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The channel with more YouTube views than any other also got the most YouTube views during the final week of August. T-Series regained its rightful place at the head of the Global Top 50 by picking up 778.8 million weekly views. That sum brought T-Series up to 353.2 billion lifetime views on YouTube.
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As per usual, T-Series’ lineup consists of music videos, movie trailers, and other forms of entertainment catered to South Asian audiences. Over the years, however, the company founded by Gulshan Kumar in 1983 has added new content types to keep up with the shifting appetites of digital viewers.
T-Series is still switching it up after all these years
The Mumbai-based company registered its official YouTube channel 20 years ago, and for much of the time since, T-Series has been part of YouTube’s upper echelon. It’s hard to believe it’s already been seven years since T-Series and PewDiePie battled for YouTube’s subscriber crown, and even though MrBeast has taken the subscriber lead since then, T-Series is still the unchallenged #2 in that ranking.
T-Series’ YouTube success might seem like a given, but that’s not the case. Other Indian entertainment hubs that once ruled the Global Top 50, such as Sony SAB and SET India, are now nowhere to be found in our viewership ranking. Indian media companies that continue to deliver the same old stories are still successful from a dollars-and-cents perspective, but on YouTube, independent creators in the world’s most populous nation are starting to get much more shine.
And yet, despite that shift, T-Series is #1 in this week’s ranking. How does this YouTube stalwart continue to stay in front of the competition? The answer has everything to do with YouTube Shorts.
T-Series was a leader in our Global Top 50 before Shorts existed, but to maintain its chart-topping position in recent years, it has had to increase its output of short-form videos. Long-form music videos with billions of lifetime views are still important in the T-Series equation, but the company also boils down those hits to create snippets that can add billions more views on Shorts.
It turns out that not even T-Series is exempt from the game of viral trend copycat that pushes channels to the front of the Global Top 50. Like other brands with strong chart positions, YouTube’s all-time most-viewed channel is compelled to pay attention to the prevailing short-form content categories. Once it gathers that information, it can update its own library to keep pace.
If we zoom out from the worlds of music and movies, we can find channels that have adopted similar strategies. Food content, for example, is an enduring niche on YouTube Shorts. Viewers flock to bite-sized recipes to find their next bit of inspiration in the kitchen.
MERI MAGGI has taken advantage of that consumer behavior. The channel is affiliated with Maggi, a brand trusted around the world for its seasoning blends. Its ads offer serving suggestions for its premade products, and millions of viewers catch those sports. The inclusion of catchy jingles adds broader appeal.
Data via Gospel Stats
After surging forward over the past six months, MERI MAGGI just had one of its best-ever weeks in the Global Top 50. It got 431.6 million weekly views, which put it in 15th place in the Global Top 50. If it keeps up its current pace, it will get to ten billion lifetime views by the end of September.
Of course, as brands like T-Series and MERI MAGGI adapt to the YouTube Shorts era, the ground is still shifting beneath them. Over the next few months, new trends will pop up in South Asian communities, and it will be up to companies like T-Series to continue paying attention.
Channel Distribution
Here’s a breakdown of the Top 50 Most Viewed channels this week in terms of their countries of origin:
- India: 21
- United States: 8
- Canada: 3
- Australia, Indonesia, Pakistan, and Vietnam: 2
- Argentina, Bangladesh, Belgium, China, Germany, Japan, Russia, and South Korea: 1
This week, 41 channels in the Top 50 are primarily active on YouTube Shorts.
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