[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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BabyBillion has pulled off a rare feat in our Global Top 50 chart. The India-based family channel finished #1 in each of the last four editions of our weekly YouTube viewership ranking. That means it has run the table for the month of March, going wire-to-wire as the #1 channel. This week, it added 1.52 billion weekly views.
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Global events have shaken up the rest of the charts. YouTube is a trusted news source for people around the world, and those updates are currently in high demand.
Indians are following the war in Iran on YouTube
The joint U.S.-Israel assault on Iran has profoundly affected the Indian economy. The world’s most populous nation relies on oil shipments that travel through the Strait of Hormuz, which has become one of the war’s primary hotspots. As a result, Indians are dealing with gas shortages and harboring concerns about overseas relatives.
For many members of the South Asian diaspora, YouTube has become a critical platform. The video hub doubles as a news source for hundreds of millions — if not billions — of Indian consumers, and their consumption is spread across dozens of channels. In the latest Global Top 50, six entrants are either India-based news providers or official government channels.
A dive into one of those channels reveals that updates about Iran are coming in all possible formats. NTDV India, a 24-hour news hub, has hosted round-the-clock live streams, many of which are later repurposed as long-form uploads. On Shorts, some clips from NTDV’s coverage have amassed view counts as high as 27 million.
A key asset for many of India’s top YouTube-based news networks is that they don’t have to compete with each other. Instead, they deliver the details across dozens of the country’s regional languages, each of which is spoken by millions of people. While channels like NDTV cover Hindi-speaking audiences, hubs like Prime9 News focus on Telugu speakers.
There are more than 80 million native Telugu speakers in India, but Prime9 doesn’t limit itself to that audience. Instead, with auto-dubs that sometimes feel a bit off-kilter, the channel also makes inroads among the English-speaking community. Even in a news landscape divided across numerous tongues, some channels strive for universal appeal.
For Prime9 News, that strategy is working. With 459.2 million weekly views, the India-based hub reached 24th place in the Global Top 50. That was good for a 22% week-over-week increase, and Prime9 News’ weekly traffic has more than doubled over the past month.
Data via Gospel Stats
The United States, of course, is affected by the war in Iran as well, but no U.S.-based news channels managed to crack the Global Top 50 this week. More Americans are getting their news from social media, but that habit doesn’t seem to be quite as ingrained as it is in India.
Some journalists, like Johnny Harris, are trying to flip the script by providing digital resources for U.S.-based journalists. Meanwhile, India’s Top 50 entrants are showing that volume, global translations, and a multiformat approach can bring any self-starting news hub to the top of the charts.
Channel Distribution
Here’s a breakdown of the Top 50 Most Viewed channels this week in terms of their countries of origin:
- India: 23
- United States: 6
- Canada and Vietnam: 3
- Indonesia and Taiwan: 2
- Argentina, Australia, China, Colombia, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Peru, Russia, and South Korea: 1
This week, 38 channels in the Top 50 are primarily active on YouTube Shorts.
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