The elusive Red Diamond Play Button or the ultimate symbol of success on YouTube. A reward reserved exclusively for channels that have surpassed 100 million subscribers. It’s an insane show of hard work and years of dedication. As of October 2025, only a select few have earned this prestigious recognition. Let’s have a look.
Channels That Have the Red Diamond Play Button
As of 2025, there are 14 channels that have been honored with the Red Diamond Play Button Award. The names go as follows:
- T-Series - An Indian music and film production company, they became the first channel to reach 100 million subscribers on May 29, 2019.
- PewDiePie - Swedish YouTuber Felix Kjellberg, the first individual to receive the Red Diamond Play Button award on August 25, 2019.
- Cocomelon - A channel that specializes in 3D animated children’s nursery rhymes, a third channel to reach 100 million subscribers on December 12, 2020.
- SET India - Sony Entertainment Television India’s channel, that offers a variety of shows, crossed the 100 mil threshold on March 28, 2021.
- MrBeast - American YouTuber Jimmy Donaldson, known for his philanthropic approach to the content (plus elaborate challenges) hit the mark on July 28, 2022.
- Kids Diana Show - A children’s channel of Ukrainian origin run by Diana and her family, joined the club on August 16, 2022.
- Zee Music Company - Yet another channel from India! This Indian music company, a subsidiary of Zee Entertainment Enterprises, reached 100 million subscribers on September 24, 2023.
- WWE - World Wrestling Entertainment, is an American-based wrestling promotion. It reached the needed subscriber count on March 8, 2024.
- Goldmines - One of the Indian Hindi channels owned by Goldmines Telefilms. It broadcasts Hindi dubbed versions of South Indian films produced by the company, which is how it reached 100 million subs on September 20, 2024.
- Strokes Twins - Owned by Alan Chen Strokes and Alex Chen Strokes, are American twins known for their YouTube and TikTok content. At first, both of them started making videos separately and then joined forces, which helped them hit the mark of 100 mil on November 30, 2024.
- Sony SAB - Another Indian Hindi-language general entertainment company owned by Culver Max Entertainment. It surpassed the mark of 100 mil on March 17, 2025.
- KIMPRO - A South Korean YouTube channel known for its hilarious comedy skits and challenges, became the first Korean channel to reach 100 million subs on April 17, 2025.
Advice from YouTube’s Legends
Reaching 100 million subscribers is no small feat, and it's especially impressive when an individual not associated with any company, gets to that threshold. So, let’s see what those people had to say about this milestone and how they felt after finally achieving it.
PewDiePie
As of right now, PewDiePie’s channel has 110 million subscribers and 29 billion overall views. VidIQ states that his approximate monthly earnings range from $12k to $36k, which is wild for those who have just started YouTube.
What you see is only an approximate estimation based on the amount of monthly views Felix gets.
15 years ago, PewDiePie uploaded his first video on YouTube, which was just a basic ‘having fun on Minecraft’ with friends. As he describes, back then, getting 100 subscribers was a huge deal to him, and 4 views on his first video was something worth celebrating.
“It took so many uploads just for me to even hit 100 subscribers and hitting 100 subscribers was HUGE. [...] I had no idea what I was doing; I just knew I enjoyed it. [...] I knew that a career on YouTube was so far away. It was more of a myth than a dream at this point, because people didn’t even know if it was possible.”
As PewDiePie describes his own content back in the day:
“It wasn’t good. It wasn’t engaging. It wasn’t even original, but I loved it.”
He did YouTube for the fun of it, not because he was chasing fame. But he did have faith, even if it was a tiny one at the back of his mind. From video to video, one of the advice he gives is to keep going no matter what.
The journey to 100 million was about 9 years long, it had its ups and downs, and through all of this experience, Felix had grown and understood the responsibility he carries as a creator with a multi-million platform to speak on.
“I’ve made a ton of mistakes on the way, but I’ve grown. I feel like I have, at least. And I feel like I’ve finally come to terms with the responsibility I have as a creator. About 100 million subs too late, but, you know…”
His main advice to the aspiring future legends is to ‘enjoy what you do’. As long as you enjoy uploading videos on YouTube, the passion will carry you forward through the good and bad of your career.
MrBeast
Next up is the current number 1 - MrBeast. As of now, his channel is eligible for the Blue Diamond Award, which is given after surpassing the threshold of 400 million subscribers. Impressive, right? The approximate stats based on his monthly viewership are even more impressive:
With 98 billion overall views, it’s no surprise that MrBeast’s estimated earnings are between $5 million and $15 million. This is how he can afford all those extravagant videos for our entertainment.
This is what Jimmy says about his legendary career on YouTube:
“I started making videos when I was 11 years old. I’ve spent more of my life making YouTube videos than NOT making YouTube videos. [...] Contrary to popular belief, when I started I had no money. I didn’t have rich parents, I didn’t have anything. [...] I had no equipment. I was, like, recording videos on my brother’s old hand-me-down laptop, I didn’t have a microphone. I couldn’t afford a microphone. Couldn’t afford my own computer, couldn’t afford anything.”
What saved him then was dedication and a dream of greatness. And, thirteen years later, he was breaking 100 million subscriber count in 2022.
“Literally all I do is wake up every day and obsess over how to make the best videos possible. It’s all I care about. It’s the only thing that ever made me happy.”
