In 2025, YouTubers have scaled and blown up overnight simply by mastering cultural relevance, connection with fans, and reinventing old formats. 2026 seems to be keeping up with those trends. So, what’s going to be on top this year? Let’s break it all down.
Rising Stars and New Formats
We all know that MrBeast stayed on top and grew exponentially in the past year, but what about newcomers? What about the people who unexpectedly gained popularity out of nowhere? What about the people who drove massive growth through unexpected content formats? Well, let us introduce you to people who grew smart in the past year:
IShowSpeed
IShowSpeed gained 11-17M subscribers in just over a year. Some speculate it was because of his Speed Goes Pro series, but it’s much more than that. It’s the memes. You might ask - how can the memes influence the sub base that much? Well, memes oftentimes influence trends. If a meme is popular enough, it can become a whole movement.
Glitch
Glitch Studio, known for many new independent animation series such as The Amazing Digital Circus, Murder Drones, and many others, launched Glitch Direct, which is a behind-the-scenes format, where founders preview upcoming series in a very casual vlog-like style. The studio gained a lot of attention when they released a pilot of Knights of Guinevere, made by the creator of the beloved Owl House (which had previously been cancelled by Disney).
Quenlin Blackwell
Quenlin Blackwell gained even more attention thanks to her ‘feeding starving celebrities’ series, where she, quite literally, fed celebrities and did it in a humor-driven interview style.
Therefore, according to YouTube’s trends for 2026, viewers crave structure and interesting, recurring formats. Don’t believe us? See more examples!
Druski
Druski led several reality franchises that attracted 710,000 viewers in a year:
- It began with the success of his ‘Coulda Been Records’.
- It continued with Coulda Been House and followed up with a Coulda Been Love spin-off.
- A comedy tour, along with Nike/Google brand deals and extensive cross-platform presence, didn’t hurt as well.
CaylusBlox
CaylusBlox gained around a million subscribers in a year (and became the sixth fastest-growing gaming channel in 2025) just because he’s great at implementing memes and brainrot into his content.
What Shined Locally
But the USA wasn’t the only country with unique rising stars. This phenomenon was seen all over the world! Top creators in Germany, Brazil, India, and so many other countries stood out by branching out into something with unique vibes or leaning into joke-y memes.
Some channels have created their own memes that spread their popularity further and further, urging more and more people to subscribe.
South Korea: Unfiltered Authenticity vs Fictional Personalities
What had been shining in Korea? Well, the most subscribed channels of 2025 Korea reveal a trend that drives success: embracing authenticity and constructing compelling personas. In fact, this trend’s prime example is MMA fighter Choo Sunghoon, who achieved the biggest sub growth in Korea this year simply by letting the viewers into ‘behind the scenes’ of his life.
The video with 10 million views? The one where he showed his messy home exactly as it was.
The audience had grown tired of watching fake and very polished ‘influencer’ personalities, so in Korea, more authentic people have gotten the spotlight. That list includes:
- Anh Sung-jae, the Michelin chef;
- Sunwoo Yong-yeo, an actor, just enjoying life in her 80s;
- Choreographer Kany
But just as much as the authenticity had been gaining traction, so did the opposite - meticulously created fictional personas. As an example:
- Comedian Lee Su-j became the second most-subscribed creator of the year.
- Anxious Kim Hamzzi is another character-driven channel with an AI-made hamster at the forefront.
An interesting trend for sure.
Indonesia: Hipdut & Brainrot
Here, the younger generation rules. They’re the main voice of the digital video culture. This, in itself, had given birth to the anomali content and ‘hipdut’ music.
Anomali is the leading trend topic in Indonesia as of now. It all started with the use of generative AI to make haunting NPC enemies. Who knew it would become a whole cultural movement? Anomali are usually anthropomorphic creatures with nonsense names. Creators like Enima and Frost Diamond had capitalized on this and made a profit by doing skits using anomali characters.
