The wealth-building power of YouTube is legendary, and the biggest YouTube channels today are making millions. Read on to learn how.
YouTube is now the most trusted money-making machine for talented creators, and the biggest YouTube channels are notoriously lucrative.
However, in order to profit from YouTube, channels must first achieve specific milestones and prove their worth to the platform.
Namely, hitting 1,000 subscribers, accruing 4,000 “watch hours,” or reaching ten million views through “YouTube Shorts” enable channels to successfully partner with the platform, and earn (sometimes staggering) amounts of money as creators.
YouTube was the first major platform to introduce this partnership system, and now fellow massive social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter are rewarding creators with their own set of benchmarks, too.
One-third of the world’s population, meaning 2.7 billion out of 7.9 billion people, are monthly active users on YouTube.
But success is not guaranteed for aspiring YouTube channels and creators.
Out of 2.7 billion, only 114 million people have established YouTube accounts, and just over two million in total have joined the YouTube monetization program.
Not every channel prospers; most become inactive, and some with 1,000 or more subscribers can’t get to 4,000 “watch hours” with videos, nor ten million “YouTube Shorts” views.
In all, just 32,300 channels (out of the two million monetized accounts) boast over a million subscribers.
To capture people’s attention for hours is challenging – but there are some content creators on YouTube who have mastered this art.
Let’s explore the biggest YouTube channels today, and find out who is the richest creator on YouTube in 2024.
