cultural-shift-trends/

https://9to5google.com/2020/08/10/almost-90-of-all-uploaded-youtube-videos-will-never-reach-1000-views/

https://musically.com/2018/02/28/research-claims-3-youtube-channels-get-90-views/

https://sproutsocial.com/insights/youtube-stats/

 https://www.omnicoreagency.com/youtube-statistics/

https://www.youtube.com/trends/articles/minecraft-trillion/#:~:text=This%20year%2C%20Minecraft%20YouTube%20passed,up%20to%20over%2030%2C000%20years.

https://playboard.co/en/insights/creator-awards

https://www.businessinsider.com/google-earnings-youtube-shorts-50-billion-daily-views-2023-2

https://blog.youtube/news-and-events/supporting-the-next-wave-of-creative-entrepreneurs/

https://pex.com/blog/social-media-on-lockdown-most-viewed-videos-march/

https://pex.com/blog/state-of-youtube-2019-music-more-valuable/

https://www.oxfordeconomics.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/YT_OE_US_ImpactReport_2021.pdf

https://www.tubefilter.com/2022/07/26/youtube-state-of-the-creator-economy-oxford-economics-study/

https://www.tubefilter.com/2023/04/13/top-100-most-viewed-youtube-channels-worldwide-march-2023/

https://www.statista.com/statistics/200613/unique-viewer-numbers-of-youtube-partner-channels/