[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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Two inseparable couples continue to pace the field in our Global Top 50 ranking. Cadel and Mia and Jasmin and James combine their powers on the channel known as Double Date (#21 in this week’s Global Top 50), but their individual hubs are sitting 1-2 in our chart.
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Jasmin and James took the lead in the Global Top 50 for much of January, but as the calendar flips over into February, it’s Cadel and Mia’s turn to occupy the #1 position. The Australian duo picked up 1.85 billion weekly views, pushing its lifetime YouTube traffic above 50 billion hits.
The dream of the 90s is alive on YouTube Shorts
In case you didn’t get the memo, allow me to be the one who informs you that Gen Z loves the 90s. Based on the running order of this week’s charts, and the demographic makeup of YouTube Shorts, Gen Alpha seems to have its own affinity for 90s and 00s cultural touchstones.
This week, two of those enduring intellectual properties came into the short-form spotlight. Most notably, we saw several channels across our Top 50 charts that allude to Sonic the Hedgehog. The little blue guy who wants to go fast starred in video games and cartoons in the 90s, and his revival in the 2020s — via a blockbuster film series — has given short-form creators new ideas.
That’s the best explanation I can drum up for Sonic 2025, a channel that finished 40th in this week’s Global Top 50. With contemporary movie references that tie into 90s culture, Sonic 2025 crafts a multigenerational approach. Then the zaniness begins. The videos that get the most views on Sonic 2025 ultimately have little to do with the titular hedgehog, but without that namecheck, would the channel be able to draw millions of viewers in the first place?
My theory is that Sonic has become a popular choice for short-form slop channels because of the franchise’s long-term appeal. The success of a channel called Thepowerpuffgirls01 provides another point in support of my hypothesis. Though its name references a Cartoon Network from back in the day, its costumes pay homage to a different, more recent girl-power threesome: Huntrix, the musical group at the center of the Netflix smash Kpop Demon Hunters.
These “Powerpuff Girls” aren’t fooling anyone with their obviously Huntrix-coded videos, but viewers don’t seem to mind. Thepowerpuffgirls01 reached 26th place in the Global Top 50 after picking up 520.8 million weekly views. Kpop Demon Hunters was arguably the biggest YouTube Shorts phenomenon of 2025, and the budding franchise looks likely to continue that frontrunning into 2026 (unless Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup have something to say about that).
Data via Gospel Stats
If you think about it, joint references to 90s culture and 2020s culture make for a strong audience-building strategy on YouTube Shorts. Allusions to the cartoon hits of yore can pull in nostalgic parents, and the mentions of Rumi, Zoey, and Mira ensure that kids devote what little attention they have to spare.
If Sonic and The Powerpuff Girls are going to become recurring characters in the Global Top 50, it could pique the interest of some 90s TV veterans. Former Nickelodeon exec Brian Robbins is getting back into the YouTube game, and now he knows where to put references to the classic cartoons he has worked on.
Channel Distribution
Here’s a breakdown of the Top 50 Most Viewed channels this week in terms of their countries of origin:
- India: 20
- United States: 5
- Hong Kong: 4
- Indonesia and Taiwan: 3
- Australia, Canada, Egypt, and South Korea: 2
- Bangladesh, Brazil, China, Germany, Japan, and Kazakhstan: 1
This week, 44 channels in the Top 50 are primarily active on YouTube Shorts.
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