As the most popular video streaming site, YouTube has significantly contributed to the growth of content creation.
YouTube creation is now a known and well-established career, with others practicing it full-time.
Marketing agencies have also benefited from content creation as they collaborate with creators in various niches and market their services and products to over 2.4 billion active YouTube users.
If you’re considering becoming a YouTuber, you may be curious about the number of creators on the platform.
As of 2023, YouTube had over 113 million content creators based on the number of channels. This accounts for about 4.2% of the total active YouTube users—approximately 24% of these channels between 100 and 1000 subscribers. Over 10 million channels globally have between 1,000 and 10,000 subscribers, while only 0.000003% have over 50 million subscribers.
This post takes an in-depth look at the number of creators on YouTube and discusses some channels with the most subscribers.
Overview of YouTube Creation
Content creators are individuals who create and share videos with their YouTube audience.
YouTube launched the partner program in December 2008 to allow creators to run ads on their videos and receive part of the ad revenue as compensation.
Since 2009, this program has grown to over 100 million creators, some earning thousands of dollars every month as ad revenue.
YouTube isn’t limited to a particular niche, meaning there are content creators in virtually all areas you can think of, from makeup tutorials, technology trends, sports commentary, recipes, travel, history, and many more.
Some popular creators with thousands of subscribers are sometimes referred to as ‘influencers’ as they collaborate with organizations and marketing agencies to ‘influence’ their subscribers to purchase specific products and services.
As an aspiring content creator, it’s essential to research various aspects of the niche you wish to create to avoid common mistakes and build an audience quickly.
Some factors you should look into include trends within that particular niche, successful creators, keywords, and new topics you could explore.
It’s also vital to understand the needs of your target audience and the demands of your job so you can weigh whether you meet all the requirements.
Remember, content creation, like any other job, requires commitment and consistency to be fruitful.
Next, we’ll discuss some top content creators on YouTube.
Top Content Creators on YouTube
As mentioned earlier, there are about 113 million creators on YouTube based on the number of channels.
Remember, channels can belong to individuals, groups, or organizations, meaning the number includes brand accounts.
Still, this shows YouTube is the most preferred and rewarding content creation platform.
Here is a list of some of the top YouTube creators in 2023.
MrBeast
James Donaldson, also known as MrBeast, is a popular YouTuber, philanthropist, and entrepreneur.
He is the most subscribed individual content creator and has the most channel subscriptions overall.
Forbes ranked MrBeast as the highest-paid YouTuber in 2022.
His channel focuses on out-of-the-box content, expensive stunts, and commentary.
Logan Paul
Logan Paul started his career as a kickboxer before becoming a YouTuber.
His YouTube channel is mainly about crazy pranks, philanthropy, and music.
Logan Paul is among the highest-paid YouTube creators in the U.S. and globally.
He is currently signed with WWE and has over 23 million subscribers on YouTube.
Jay Jeon
Jay Jeon owns one of the most popular YouTube channels, CocoMelon.
This channel is dedicated to nursery rhymes and child entertainment videos and has over one billion total views.
Jay Jeon has an estimated net worth of over $400 million.
Jeffree Star
Jeffree Star is a lifestyle and makeup content creator.
His channel has over 16 million subscribers.
Although Jeffree Star compliments his income with various investments, including a cosmetic line, he is still one of the top-earning YouTubers.
He has an estimated net worth of over $200 million.
Ryan Kaji
Ryan Kaji held the record for the highest-earning YouTube channel in 2018, 2019, and 2020.
This channel features toy reviews, harmless child antics, simple DIY experiments, and channel commentary.
It is most popular among kids between 2 and 6 as it’s centered around kids’ content.
Ryan Kaji has over 35 million channel subscribers with over 55 billion total views.
His estimated net worth is $100 million.
Summary
YouTube has over 113 million content creators in 2023, accounting for 4.3% of active YouTube users.
Most creators, or about 24%, have between 100 and 1000 channel subscribers.
Only 0.000003% of the channels represented have more than 50 million subscribers.
