[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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Will two collaborating couples go 1-2 in the Global Top 50 for all of February? Cadel and Mia and Jasmin and James are one week away from achieving that feat.
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For the third week in a row, the two couples featured on the Double Date channel occupied the top two spots in our ranking of the most-watched YouTube channels. Cadel and Mia took their turn in first place after picking up 1.23 billion weekly views during the week ending on February 15. Jasmin and James were right behind with 1.21 billion weekly views, and the rest of the world follows from there.
The Indian kids of YouTube Shorts are doing the Olympics their way
It’s the time of year when creators all over the world highlight athletic accomplishments to get a piece of the YouTube traffic associated with the Winter Olympics. But what can Indian channels do to join the fun?
To put it bluntly, India’s history at the Winter Olympics is nearly nonexistent. The world’s most populous nation has sent only 16 athletes to the Winter Games since forming its first delegation in 1964, and none of those Olympians came home with medals.
But if the YouTube Shorts community is going to catch Olympic fever, Indian creators are going to find a way to relate to their audience. For the nation’s family channels, that means doing what they do best: distilling ideas into simple, universal themes that can connect with millions of viewers.
So if you need to make a “gold medal” video, why not tie it into a classic fable? That’s what Mampi Roy did. The Hindi-language hub turned “The Tortoise and the Hare” into an Olympic event, with two adorable kids as the competitors. The result has been stupendous: The video has picked up more than 650 million views since the start of the calendar year. As a result, Mampi Roy reached 41st place in the Global Top 50 with 430.8 million weekly views.
In algorithmic terms, simple ideas like “competition,” “challenge,” and “race” can forge connections to current viewership trends. It’s harder to say whether the creators themselves think about those connections as they’re shooting videos, but the correlation is there. Family channels that embrace gamified ideas are surging right now.
Take Koko & Golu, the 48th-ranked channel in the Global Top 50. Thanks in large part to challenge videos, KoKo & Golu got 409.1 million weekly views, which was good enough for a 14% week-over-week increase. A lot of factors are informing that uptick, but the bottom line is that the Koko & Golu channel is performing better than it has all year.
Data via Gospel Stats
The interesting thing isn’t necessarily that Indian creators can adapt to a specific short-form trend. What I find fascinating is that these channels are so generalized — and their Shorts libraries are so fast — that their videos can shine within any cultural context.
Even though 24 of the Top 50 channels hail from India, creators in other countries can access those winning strategies, too. Word to the wise: If you’re uploading a challenge video at some point in the next week, maybe throw in a gold medal emoji for good measure.
Channel Distribution
Here’s a breakdown of the Top 50 Most Viewed channels this week in terms of their countries of origin:
- India: 24
- Canada, Hong Kong, Indonesia, and United States: 3
- Australia, South Korea, and Taiwan: 2
- Bangladesh, China, Egypt, Germany, Kazakhstan, Spain, and Vietnam: 1
This week, 45 channels in the Top 50 are primarily active on YouTube Shorts.
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