MrBeast is the most subscribed channel on YouTube, with 522 million subscribers as of October 21, 2026, and in June 2026 it became the first channel to pass 500 million. T-Series, the Indian music label, is second at 316 million. The rest of the top 10 mixes individual creators with a TV network, an animation studio and a cluster of kids' channels.
This guide covers the 10 most subscribed YouTube channels with their counts, the biggest individual creators once you take out labels and networks, the leaders in music, kids, gaming and TV, why the most-viewed list looks so different, and how the number one spot has changed hands.
The big songs belong to the labels
Your edit can still sound that big. Find the right track in a catalog of 120,000 tracks.
The 10 most subscribed YouTube channels in 2026
The most subscribed YouTube channels are ranked by the subscriber count YouTube shows publicly on each channel page. This list uses counts from October 21, 2026. It leaves out channels YouTube generates automatically, like YouTube Movies, which collect videos instead of publishing their own. What's left is a top 10 of four creator channels, three kids' family channels, one music label, one TV network and one animation studio.
If you've seen YouTube Movies near the top of other lists, that's why it's missing here. YouTube generates that channel automatically, along with ones like Music, Gaming and Sports, so this list leaves them out.
Why subscriber counts look rounded
YouTube doesn't show anyone's exact subscriber count in public. It shows a shortened number, and the bigger the channel, the bigger the steps. According to YouTube's help page on subscriber counts, a channel with between 100 million and 999 million subscribers only moves up in steps of 1 million. The exact figure lives in YouTube Studio, where only the channel owner can see it. That's why two channels can sit on the same public number for days.
The most subscribed individual creators
The most subscribed individual YouTuber is MrBeast, and it isn't close. Strip out the music labels, TV networks, animation studios and auto-generated channels, and keep only channels fronted by a person or a small group on camera, and the ranking changes shape fast. Kids' family channels are covered separately further down.
MrBeast
Jimmy Donaldson's main channel runs on high-budget challenge videos with big cash prizes. It's also the channel YouTube itself ranks first: MrBeast took the number one spot on YouTube's 2025 Top Creators list in the US for the sixth year running. In June 2026 he became the first creator to reach 500 million subscribers, and YouTube CEO Neal Mohan marked it publicly. If you cut challenge content yourself, the pacing lives or dies on the soundtrack; here's our pick of music for YouTube challenge videos.
Stokes Twins
The Stokes Twins make short comedy sketches and pranks built around the two of them. At 148 million subscribers, they're the second-biggest creator-led channel on YouTube and sit sixth overall.
KIMPRO and Alejo Igoa
KIMPRO is a Korean channel that makes comedy and reaction-style Shorts, and Alejo Igoa makes Spanish-language challenge videos. Both are a reminder that a lot of the top of YouTube doesn't speak English. Just outside this group sits PewDiePie, the Swedish creator who held the individual crown for years before MrBeast passed him.
Most subscribed YouTube channels by category
The overall ranking hides how different the leaders are once you sort by what they make. Four categories cover nearly the whole top of the platform: music, kids and family, gaming, and TV and media brands. Each one has a different kind of channel at the top, from record labels that own huge catalogs to studios that publish hundreds of thousands of TV clips.
Music
Music on YouTube is led by labels, not artists. T-Series is the biggest music channel by a wide margin, and other big music channels include Zee Music Company, BLACKPINK, BANGTANTV, HYBE LABELS and Justin Bieber. Some of those are artists and some are labels, and YouTube treats them differently. Its help center lists the channel types an artist can have, including partner-provided channels run by a label and auto-generated Topic channels that YouTube builds itself.
Here's the part that matters if you make videos. The label channels on this list are rights holders, and their catalogs include some of the most-watched music on the platform. Before you drop a recognizable track into an edit, it's worth knowing how YouTube's Content ID system works.
Kids and family
Cocomelon, Vlad and Niki, Kids Diana Show and Like Nastya all sit in the top 10. Channels like these fall under YouTube's "made for kids" guidance, which requires creators to say whether their videos are made for kids under an agreement with the US Federal Trade Commission and the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act. In the US, a kid is anyone under 13. YouTube says videos set as made for kids are more likely to be recommended alongside other children's videos.
Gaming
The biggest gaming channels include Mikecrack, MrBeast Gaming and JuegaGerman, once you set aside the Gaming channel YouTube generates itself. Gaming's reach on the platform goes well past these names.
TV networks and media brands
SET India, Sony SAB, Zee TV and WWE run YouTube as a second home for their shows. They win on volume: SET India publishes TV clips at a scale no individual creator comes close to, with a video count in the six figures. Volume like that is also why the most-viewed list looks so different.
Most subscribed vs. most viewed: why the lists differ
Subscribers count people who chose to follow a channel. Views count every play of every video that channel has ever posted. A channel with tens of thousands of uploads can pass a channel with a few hundred uploads on total views while trailing it on subscribers, which is why the most viewed YouTube channels and the most subscribed ones don't line up.
T-Series and MrBeast show the gap. As of October 22, 2026, T-Series had about 360 billion total views across roughly 27,000 videos. MrBeast had about 144 billion views across roughly 1,000 videos. T-Series wins on total views by a wide margin. MrBeast pulls more than 140 million views per video on average, against about 13 million for T-Series. Same platform, two different games. If earnings are your next question, here's how much YouTube pays for 1 million views.
How the number one spot has changed hands
The number one spot on YouTube has moved from individual creators to a music label and back. T-Series held the top spot until MrBeast passed it in June 2024. Since then the gap has only grown, and the records have kept coming.
Guinness World Records' certification lists MrBeast as the record holder for most subscribers on YouTube, at 449 million as of October 31, 2025. Less than eight months later, in June 2026, the channel crossed 500 million. By October 21, 2026, it sat at 522 million, more than 200 million ahead of T-Series.
What the biggest channels mean for your own channel
Nobody reading this is going to catch MrBeast, and that's fine. The top of this list is out of reach for almost every channel on the platform. What carries over isn't the scale. It's the discipline: a format clear enough that viewers know what they're getting every time they click.
If you're earlier in the process, start with how to start a YouTube channel and build from there. Short-form video deserves its own plan, so it's worth learning how to grow on YouTube Shorts. When the numbers start moving, check the YouTube monetization requirements so you know what each milestone actually opens up. And once brands start reaching out, it helps to know how branded content fits into a channel without losing the audience that got you there.
Your channel needs a sound
Building your own channel? Find the soundtrack for your next upload in a catalog of 120,000 tracks.
Frequently asked questions
MrBeast has the most subscribers on YouTube, with 522 million as of October 21, 2026. It became the first channel to pass 500 million in June 2026. T-Series is second at 316 million.
Every channel in the top 10 has passed 100 million subscribers, from MrBeast at 522 million down to Alejo Igoa at 124 million. The group extends past the top 10 too, including Zee Music Company, WWE and PewDiePie.
Subscribers count people who chose to follow a channel, while views count every play of every video. Channels that upload tens of thousands of videos, like T-Series, can lead on total views while trailing a creator like MrBeast on subscribers.
MrBeast is the most subscribed individual YouTuber, with 522 million subscribers as of October 21, 2026. The next creator-led channel is the Stokes Twins, at 148 million.
T-Series, the Indian music label, was the most subscribed channel on YouTube until MrBeast passed it in June 2024.
