In the ever-evolving world of YouTube, understanding the dynamics behind the fastest-growing channels is not just a matter of curiosity but a strategic necessity for YouTubers, talent agencies, Brands and creator services. Here we explore the current landscape of rapidly growing YouTube channels, the importance of tracking these trends, and how to leverage this in your channel discovery.
The Phenomenon of Fast-Growing Channels
Current landscape:
YouTube channels with rapid subscriber growth, like those hitting 100k subscribers or being the fastest growing in their niche, offer a snapshot of what's trending and what resonates with audiences.
Significance of tracking growth momentum:
The journey from obscurity to becoming one of the "fastest growing YouTube channels" involves more than just accumulating subscribers. It's about deciphering the momentum and strategies fueling this growth.
Achieving significant milestones, such as 100k subscribers, often indicates a channel's influence in setting trends for content creation and viewer engagement.
Who Benefits?
Content Creators: Identifying and analyzing these channels aids in refining content strategies to align with successful trends.
Talent Agencies: Spot potential talents early in their growth trajectory.
Brands: it's advantageous to initiate engagement with YouTubers at an early stage, when they are more accessible and before their demand and associated partnership costs increase significantly.
So who grew in 2023 Q4?
Lots of channels are growing fast, knowing which ones will isn’t easy, sometimes it feels completely random. However finding channels that are growing is possible.
As lots of channels find success, it’s important to understand there are multiple ways to assess growth, each type has its relevance and application in varying scenarios. The key is to connect with smaller creators early while also ensuring larger channels maintain growth. Here are a few examples of growing channels:
By subscriber number
Gala Toons -
https://www.youtube.com/@galatoons:
launched in October 2023, this channel now boasts nearly 2 million subscribers - Imagine partnering with them in November 2023!
Dan Rhodes -
https://www.youtube.com/@danrhodes
- grew by 30%… over 200k subscribers per month. The top creators need to stay relevant, Dan is still growing his ‘magic’ audience.
By subscriber %
Meme boy -
https://www.youtube.com/@memeboy5101
- experienced an impressive surge in their subscriber base, with a remarkable increase of over 73,000% month-on-month. Meme boy says “next step Mr. Beast”, there is of course a long way to go until then, but this channel's journey is a testament to the potential for growth at any stage. Despite a period of stagnant growth following its inception in August 2022, the channel witnessed a significant upturn towards the end of 2023, illustrating that channels can indeed experience growth spurts well after their creation.
Heal the Soul -
https://www.youtube.com/@healthesoul7566/
- 29900% growth in the past 3 months to 21k subscribers. This channel has a growing audience and likely few enquiries for partnership up to now.
It’s not just about subscriber growth, eyes on videos is often a benchmark of specific contents success. Even these channels have videos that compared to their top hits had very few eyeballs.
Why did they grow? How can you grow yours or your partners channel?
Unfortunately, there isn't a one-size-fits-all solution for channel growth on YouTube. That’s why more than ever, it's crucial to continuously monitor which channels are gaining traction. The methods for expanding a channel vary and often depend on the audience size.
For example, smaller channels benefit from engaging with and promoting each other through likes, subscriptions, and mutual interaction, which can include shoutouts in videos or simply boosting engagement through comments and views. On the other hand, for channels with over 10,000 subscribers, it becomes challenging to maintain this level of interaction and simultaneously produce high-quality content.
However, there are several broad strategies that can aid in audience growth.
Consistent and Regular Posting
: Maintain a consistent posting schedule. It does not need to be daily, or even weekly (although it helps), most important is that you are consistent. Research shows that channels that post consistently tend to grow faster.
Understanding Your Audience:
Youtube provides awesome data! Use YouTube Analytics to understand your audience's preferences, demographics, and viewing habits. Tailor your content to meet their interests and needs. Produce what they want to watch… not what you want them to watch.
Thumbnails and Titles:
This is often totally missed, but think how often you judge a book by its cover. ****Create compelling and clear thumbnails and titles. They are the first thing potential viewers see and can significantly impact click-through rates.
Leverage Trends
: Stay up-to-date with current trends and topics in your niche. Creating content around trending topics can attract more viewers. Losing track of this is why some channels pop up out of nowhere for a few weeks, only to lose all that momentum again soon after.
Collaborations
: Collaborate with other YouTubers or influencers in your niche. This can help you reach new audiences and gain credibility and is fun for both creators and audiences. Plus who doesn’t love a special episode with a guest.
How can you track who is growing?
Channelcrawler has a number of filters that help you to spot growing channels. Below are just some of the ways you can identify fast growing Youtube channels, and we recommend trying them every few days to make sure you don’t miss out!
Average number of subscriber growth - See how many subscribers they are adding each month.
Average % growth of subscribers - For smaller channels this number can be in the thousands. Regularly reviewing the channels hitting high numbers here will mean you and your team aren’t missing out on opportunities.
Average views per month - Important to check it actually is getting views. Some channels you may see have 50k+ subscribers, but never more than 100 views on a video. This is often a sign of fake subscribers.
Views growth change % - There may have been some viral videos, the content may have become more engaging. Either way there is often a short window to jump on the opportunity this provides.