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Who has the most subscribers on YouTube?
YouTube’s June 12, 2026 post says MrBeast (Jimmy Donaldson) became the first individual creator to reach 500 million subscribers. The same post dates his rise to the most-subscribed channel to June 2024. The 500-million figure is a milestone reported on that date, not a current live subscriber count.
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“Most-subscribed channel” and “most-subscribed individual creator” are related but distinct descriptions: one refers to a channel’s subscriber total, while the other specifies that the creator is an individual. YouTube’s account supports both claims in their stated context; it does not make the dated milestone a real-time ranking.
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What is the most-viewed YouTube video of all time?
Guinness World Records names Pinkfong’s “Baby Shark” as the most-viewed video on YouTube, listing 16,643,177,027 views as of February 4, 2026. Guinness notes that records can change daily and that updates are not necessarily published online immediately. Treat the number as a dated record snapshot, not a live total.
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Why “most popular” depends on the measure
Subscriber totals, lifetime video views, daily or weekly chart rankings, Shorts song uses, and podcast watch time answer different questions. A global all-time record is not interchangeable with a position on a category chart in a particular country and time window.
| What you want to know | Measure and scope | How to describe it accurately |
|---|---|---|
| Largest channel audience | Subscribers; platform-wide channel record, reported on a specified date | Name the channel or creator and date the milestone. |
| Most-watched video ever | Accumulated views on one video; all-time record | Name the record source and give the count’s as-of date. |
| What is trending now | Multiple signals; category and country; refreshed roughly every 30 minutes | Name the chart, category, market and time observed. |
| Popular music or podcasts | Different measures by chart, including video views, Shorts created with a song, or podcast playlist watch time | Identify the chart and its measure rather than combining unlike rankings. |
Is YouTube Trending the same as the most-viewed list?
No. YouTube’s Trending charts aim to surface newly popular content, not simply sort videos by total views. YouTube says the charts are not personalized and apply within a country. They update roughly every 30 minutes and consider view count and view growth alongside topic relevance, video age, sources of views, and performance compared with recent uploads from the same channel. Advertising views are not included in the view count used for Trending measurement.
That is why a video with the highest views on a given day may not be first on a Trending chart, and a video with fewer views may appear above it. In July 2025, TeamYouTube announced a shift away from one all-purpose Trending list toward category-specific charts.
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How YouTube’s other charts count popularity
Music charts
Daily Top Music Videos ranks official music videos by views and refreshes daily; Weekly Top Music Videos also ranks official videos by view count. Weekly Top Songs aggregates views across official music videos, user-made videos using the official song, and lyric videos. Weekly Top Artists combines views across an artist’s discography, including official videos, user-made videos with the official song, live performances, remixes, lyric videos, album songs, and collaborations.
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Shorts music charts use a different signal: how many Shorts are created featuring each song. YouTube says paid advertising views are excluded from YouTube Music Charts, and content that violates policy may also be ineligible.
Podcast charts
Weekly Top Podcast Shows ranks podcast playlists by total watch time in a market, not by video view totals. YouTube’s help page lists availability in the United States, Canada, and Mexico. A podcast chart position should therefore be reported with its market and should not be presented as a general video-view ranking.
Rank #4
View-count changes and dated comparisons
YouTube’s Analytics help says that beginning August 24, 2026, views are counted when a video starts to play across Shorts, long-form videos, and live streams. Older comparisons may not have used an identical measurement method. When comparing historical figures, retain each source’s date and stated methodology instead of assuming that every count was calculated the same way.
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- Check the metric: subscribers, lifetime views, daily or weekly views, Shorts uses, or podcast watch time.
- Check the time window: an all-time record, a daily or weekly chart, or a frequently refreshed Trending chart.
- Check the scope: platform-wide record or a category chart limited to a country or market.
- Check what is counted: one official music video, a song’s combined uses, or watch time across podcast playlists are not equivalent.
- Check the date: counts and positions change; keep the as-of date attached to every figure.
Keep a YouTube channel live while you focus on its audience
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