Quick Answer
How many YouTubers have 1 million subscribers in 2025?
There are approximately 25,000 to 30,000 channels with one million subscribers.
You may already be aware that YouTubers not only create and upload videos, many of them are making a living income through the platform.
To make money, YouTubers must have views and subscribers.
We will be addressing how many YouTubers have 1 million subscribers and other related data about YouTube, how to qualify for the Partner Program, and other ways YouTubers make money on this video sharing platform.
YouTube doesn’t share much information about their YouTubers or channel subscribers. The existing data changes daily, so there is no precise number.
Anyone can see how many subscribers a channel has simply by checking it out on the platform.
While no exact number is provided, we can provide a solid estimate that will give you the answer you seek.
Also, YouTube will never release figures based on how much money channels make, but we can find ranges of how much they make.
Let’s get started with answering the topic at hand and then move on to some interesting facts and statistics about being a YouTuber.
How Many YouTubers Have 1 Million Subscribers?
There are approximately 25,000 to 30,000 channels with at least one million subscribers.
When a YouTuber reaches the one million subscribers milestone, they get the Golden Play Button Award.
Around four YouTube channels reach the one million subscribers milestone each day.
Again, YouTube doesn’t release data on how many of those awards get handed out, but most of the time, YouTubers create videos about the award.
The idea for most who share their award is not to brag about it, but to thank their community of subscribers for helping them achieve this prestigious award.
YouTubers who reach this level are usually listening to what their audience wants. That’s not to say that YouTubers with under one million subscribers don’t meet the needs of their audiences.
Reaching one million subscribers takes passion, effort, time, and quality content.
What is a YouTuber?
A YouTuber is more than a casual user on the platform. YouTubers are people who upload, produce, create, or appear in videos across this video sharing site.
Sometimes, a YouTuber stands out from the crowd and will get offered TV deals.
In contrast, a YouTube user is a person with an account on the platform. Everyone with a YouTube account has access to a channel where they can upload videos if they so choose.
That said, a YouTube user is not always a YouTuber, but all YouTubers are YouTube users. Everyone on this video sharing platform has the opportunity to create or hire someone to create videos to upload to their channel.
Likewise, every channel has the opportunity to reach the subscriber and view counts to qualify for the YouTube Partner Program. We will cover that information later.
What is a Channel?
Much like you have a profile on social media accounts, YouTube has channels. Everyone with a YouTube account has a channel open to them.
Your channel is a space where you can group your videos whether you create them or not.
Your channel also allows you to organize your videos by playlists. You can create playlists for storing videos you want to revisit like you would bookmark a website in your browser.
Some people use their channels to become YouTubers.
You can imagine how they have worked to optimize their channels and videos.
A YouTube user can open more than one channel per Gmail/Google account.
What is a Subscriber?
YouTube channel subscribers are people or other YouTube accounts that subscribe to a channel.
Whenever a YouTuber uploads a new video their subscribers get a notification in their YouTube notifications, and maybe in their email or mobile notifications.
That’s how YouTubers get most of their views, which result in ad revenues. They can get more views when their subscribers and other YouTube users share their videos.
Someone with one million subscribers or more may get hundreds of thousands of views in under 24 hours.
What are the Requirements for the YouTube Partner Program?
Before you can join the YouTube Partner Program, a YouTube channel needs at least 1,000 subscribers and at least 4,000 watch hours on their videos in 12 months.
The channel must also comply with the policies of the Partner Program.
Besides complying with the YouTube Partner Program, eligible accounts must also adhere to the spam policies, Community Guidelines, and Terms of Service laid out by YouTube.
So, just because you achieve the subscriber and views counts doesn’t mean you automatically qualify for the YouTube Partner Program.
However, if you do, you can monetize your videos and your channel(s).
YouTubers with more than 1 million subscribers doesn’t necessarily qualify for the Partner Program unless they meet all the other criteria.
How Much Money Can a YouTuber With 1 Million Subscribers Make?
YouTube doesn’t just share the specifics about how much their YouTubers make according to subscribers.
The calculations are done by looking at how much ad revenue can be attained per 1,000 views.
As you can imagine, someone with one million subscribers can rake in hundreds of thousands to millions of views.
The figures vary according to the channel, but it will take thousands of views to make any money once you’re in the Partner Program.
That said, the average earnings for YouTubers is about $18 per 1,000 ad views. That breaks down as $3 to $5 per 1,000 video views.
The average YouTuber with a minimum of one million subscribers earns around $60,000 per year.
YouTubers who surpass the one million subscriber milestone can potentially earn five to six figures per year, resulting in a full-time income for part-time work. It’s working smarter instead of harder.
Therefore, YouTubers with over 1 million subscribers can potentially result in a living income.
Making money from YouTube’s Partner Program is just one way YouTubers earn revenue. They can also make money through affiliate programs and merchandise.
Making money from YouTube channels has as much to do with monetizing your channel with tags, keywords, key phrases, and affiliate or other product offerings as it does being part of the Partner Program and monetization through Google.
Are There YouTubers With 10 Million or More Subscribers?
The simple answer to this question is yes. It’s already hard to believe that a channel could achieve the one million subscriber milestone, but what if you learn that there are channels with well over 10 million subscribers?
The T-Series channel, a popular Music Label and Movie Studio out of India, has 211 million subscribers. Since 2006 this channel has also gotten over 185 billion views.
Here is a list of five more channels with unbelievably high subscriber counts.
- Cocomelon: 131 million
- SET India: 129 million
- PewDiePie: 111 million
- Kids Diana Show: 91.8 million
- WWE: 86.5 million
The subscriber counts on these channels increase daily, so these figures are subject to change. These are the numbers at the time of this writing.
At the lower end of the subscriber numbers are channels with between 10 and 100 subscribers, which includes about 25 million channels.
Another 17 million plus channels have between 100 and 1,000 subscribers.
Conclusion
The answer to the question of “how many YouTubers have 1 million subscribers”, is between 25,000 and 30,000.
Depending on who you ask, you may find 23,000 to 24,000 to be the answer.
The truth is that with four channels achieving one million subscribers per day it means YouTubers with this many subscribers are growing.
There are 36.3 million channels on YouTube among over 2.5 billion users worldwide.
About 4.4 million have achieved the minimum 1,000 subscribers to meet the basic Partner Program requirements in subscribers. Another 306,000 plus channels have over 100,000 subscribers.
Unfortunately, smaller channels with lower subscriber numbers aren’t very active, so the competition overwhelms their content.
This is why we encourage persistence and patience when trying to build your YouTube channel.
There is a dark side to YouTube subscribers that few talk about. That is the fact that some YouTubers buy subscribers just for the numbers.
You can usually weed them out by looking at their subscribers and compare that to their views.
For instance, if you find a channel with over one million subscribers that recently uploaded a video with less than a few thousand views, they may not have as many active subscribers as it appears.
We don’t recommend buying subscribers, but there are ways to boost your subscribers through social media and website content.
If you want to succeed on YouTube, consider the top types of video content like educational, tutorials, how-tos, explainers, and similar video content types.
