[Editor’s Note: Tubefilter Charts is a weekly rankings column from Tubefilter with data provided by GospelStats. It’s exactly what it sounds like; a top number ranking of YouTube channels based on statistics collected within a given time frame. Check out all of our Tubefilter Charts with new installments every week right here.]
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As YouTube’s change to its view counting methods continues to rewrite the internet record books, top short-form channels are hauling in billions of views at a time. This week, two different channels (KIMPRO and Double Date) each collected more than 2.3 million weekly views, with KIMPRO just edging out its Australian rival for the #1 spot in the Global Top 50.
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There’s a big dropoff after the top two spots, but 11 different channels — all of which are quite active on Shorts — collected at least one billion YouTube views during the week that was. As those hubs scale up, it’s become harder to tell truth from fiction, especially for channels that capitalize on popular memes.
Some people need to learn how to relax
Calming soundscapes get millions of views on YouTube by meeting the needs of light sleepers, studying students, and meditation practitioners across the globe. If there’s one thing I’ve learned in all my years covering YouTube, it’s that bizarre channels will always find ways to repurpose top trends in a nonsensical fashion, and the evergreen popularity of relaxing content is no exception.
I understand that everyone prefers different means of relaxation. One person may be soothed by a babbling brook, while another may prefer ambient coffee shop noise. That said, I need to know who uses Prism Relax Vlog to take a load off.
Of the three words in that channel’s title, two are misnomers. The most popular uploads you can find there are not vlogs — they’re the typical Shorts uploads that are commonplace in the Global Top 50. The videos do feature many different colors from the prism, but are they relaxing?
Not to me. If you’re someone who can calm down by watching four different loud, clattering videos at the same time, more power to you. In my mind, it’s hard to imagine anything more overstimulating than this.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/9Ykt4uhflnY
Apparently, I’m the one who doesn’t know how to relax, because Prism Relax Vlog is one of the biggest channels on YouTube. It got 525.9 million weekly views to reach 45th place in the Global Top 50. It’s possible that today’s youths have such low attention spans that only watching four videos at once constitutes a form of relaxation.
But that’s not what I think. With each passing week, channels that farm keywords — even if the videos themselves are completely incongruous with those terms — are taking up more space in the Global Top 50. East Asian countries provide a lot of those channels, and Prism Relax Vlog is one of Vietnam’s five representatives in the current ranking.
It’s almost as if doing the opposite of what your channel title says is the surest way to ensure high viewership. Another example is the hub Real Zaidify, which, despite its claims to realness, is populated with a lot of generative AI imagery.
Data via Gospel Stats
Will this ever end? How does YouTube itself feel about channels that capitalize on trends in the most chaotic way possible? It seems as if the new Shorts view counting methods only encourage these strategies, and creators all around the world are cashing in.
Channel Distribution
Here’s a breakdown of the Top 50 Most Viewed channels this week in terms of their countries of origin:
- India: 13
- United States: 10
- Vietnam: 5
- Hong Kong: 3
- Australia, Brazil, Russia, and Taiwan: 2
- Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Peru, South Korea, Spain, and Turkey: 1
This week, 44 channels in the Top 50 are primarily active on YouTube Shorts.
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