Millions of people watch YouTube more than regular television. Since YouTube first launched in 2005, it has given regular people the chance to make a name for themselves and grow their own fanbase. Some great examples of this are with top YouTubers like Yuya, PewDiePie, and Jenna Marbles. They’ve accumulated millions of subscribers to their YouTube channels and have established great relationships with them on a direct level.
These successful YouTubers are comprised of vloggers, gamers, comedians, or sometimes a mixture of all three. Their success comes without the assistance of powerful media companies controlling their actions – just a simple home setup with a camera and a microphone for YouTube. Of course, there are big companies which have offered great advertising deals to these YouTube stars. This has helped these stars generate millions of dollars in revenue per year on their channels. Meanwhile, they still have the freedom to control their channels.
Social Blade compiled a list of the YouTubers with the most subscribers. Highlights of this list are below. We left out the YouTube channels of mainstream celebrities, such as professional musicians. All the YouTubers featured on the list below had gotten their stardom exclusively from YouTube.
# 19 Fine Brothers Entertainment – The Channel Has 16.7 million YouTube subscribers
Rafi Fine and Benny Fine are YouTubers from Brooklyn. They direct, write and produce a video series which captures people’s reactions to various things. They have various reaction video themes like Teens React, YouTubers React, Kids React, and Elders React. The Fine Brothers record the reactions of these various groups of people as they watch certain viral videos which are strange or odd to them.
# 18 KSI – The Channel Has 17.5 million YouTube Subscribers
Olajide Olatunji was always a big video game fan, especially of the FIFA games from EA Sports. He spent many hours playing these games as a teenager. Back in 2009, Olatunji thought it would be fun to video record these games as he was playing them and then upload the videos to YouTube. He even provided his own commentary on the videos too. The username that he chose for his channel was “KSIOlajidebt.” The “KSIO” is a clan name in the gaming franchise “Halo.” The “Olajide” that comes after is his first name and the “bt” at the end stands for “British Telecom.” Olajide’s videos are quite goofy and fun to watch. Millions of people around the world have now subscribed to his channel to see more of his fun and interesting content.
# 17 DanTDM – The Channel Has 17.7 Million Subscribers
Daniel Middleton, 26, created a YouTube channel which revolves around the popular video game called Minecraft. His username is TheDiamondMinecart and the channel consists of review videos and gameplay videos. Middleton normally posts up at least one video per day, so he keeps consistent content flowing through the channel. In 2017, he earned an estimated $16.5 million in revenue on YouTube. His popularity has even earned him some invitations to real-life events, and a world tour which he went on last year. One stop he made was at the Sydney Opera House which was sold out for 4 nights. According to Forbes, Middleton was the highest paid content creator on YouTube in 2017.
# 16 JennaMarbles – The Channel Has 17.83 Million YouTube Subscribers
Jenna Mourey aka JennaMarbles is a longtime YouTube celebrity that most users have heard of before. Originally, Jenna was working for BarStool Sports until she decided to make videos herself. Her motivation in this decision was based on the popularity of her video post entitled “How to Trick People into Thinking You’re Good Looking.” Since then, Jenna has created funny videos on her channel which specifically target younger women of the millennial generation.
# 15 Jacksepticeye – The Channel Has 17.89 Million YouTube Subscribers
The Irish gamer named Seán William McLoughlin, 27, rose to fame on YouTube after the legendary PewDiePie talked about McLoughlin in a 2013 video of his. Video game fans quickly took notice of McLoughlin because of his energetic commentary while playing video games. He also has shiny green hair which has sort of become his signature look.
# 14 Felipe Neto – The Channel Has 18.7 Million YouTube Subscribers
The Brazilian comedian named Felipe Neto, 30, made history by becoming the first Brazilian to reach over one million subscribers on their YouTube channel. That was way back in 2012 too. Now, Neto has more than 18 million subscribers and the number keeps growing. In 2017, Neto released his own original comedy special on Netflix which is entitled “My Life Makes No Sense.”
# 13 Markiplier – The Channel Has 19.5 Million YouTube Subscribers
Markiplier, whose real name is Mark Fischbach, makes gaming videos on YouTube. In 2017, he earned an estimated $12.5 million from his channel. Fischbach presents himself in an energetic way which his fans have grown to love. However, he has dreams of expanding himself further than YouTube. According to an interview with Variety, Fischbach has ambitions of becoming an actor and musician somewhere down the road.
# 12 NigaHiga – The Channel Has 20.4 Million YouTube Subscribers
NigaHiga is the username of a YouTuber named Ryan Higa. He is known for being one of YouTube’s first big celebrities. His self-produced videos consist of comedy sketches, funny commentary on various trends in pop culture, and music videos. Over the last 10 years since he started on YouTube, the quality of his videos has only gotten better. Now they are high resolution and appear totally professional.