His main advice has always been to just keep going, keep creating, no matter what. First videos will always look bad, but if you don’t upload, if you don’t keep going forward, there will be nothing to learn from and grow from. You don’t need expensive equipment or spend as much money as MrBeast does. What you have to do is express yourself and your passion.
Since the start of his career, like most popular YouTubers, MrBeast has had a lot of controversies with him at its center, but despite the hiccups, he managed to stay afloat through pure dedication and hard work.
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Kids Diana Show had become the first kids vlog channel to reach 100 million subscribers in August of 2022, which made her the third individual to reach this milestone. AIR Media-Tech has helped Diana on her way to success, and we are honored to be a small part of her journey on YouTube. As of now, Diana’s channel is the sixth most subscribed channel in the world.
The estimated statistics go as follows:
The whole family is originally from Ukraine, but had moved to America first, and Dubai later. They started posting on the channel back in 2015, when the first video had appeared and had kick-started the family's career.
“It all started as a hobby: we made videos of our kids to keep memories of the precious moments of their childhood. YouTube was the best choice for uploading videos and making sure they won’t get lost. Then we started noticing trending videos of other kids on the platform and tried to adapt our content also to make it more appealing to a wider audience.”
Source: digitalstudio
After around six months, our team had discovered the channel and helped it grow even further.
“The secret of Diana's success is, first of all, the daily work of the girl and her parents, acting skills, and the high quality of the videos. As well as practical knowledge on the development and growth of YouTube channels from the professional team of AIR Media-Tech. After all, Diana and her family are 100% focused on creating content, while our team helps to solve arising difficulties with the platform,” says Sergii Bielousov, the co-founder of AIR Media-Tech.
So, once again, dedication, passion, great content, and a little help from professionals who know the ins and outs of YouTube. It’s all as simple as that!
Strokes Twins
Another individual, or rather, two people who reached the 100 million milestone. As it is now, their channel mainly focuses on pranks and humor, and by VidIQ’s approximate estimations, their statistic might look like this:
This is what the twins say about their career on YouTube:
“We first started in college. Our mom is Asian and, you know, every Asian parent wants their kid to be a doctor, which is what originally we were in school for. And I just saw the life that a lot of my friends who were a little older, the life that they were living, along with my mom. [...] I had a dream that I wanted to do YouTube. I wanted to entertain.”
The passion has driven them forward and made them what they are today, despite even the wildest doubts from everyone around them.
Strokes Twins had been in their fair share of YouTube drama, which started with them being accused of copying other people’s content (during their early days of YouTube). They have learned to look at the trends and adapt them to their own channel, to suit their content and branding in a better way.
This is what they have to say about copying and remixing:
“You know, looking back at it [the copying] now, like, it harms you as a creator, your reputation as a creator. And it also harms the video performance. [...] If you have two thumbnails that are so similar, they’re [the viewers] not gonna click on it. [...] If we are new to YouTube and we see this thumbnail that everyone else is doing. We want this trend to be recognizable, so we have to do the same thumbnail, not knowing that the viewers are gonna see this as the same video and not click on it.”
It’s a very important insight into staying true to your branding and not copying what’s popular word-for-word. If you see a trend, adapt it to your channel, don’t just mindlessly copy.
KIMPRO
Moving onto the first South Korean channel to reach the 100 million milestone, KIMPRO, led by two cousins, Kim Dong Joon and Yu Baek Hap. Their channel focuses mainly on entertainment and is fully in the Korean language. This is what VidIQ’s approximate estimation says about them:
As the creators behind the channel say about what they feel about reaching this milestone:
“I’m really grateful to be mentioned alongside world-class artists, who’ve represented Korea. It also makes me feel a stronger sense of responsibility to create even better content.”
The stars behind the KIMPRO channel talk about how they quickly understood the responsibility every content creator carries, especially if they have a large following.
“Compared to when we started, so many more people are watching us now. And when we go out, a lot of people recognize us. So when we film, we really keep in mind that these people are watching and it makes us think and reflect more on what we create”, shares one of the stars behind the channel’s name. “We actually hit 100 thousand in just four days. And in only 20 days, we reached one million. [...] In nine months, we reached 10 million. And after two years and eight months after launch in April 2025, we finally hit 100 million."
But how did they manage to reach those numbers in such a short time? For them, there’s something to be said about the power and reach of YouTube Shorts.
“We jumped right in when YouTube Shorts first started booming. We understood that space very well and benefited from its growth. But honestly, the most important thing is staying consistent - just keeping at it. Even when we’re sick, tired… Or even fight. [...] I’ve uploaded every single day without taking a break. Not once. I think that’s what brought us here today.”
So, being consistent and keeping at it despite whatever difficulties might arise. Both of them take inspiration from their day-to-day life, just as they go about their business. Sometimes ideas just arise, and they write them down to polish and think more about them later.
The Red Diamond Play Button remains an exclusive honor even as YouTube continues to evolve and grow. More and more channels are approaching this milestone and some are even surpassing it.
We hope that more and more channels will join this elite group in the near future.
And for creators aspiring to grow, the journey involves more than increasing the sub count. It's a grind of blood, sweat, and tears. It requires a deep understanding of how algorithms work, the audience dynamics, it requires adaptability, and relentless commitment.
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Even legends like Kids Diana Show didn’t reach 100 million alone. AIR Media-Tech has been behind their journey since day one.
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