With the pandemic, more and more people choose to spend their time on YouTube, watching entertaining and educational videos or other content. Finding videos on YouTube is getting easier as advanced algorithms now find content that perfectly matches your interests and goals. This makes YouTube the winner among all other social media based on time spent on the platform.
Competition continues to grow as more and more people introduce their content on the platform. But this doesn’t mean that all interesting ideas have already been created and that all views are divided between top channels. If you create high-quality, trendy, and unique content, you have a good chance to boost your channel on YouTube regardless of the niche. Especially since YouTube introduced an update that changed everything at the beginning of 2021 :)
We will look at the 10 fastest-growing YouTube channels of 2021 proving that despite the huge competition you can grow and rank in your niche on YouTube.
Notice that it’s not a typical list of big-name channels. These are channels that grew the fastest in 2021.
Let’s compare their channel metrics at the end of 2020 and the beginning of 2021.
KIM ORO
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCS5hmRlKBfQ0dTP8qafbLQA
Social videos
Theme: 99% of the channel’s content is #Shorts - vertical videos on modern social issues.
Created - February 25, 2021
They’ve received over 4 million subscribers and over 4 billion views since the moment of creation.
Imagine, the channel had 0 subscribers and 0 views.
Now - 4 million subscribers, 3.5 billion views a month (in May 2021).
Topper Guild
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPuEAY09CtdTzFNWuqVZgDw
Theme: Entertaining videos (pranks)
This creator is also popular on TikTok with over 23 mil subscribers.
This YouTube channel was created in 2014 but at the end of 2020 they had only reached up to 3 million views a month.
In April 2021, the creator accepted the ‘new rules of the game’ and started using the new YouTube feature #Shorts that are quite similar to TikTok videos.
With #Shorts, the channel received 390 million views in April and 3.5 billion views in May!
The channel had 400K subscribers with over 3 mil views a month.
Now - over 3 million subscribers with over 3 billion views a month.
Imkavy
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOxGzd-Wfd6BiP6_YXbDnLA
Theme: Fitness content
In 2020, this was a regular fitness blog. But at the beginning of 2021, the author created the first #Shorts video that received over 1 million views. Since then, the channel posts short videos mixing them with a regular fitness blog format.
The author posts 1-2 regular videos and about 100 Shorts videos per month, which attracts a lot of traffic to the channel.
The channel had 40K subscribers with 50K views a month.
Now - 1.7 million subscribers with 1.5 million views a month.
Ilysm Nails
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkWOpf05w9dPthQ-2tXndfA
Theme: Nail art.
The channel posted short videos about nail art that received few views.
At the beginning of 2021, the author started using #Shorts and as a result, some videos immediately gained several million views. The channel continues posting #Shorts and receives hundreds of millions of views.
The channel had 10K subscribers with 400K views a month.
Now - 760K subscribers with 200 million views a month.
5-Minute Crafts Recycle
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCLVg6BI7NxDIp6GFKfFGFw
Theme: DIY videos
The main channel content is Do-It-Yourself videos and is very successful.
At the beginning of 2021, the channel started using YouTube Shorts.
The author had been posting for 2 years but had unstable results.
With #Shorts, the channel traffic grew 30 times.
The channel had 40K subscribers with 30 million views a month.
Now - over 7 million subscribers with over 400 million views a month (in May 2021).
Dan Rhodes
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6D1L2vxEAg_Vi0JSxMBDgA
Theme: Magic tricks
For over 4 years the author posted long and short videos of different magic tricks.
At the beginning of 2021, the author started using YouTube Shorts.
The first #Shorts video received 27 million views (at the time this article was written). The author continues to post high-quality videos in a #Shorts format receiving billions of views a month and redirecting traffic to other social media.
The channel had 20K subscribers with 500K views a month.
Now - 3.8 million subscribers with 1.4 billion views a month.
Zhong
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCyagEfIN1okQ-s996XAqCFQ
Theme: Pranks on friends
The channel authors posted regular videos in 2019/20, but at the end of 2020, they stopped posting.
Then, at the beginning of 2021, when YouTube introduced #Shorts they decided to revive the channel with the new feature and succeeded.
The channel had 385K subscribers with 200K views a month.
Now - 2.8 million subscribers with over 900 million views a month.
ZutiGang
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNBTflmnht6ZMRNCDNilw9g
Theme: Pranks and testing life hacks in real life
This author is famous on TikTok with over 5 million subscribers.
The YouTube channel was created on March 5, 2021, with only #Shorts videos. TikTok videos are a perfect fit for YouTube Shorts and the channel author took advantage of this new feature to attract additional traffic on other platforms and develop his personal brand.
The channel had 0 subscribers and 0 views.
Now - (info about subscribers is hidden), 1.5 billion views a month (in May 2021)
Satisfying Mix
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmloGqUEraKu2IGQ2SXZ4Rg
Theme: Entertaining videos
99% of the channel content is relaxing videos with various materials (fruit, paints, etc.), or subjects + life hacks
This channel posts #Shorts videos only.
The channel had 0 subscribers and 0 views.
Now - 1.2 million subscribers, 1.2 billion views a month (in May 2021).
TIKTORIKI
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCM5oBZ-P131W8lGHHfkScLw
Theme: Family pranks and challenges
The channel was created on January 13, 2021, for YouTube Shorts videos.
Besides regular pranks, this couple also plays with creating illusions.
The channel had 0 subscribers, 0 views.
Now - 3 million subscribers, 1.5 billion views a month.
It doesn’t really matter what your niche is. If you create unique high-quality content and use a trendy format, which is currently YouTube Shorts, you’ll receive access to a huge amount of traffic with your audience.
Channels in the kids segment and other popular channels are still ranking on YouTube. But channels like those we mentioned on our list are catching up fast and receive more traffic with YouTube Shorts, current platform trends (short relaxing or funny videos receive more views than regular videos), and high-quality content.
Shorts give great opportunities to new creators that are ready to work hard and fight for views and attention. But it doesn’t mean you have to stop making regular videos. :)
In spite of the fact that YouTube Shorts can’t be monetized at the moment, the feature gives great opportunities: personal brand development and attracting additional traffic for other purposes (to grow other social media accounts, sales, etc.).
The most valuable thing on the market is people’s attention. The largest companies spend billions to attract attention. Creators that use #Shorts understand this well. They accumulate attention and use it for other purposes.
YouTube provides many options and you have every opportunity to use them to become #1 in your niche, while others are still debating whether they should try #Shorts.
We highly recommend new features, including YouTube Shorts, to test whether you can gain millions of views on your channel very soon.
Finally, we’ll share a little secret with you :) YouTube announced that they will enable monetization for YouTube Shorts in late 2021. If it happens, creators that already use YouTube Shorts will become millionaires by monetizing their views. Or maybe they’ve already become millionaires :) Don’t limit the growth and opportunities of your channel. Look for new sources of income and popularity by distributing and translating content for new markets, and launching continuous streams and mobile games. We talk more about non-standard approaches in our video guide, which is available here for free.
So, don’t lose your chance and boost your channel growth rate.
Good luck with your YouTube growth and algorithms!
