Who was #1 on YouTube before MrBeast?

On April 7, 2009, YouTube announced that Fred had passed a million subscribers, the first YouTube channel to do so.^[1] Twelve days later his archived channel page shows 1,057,927 and, further down, three gold-ribbon badges: #1 - Most Subscribed (All Time), the same for Comedians and for Partners.

Fred's Channel · 2009-04-19

The rest of the page sells Fred. There is a Fred shirt at Hot Topic, an in-store appearance in Glendale, California, and a line in the profile for anyone who missed the joke: All characters are created and played by Lucas Cruikshank. Next to it, a video called One Million Subscribers, posted a week earlier, has 2,329,600 views.

In August 2009 Ryan Higa's comedy channel nigahiga overtook Fred. Mashable counted 1.392 million subscribers for nigahiga against about 1.36 million for Fred on August 23.^[2] AllThingsD described him as a 19-year-old from Hilo, Hawaii.^[3] In March 2010 YouTube congratulated nigahiga on 2 million subscribers, calling him YouTube's No. 1 most subscribed channel of all time.^[4]

nigahiga's Channel · 2010-03-18

The March 18, 2010 capture writes the count in brackets as a plain number, Subscribers (2022145), above four tiles of his subscribers' avatars. Above them, a thank-you note: Thank you to all of my subscribers for being so supportive of me!

Ray William Johnson had passed nigahiga by June 28, 2011, when Tubefilter reported 3,928,218 subscribers to Higa's 3,912,006.^[5] In November 2011 Tubefilter reported that he was the first channel to hit 5 million.^[6] His archived page from November 15 shows 4,998,879, a little over a thousand short.

RayWilliamJohnson's Channel · 2011-11-15

The profile is written for laughs. I'm just a regular guy with an entertaining hobby. I review viral videos twice a week, it begins, and further down: Hometown: Your Pants. Occupation: I work part time as a garden gnome. Under it hangs the same gold ribbon Fred had: #1 - Most Subscribed (All Time).

The comedy duo Smosh took first place from Ray William Johnson in January 2013, with more than 6.78 million subscribers.^[7] In May 2013 it became the first YouTube channel to reach 10 million, according to Guinness World Records.^[8]

Smosh · 2013-05-26

There is no profile box in the May 26, 2013 capture. The number sits in a small grey box beside a red Subscribe button, 10,019,827, under a banner of the duo and the words SMOSH BLOOPERS, EXTRAS & MORE!

Swedish gamer PewDiePie passed Smosh on August 15, 2013. Tubefilter caught the moment: 11,915,435 subscribers against Smosh's 11,915,062, a lead of 373.^[9] The archive saved his page the next day, with 11,927,477 next to the Subscribe button and a BECOME A BRO button in his banner.

PewDiePie · 2013-08-16

For a short time in late 2013 the most-subscribed channel on YouTube was YouTube. Social Blade reported on November 4, 2013 that YouTube's Spotlight channel had passed PewDiePie the day before.^[10] By January 9, 2014, Tubefilter called PewDiePie once again the #1 Most Subscribed YouTube Channel in the World, at 20 million.^[11]

On December 8, 2016, PewDiePie became the first YouTuber with 50 million subscribers, according to Guinness World Records.^[12] His page a day later shows 50,038,851, a header line that reads #1 - Most Subscribed (All Time) - Worldwide, and a featured video at the top, **wtf is going on with Youtube**, four days old.

PewDiePie · 2016-12-09

In early 2019 the Indian music label T-Series caught up, and the two channels swapped first place several times. Variety called it the back-and-forth competition for YouTube's No. 1 spot in March.^[13] On April 1 the BBC reported that PewDiePie was back in the lead by the afternoon.^[14] On May 29, 2019, T-Series became the first YouTube channel to pass 100 million subscribers.^[15]

T-Series · 2019-05-30

A day later its channel banner says THANK YOU FANS, and in smaller letters, T-Series IS GLOBALLY THE FIRST YOUTUBE CHANNEL TO CROSS 100 MILLION SUBSCRIBERS, with MAKING INDIA PROUD in orange, blue and green. The counter next to Subscribe reads 100,180,723.

MrBeast overtook T-Series in early June 2024. The BBC dates it to Sunday, June 2; The Verge reported it the same day.^[16][18] His archived page from July 20, 2024 rounds the count: 304M subscribers · 808 videos, with the tagline SUBSCRIBE FOR A COOKIE!

MrBeast · 2024-07-20

On June 12, 2026, YouTube announced that MrBeast was the first individual creator to reach 500 million subscribers on YouTube.^[17] We opened his live page on October 8, 2026: 520M subscribers · 1K videos, still with the cookie.

MrBeast · live page · 2026-10-08

Fred's 1,057,927 from April 2009 fits into that number about 490 times. A subscriber count is a number of subscriptions, so it doesn't tell how many different people follow a channel.