How Many YouTubers Have 5 Million Subscribers in 2025?

There’s a lot of chatter about YouTubers and how they make a living income from YouTube.

In the next few paragraphs, we will cover how many YouTubers have 5 million subscribers and how subscribers impact their channels.

We will also cover information about how to get the most out of YouTube.

YouTube has its guidelines and requirements before you can earn money from their Partner Program.

You must have at least 1,000 subscribers, plus 4,000 views over the course of one year (12 months) to be eligible for the program.

Your channel also has to be in compliance with all of YouTube’s terms of service, community guidelines, and policies.

There’s no doubt that having five million subscribers qualifies a channel in subscribers for the program.

The YouTube Partner Program allows the YouTuber to get some ad revenue from the views on their videos.

How Many YouTubers Have 5 Million Subscribers?

First, YouTube doesn’t share their information freely, so the data comes from expert estimates. That said, we cannot come up with an exact number for this question.

What we can provide is a percentage of YouTube subscribers over the one million mark found on the Statista website. That percentage is 21.1% of the channels on YouTube.

Here are more figures for subscribers from Statista.

• 6.92% of channels have less than 100 subscribers
• 11.31% of channels have between 100 and 1,000 subscribers.
• 20.1% of YouTubers have between 1,000 and 10,000 subscribers.
• 21.49% of YouTube channels have between 10,000 and 100,000 subscribers.
• 19.07% of channels have between 100,000 and 1 million subscribers.
• 21.1% have over 1 million subscribers.

How Much Can a YouTuber with 5 Million Subscribers Make?

The common guesstimate for how much a channel with five million subscribers earn is $60,000 or more per year.

By the time a channel reaches one million subscribers they can potentially make a yearly income of five to six figures.

When these YouTubers add their own affiliate links and product links, they can boost their revenues beyond the YouTube Partner Program.

Some marketers even say that you can start out of the gate without subscribers and make money with the right content and affiliate or product offers.

Keep in mind that it requires work, persistence, and effort to get to five million followers.

Did you know that YouTube gives actual awards to people when they reach certain milestones in subscribers? Let’s discuss that next.

What Kind of Awards Can You Get for Subscribers Milestones?

YouTube offers Creator Rewards for YouTubers as they reach various levels of subscriber milestones.

YouTube Creator Rewards are also referred to as YouTube Plaques or YouTube Play Buttons.

They call them Play Button awards because the iconic YouTube play button is encased in metal, which is what the trophy looks like.

Here are the Silver to Diamond Creator Play Buttons.

The Silver Creator Award 

This award is given to channels for reaching or surpassing 100,000 subscribers. The newest award is made from a combination of metals like nickel, zinc, carbon, and other trace metals.

The channel’s name is embossed on the trophy. At this level, YouTubers are also eligible to apply for their digital verification badge.

The Gold Creator Award

The Gold Creator Award goes to channels that achieve or surpass one million subscribers. This is a gold-plated brass metal and glass trophy with the play button.

The channel’s name is embossed on these trophies.

Custom Creator Award

Channels that get to at least 50 million subscribers get the Custom Creator Award.

The color of the trophy not only features the name of the channel on it, but it is also shaped like the channel’s logo.

For instance, PewDiePie’s award is Ruby colored, while Blackpink’s is black on a pink base.

The Red Diamond Creator Award

The next level is for 100 million subscribers and beyond. This one is the Red Diamond Creator Award. This trophy is a triangle with the play button that features a dark red crystal.

Only four YouTubers have received this award. The four that have this award are T-Series, PewDiePie, Cocomelon, and SET India.

What are Some Popular YouTube Channels with 5 Million Subscribers or More?

• Jake Paul, a YouTube musical artist and professional boxer, has 20.4 million followers and 7,176,897,337 views total since 2013. Earnings: $11.5 million.
• Markiplier, a gaming, parody, comedy, and entertaining channel, has 32.4 million subscribers and 17,851,559,957 views since 2012. Earnings: $13 million.
• Logan Paul, Jake Paul’s brother, a vlogger and apparel company, has 23.4 million subscribers and 5,833,874,419 views since 2015. Earnings: $14.5 million.
• VanossGaming is a gaming channel with 25.6 million subscribers and 14,576,146,369 total views since 2011. Earnings: $15.5 million.
• PewDiePie is a major gaming channel with 111 million subscribers and 28,204,106,058 views since 2010. Earnings: $15.5 million.

What Do You Need to Become a YouTuber?

It might surprise you to know that some of the most popular YouTubers today started with just their smartphones.

However, they graduated to more equipment and software to level up their video creation skills.

Some people star in their own videos, some host along with someone else, some never show their faces, some create whiteboards or animated videos.

Then there are those who create music or nature videos using footage from websites that are allowed for use on the platform.

If you decide to go all in with your video creation and your channel, you will eventually need the following things.

• A good camera or webcam.
• An external microphone.
• A tripod or Gimbal stabilizer to prevent shaky videos.
• Good lighting to brighten or add atmosphere to your videos.
• Video editing software like Adobe Premiere Elements, Photoscape, or other programs, You can also use Canva for free or buy the premium subscription.
• A laptop or desktop.

As mentioned, you can get started with your smartphone and invest in equipment as you can.

What are the Most Popular Niches On YouTube?

You will need to do some planning before you get started on YouTube. When selecting your niche make sure it’s something you are passionate about and something in which you have skills and knowledge.

YouTube users who watch videos know when you’re authentic and when you’re not so authentic. So, be authentic.

Here are some ideas for niches for you.

• Gaming is huge on YouTube even with Twitch being touted as the gaming video sharing platform. YouTube is still king.
• Technology covers a large amount of niches from which to choose, so if you know a lot about technology, this could be a good one to use.
• Unboxing toys, tech, subscription boxes, thrift store finds, and other products is very popular on YouTube.
• Product reviews help people make informed choices before making purchases. Most YouTubers use the platform to learn about new products and services before they buy.
• Food, baking, recipes, cooking, and anything food related is a great kind of content to create. You can also find good niches in this market.
• Vlogging is a popular thing to do on YouTube. If you want to share your knowledge and/or your life, this is an interesting way to get started.
• Beauty includes makeup, skincare, hair care, and anything that deals with the beauty market. Not only can you show off your products, you can create tutorials, how-to videos, and product reviews.
• Tutorials have a huge range of options. Whatever you know how to do can become a tutorial. You will find craft, crochet, knitting, and how to use software programs or other things is a great way to find your niche.
• Animals are cute. There is no denying it. Cute dogs, cats, and other pets or animals videos get a lot of attention on YouTube.
• How-To’s offer a way to show off your skillset in whatever niche you like.
• Humor is another great type of video content. If you’re funny, you can start a humorous YouTube channel.

Conclusion 

Since YouTube isn’t exactly forthcoming with their figures on the platform, probably for privacy reasons, the figures are calculated from what is found on YouTube and shared in blogs and statistical websites.

You should know now the importance of large numbers of subscribers is when it comes to how people use YouTube, what kinds of rewards you can get, how much money you can make, and what kind of content you can create.

If you’re planning to get started with your own YouTube channel, maybe you can join the ranks of the millions of subscribers someday.

Be patient, persistent, and passionate about your channel and its content.