[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.]
Scroll down for this week’s Tubefilter Chart. 👇
Alejo Igoa, who has been dubbed (by me specifically) as the Argentinian MrBeast, is still #1 in the Global Sub Top 50. He now has more than 83 million total subs after adding 1.9 million new ones during the last full week of July.
Subscribe to get the latest creator news
During Igoa’s run, the OG MrBeast has typically ranked right behind me, but this time out, Jimmy Donaldson finds himself in fifth place in the Global Sub Top 50. In his place, another U.S.-based creator is challenging Igoa by applying the lessons he has learned through a full career of short-form experiences.
In Ben Azelart’s Shorts, you never know what will happen (until you click)
In this week’s Global Sub Top 50, Ben Azelart is sitting in second place. The Dallas-born, Hawaii-bred creator added 1.6 million new subscribers during our most recent seven-day measurement period. With that performance, he pushed his YouTube subscriber count above 43 million while moving up to second place in our subscriber ranking.
As far as short-form creators go, few can say they have more experience than Azelart. He’s been making videos since the days of Musical.ly, and he’s been a steady performer in our Tubefilter charts ever since the introduction of YouTube Shorts. He also produces some of the biggest sponsored videos on YouTube, but that’s a story for another day.
Azelart has always been big, but his rise to the #2 spot makes me wonder what has driven his most recent viewership uptick. One solution I’ve stumbled upon concerns his thumbnails, and the way he uses them to command attention from potential viewers.
When you look through Azelart’s video library, you may see him perched in the middle of a dangerous stunt. That’s nothing new for a creator who loves a good challenge, but Azelart’s thumbnails suggest that his antics could go horribly awry. His thumbnails suggest that he’s about to be injured by a dangerous theme park ride or a katana mishap.
Curious viewers who click on the corresponding videos learn that reality is not as dire as the thumbnails make it seem. I’m happy that Azelart didn’t actually stab his feet on a surface of needles, even if he wanted us to believe that such an outcome was possible.
On YouTube Shorts, retention is key, so the art of the tease becomes a key skill for the most short-form-savvy creators. Azelart certainly falls into that category, and he is thriving thanks to some of the most shocking — and, in many cases, misleading — thumbnails in the business. Somewhere in Vietnam, I’m sure ToRung is proud.
When you peruse the Global Sub Top 50, you find extreme teases everywhere. One of the channels in this week’s ranking applies that strategy to its name. What Happened Next wasn’t even active on YouTube at the start of the year, but it’s quickly become one of the 50 most-subscribed channels of the week by presenting viewers with fascinating situations that don’t resolve themselves until the very end of the video. That strategy brought 320,000 new subscribers to What Happened Next during the last full week of July.
Data via Gospel Stats
The power of a good tease is not new knowledge, but the strong results achieved by these channels show just how crucial that aspect of YouTube production has become. Vertical video producers should learn lessons from Azelart if they want to climb the rankings themselves, and if Andy Cohen ever wants to get huge on YouTube, he can change the name of Watch What Happens Live to What Happens Next Live.
Channel Distribution
Here’s a breakdown of the Top 50 Most Viewed channels this week in terms of their countries of origin:
- United States: 15
- India: 9
- Hong Kong: 4
- Japan: 3
- Australia, Brazil, and Indonesia: 2
- Argentina, Belarus, China, Egypt, Germany, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Taiwan, Uzbekistan, and Vietnam: 1
This week, 35 channels in the Top 50 are primarily active on YouTube Shorts.
As always, keep up to speed with the latest Tubefilter Charts and all our news by subscribing to our newsletter. You’re going to love it. 👉 Newsletter.Tubefilter.com.
