In this article we are going to list the top 25 most subscribed YouTube channels heading into 2021. Click to skip ahead and jump to the top 10 most subscribed YouTube channels heading into 2021. It might be hard to image a time without YouTube now, as it seems like YouTube has been with us forever, but we should remember that it only came into existence almost 16 years ago in February 2005. It was created by three former PayPal employees, namely Jawed Karim, Steve Chen and Chad Hurley. And in the times since, it has become one of the most important free websites in the world, on par with Wikipedia.
The importance of the video sharing platform cannot be understated. While there is a premium subscription for no ads and other benefits which most people don’t really want, YouTube allows you upload videos which can be viewed potentially by billions of people across the world. Whether you just want to upload a small personal moment, or whether you have come across something that you want the larger population to be a part of, all you need to do is to make a video and then upload it. This is why some of the most subscribed YouTube channels heading into 2021 don’t involve celebrities, or at least normal celebrities. Instead, these channels belong to what is a recent creation: the YouTube celebrity.
See, YouTube itself is now a major business opportunity for people worldwide, from the most developed of economies to those with poor infrastructure and little to no money. So many people across the world now have smartphones as all other types of phones have lost popularity, thanks to the biggest phone companies in the world. All you need to do is make a video and even an unstable connection, which most people still have even in remote areas, is all you need to upload the video. This is why there have been many viral videos propelling obscure and unknown people into the limelight, allowing many people to actually make a career out of it. See, YouTube actually pays you if your videos get enough views and your channel has enough subscribers, and while even tens of thousands of views may not earn you a lot of money, if you consistently put out videos and get millions of views and keep attracting subscribers, then you can actually earn more than many top jobs out there. The top YouTubers in the world earn millions of dollars every year, and this is just from YouTube alone. When you are attracting millions of viewers and hundreds of thousands, if not millions of subscribers, then companies will start to notice the marketing potential you have as well and get you to sponsor their brands, which can result in even more revenue.
The popularity of YouTube is why Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) decided to buy the company for $1.63 billion in November 2006, less than 2 years after its creation. Ever since, the popularity of the platform has just kept on increasing and now, YouTube gets more than 3 billion views every single day, with 70% of the viewers from outside the United States. While the most subscribed YouTube channels heading into 2021 are often dominated by celebrities, you will also see normal every day people who were propelled into stardom through their channels and have now earned tens of millions of viewers. Just to show you the following these channels command, the channel with the lowest subscribers in our list still has close to 35 million subscribers! We have of course excluded channels by YouTube itself, which don’t upload their own videos such as Sports, Games, Music and Movies, and focused on actual content generating channels. We have ascertained the number of subscribers for each channel by visiting the channel on YouTube and ascertaining the subscribers they have.
To be the most followed channel on YouTube is a huge deal, which is why the top two channels, T-Series and PewDiePie actually had a major competition to gain the most followers. This included fellow YouTube stars taking sides and promoting these two channels. Who won in the end? Well, you’ll have to read the article to find out, starting with number 25:
25. Badabun
Total number of subscribers as of December 31 2020 (in millions of subscribers): 34.8
The YouTube channel turned into a company due to its success, and creates personal content videos, which have attracted a lot of criticism from Internet celebrities, which in turn has gained the channel even more views.
Pixabay/Public Domain