# 11 Yuya – The Channel Has 20.5 Million YouTube Subscribers
The Mexican YouTuber named Yuya, 24, earned her stardom from the beauty vlogs that she posts. Her channel features tutorial videos about various beauty themes like makeup and hair. Yuya later created a second channel that exclusively features videos about her everyday life. However, her beauty vlogging channel is the one that got her famous. It has even been featured on Mexican TV and Vogue.
# 10 Vegetta777 – The Channel Has 20.8 Million YouTube Subscribers
The Spanish YouTube star named Samuel de Luque earned his popularity from posting gameplay videos which feature informative voiceover content. The games that he likes to play the most are Battlefield, Minecraft, and Saint’s Row. When Samuel narrates these gameplay videos, he goes fully in depth into the background of the characters and the storyline. The narration almost feels like you’re watching a movie.
# 9 VanossGaming – The Channel Has 22.3 Million YouTube Subscribers
VanossGaming earned an estimated $15.5 million back in 2017. Evan Fong, 25, is the real name of this YouTuber. He is a Canadian who makes funny videos of himself playing video games. What makes his channel stand out so much is the editing. Fong may play a video game for several hours, but then he’ll edit the video footage into an entertaining montage which is funny and exciting to watch.
# 8 Smosh – The Channel Has 22.6 Million YouTube Subscribers
Smosh is a YouTube channel which has been around for several years. Anthony Padilla and Ian Hecox were the two comedians which started the channel. They’re videos consisted of slapstick comedy which made fun of various pop culture references and video games. The channel earned $11 million in 2017. That same year, Padilla decided to quit Smosh in order to work on his own YouTube channel. Within less than a year, it accumulated more than 2 million subscribers.
# 7 Fernanfloo – The Channel Has 26.2 Million YouTube Subscribers
The El Salvadorian YouTube celebrity named Luis Fernando Flores, aka Fernanfloo, is known for his crazy gameplay videos. He even lets his dogs be part of the videos too.
# 6 Dude Perfect – The Channel Has 26.5 Million YouTube Subscribers
Twin brothers, Coby Cotton and Cory Cotton, created the popular YouTube channel named Dude Perfect. It all started while they were attending Texas A&M University. The twins, along with three friends of theirs, create videos on the channel where they perform various comedy routines and sports tricks. They are basically making fun of common stereotypes associated with sports. All five performers were basketball players in high school.
# 5 Canal KondZilla – The Channel Has 26.6 Million YouTube Subscribers
The Brazilian YouTuber named Konrad Dantas, 29, uploaded his first video to YouTube in 2012. This was a music video which featured the popular Brazilian rapper named Nego Blue. Konrad’s username is Canal KondZilla, and he directs music videos for a living. Since his initial upload, his channel has grown in popularity very quickly.
# 4 Whinderssonnunes – The Channel Has 26.7 Million YouTube Subscribers
Whindersson Nunes, 23, is known on YouTube by the username Whinderssonnunes. He is a Brazilian vlogger who creates funny videos, including movie reviews, songs, parodies, and personal vlogs. Nunes was only 15 years old when he got started on YouTube.
# 3 ElRubiusOMG – The Channel Has 27.3 Million YouTube Subscribers
The Spanish YouTuber named Rubén Doblas Gundersen, 27, goes by the name ElRubiusOMG. No other Spanish YouTube creator has been followed as much as he has. Gundersen does gaming videos which consist of reviews, walkthroughs, gameplay, and more. What makes his videos unique is the comedic commentary that is included in them. In 2014, Gundersen released an interactive book which is entitled “Troll.”
# 2 German Garmendia – The Channel Has 33.1 Million YouTube Subscribers
Germán Garmendia is a Youtuber from Chile. His username is HolaSoyGerman and he is the most popular YouTuber in all of Latin America. Garmendia has two YouTube channels which have made it to the top 20 list on the website. His videos feature music and comedy in them. In 2016, he published a book called “#Chupaelperro.” The video which gave him his claim to fame was entitled “Las Cosas Obvias De La Vida.” This can be translated in English to “The Obvious Things of Life.”
Garmendia’s second YouTube channel, JuegaGerman, is a video gaming channel with over 24 million subscribers.
# 1 PewDiePie – The Channel Has 60.4 Million YouTube Subscribers
No other YouTuber has as many subscribers as PewDiePie. In 2017, he earned an estimated $12 million. His real name is Felix Arvid Ulf Kjellberg and he is from Sweden. He started his channel as a video gamer who provided commentary during the gameplay. In the top corner of his videos, it shows Kjellberg making funny reactions to the events that are happening in the games that he plays.
In 2017, Kjellberg got some negative publicity after a report came out in the Wall Street Journal which claimed his videos had anti-Semitic messages in them. As a result, YouTube and Disney stopped their business relationship with him. He is still allowed to upload YouTube videos, though.