Our competition

1T-Series, 114 million subscribers

A Bollywood music record label, T-Series is known for its music videos and movie trailers. The most popular upload, at 808 million views, is a music video for Indian singer Guru Randhawa’s “Gabru High Rated,” about a man determined to win over a beautiful woman with all the signs of luxury: fast cars, boat rides and blue Timbs.

2PewDiePie, 101 million subscribers

What does it take to be a successful professional YouTuber? Being a gamer? Being Swedish? Being racist? Once the most subscribed YouTuber until this year, the Minecraft Let’s Play-er has never publicly come out as alt-right, but has shared white supremacist videos, pulled an anti-Semitic prank and said the N-word. We’ll probably shy away from modeling our channel after this guy.

3Cocomelon-Nursery Rhymes, 62 million subscribers

It makes sense that the rise of online streaming would also mean a shift in where children’s entertainment is found. With just a click, parents can access a limitless amount of content designed to entertain and shape the youth of today. Cocomelon’s animated music videos cover a lot of ground, from learning the alphabet to dental hygiene.

45-Minute Crafts, 61 million subscribers

If only life could be made easier—or, dare we way, hacked? In addition to DIY tutorials and magic tricks, 5-Minute Crafts is also known for life hack videos, which include mesmerizing compilations of the various ways you can erase permanent marker, how to use a bra as a gas mask and the best way to peel an orange. (It turns out all you need is a syringe full of water and a license to practice medicine.)

5SET India, 57 million subscribers

Short for Sony Entertainment Television India, this online channel is an extension of Sony’s Hindi-language television channel. Maybe we should first try to make it as a multibillion-dollar entertainment company before setting our sights on YouTube success?

6Canal KondZilla, 53 million subscribers

This Portuguese-language music channel is owned by Konrad Dantas, screenwriter and producer from Brazil. Its most popular videos boast hundreds of millions of views, and its top videos are musically underproduced songs with catchy beats and themed heavily around women as sex objects.

7WWE, 49 million subscribers

Sports drama is a sure-fire way to arouse emotions in people, but how can you make sure drama ensues? Having a script and creative writers who dictate the sports-adjacent drama sure helps. WWE has capitalized on its larger-than-most characters and traditional story lines about betrayal, violence and pettiness. We can definitely take a page out of their commitment to theater.

8Justin Bieber, 47 million subscribers

It doesn’t hurt to have a real-live pop star in your YouTube channel. Between radio play, interpersonal drama, musical collaborations and cameos, Justin Bieber has remained a hot name in the world of media. Our lesson? Maybe we could lie and say we got someone famous in one of our videos.

9Dude Perfect, 46 million subscribers

Trick shots appeal to the most basic part of humans: the desire to see things go into other things. Dude Perfect drip-feeds its subscribers highlight reels of just that—ping pong balls going into cups, ping pong balls going into cups or ping pong balls going into cups.

10Zee Music Company, 45 million subscribers

Another Bollywood channel in the top 10, really hammering home the fact that once we hit it big in our local markets, we really do need to diversify into the broader world media.