Up next is the ‘hipdut’ trend, which is the fusion of ‘dangdut’ and hip-hop. The artist creating such music appear in the top of Indonesia’s song listings. One of such songs had collected 400M views in just under a year.
Mexico: Sports, Crossovers, and Reinventing Reality
Spanish-speaking countries happen to be one of the biggest markets on YouTube. Over the course of 2025, a lot of Spanish-speaking creators from Latin America specifically took part in massively popular live streams, which had generated a lot of significant cultural moments.
Boxing tournaments between creators have been a thing since forever. In 2025, Supernova Strikes had organized one of them with very popular Mexican creators participating for 2 million in the ring.
Another sport-related trend in Mexico was more of a friendly competition. Fede Vigevani put together a very ambitious match with MrBeast, which reached over a million viewers. The video in itself featured a lot of popular American and Mexican YouTube stars.
There was another type of trend sparking in Mexico this year, which seems to be continuing to grow in popularity - reality shows. La Casa de Alofoke, one of those shows, had redefined the format with 300M views worldwide. So, in Mexico, people do love their sports and high-stakes drama.
Japan: Technology & Geeky Topics
What had been trending in Japan? A lot of geek-related topics. As the homeland of anime, would you be surprised if we told you that the most trending topics in Japan had been anime-related? The most popular have been:
- Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, due to the release of the newest movie.
- Chainsaw Man, due to the release of the newest movie, and in anticipation of the new season of the anime. Reze’s dance (as well as the IRIS OUT by Kenshi Yonezu), animated by MAPPA’s studio, has been trending on TikTok Japan.
- My Hero Academia, due to the release of the final season of the anime.
But it wasn’t only the anime. Games and conventions have been trending in Japan as well! Let’s look at the trendy topics:
- Mario Kart World
- Monster Hunter Wilds
- Expo 2025 (in Osaka)
- Nintendo Switch 2
As we can see, all trends in Japan are connected to technology and anticipated anime.
Dubbing Grows?
Unsurprisingly, with the appearance of YouTube’s AI auto-translation feature, the dubbing and full channel localization have become even more popular than ever.
YouTube translation is one of the most important pushes from YouTube itself. Out of our 3,000 creators, 13% have used professional dubbing, while 36% have dabbled with auto-dubbing and AI.
Brave Wilderness expanded its global reach by launching 9 localized channels with AIR, achieving over 27.2 million views and gaining 134,000 new subscribers in just six months. Their content resonated with international audiences through professional dubbing, subtitles, and optimized metadata.
Amelka Karamelka also went global, with 18 localized channels helping her accumulate over 436 million views and 1 million new subscribers, becoming a top kids' channel worldwide.
Explore 8 more dubbing cases and their stats.
What dubbing can give you?
Reach out, and we’ll estimate what languages have the most potential for your channel.
Meme Culture
Memes oftentimes reflect the current trends, the situation in the world, and even the political climate. Since 2020, memes have been the drivers of culture all around the world.
In 2025, the peak topics across the world have been ‘brainrot’, ‘labubu’, and ‘tung tung tung sahur’, all of which stemmed from memes. In 2026, this trend is set to continue.
When the funny nothings are applied to the strategy, your channel will thrive. You just need to know how to do it. They’re perfect for going viral. They’re trendy, shareable, and adaptable.
Since the ‘brainrot’ made its appearance in mass media, we have seen breakouts such as ‘tung tung tung sahur’ (which is a Ramadan-themed AI character); ‘labubu’ (a toy that trended across France, MENA, and Brazil), and many more.
What Works Best in 2026? Long Form vs Short Form
Shorts may be a perfect tool for getting discovered in the sea of similar content, but long-form content is still very much popular.
In the United Kingdom alone, the audience had shown a distinct preference toward long-form content. Depth matters to a lot of people.
- Madeline Argy had made a following with long video essays where she reflects on feminism, the phenomenon of toxic masculinity, and how to escape toxic relationships.
- Gary’s Economics, on the other hand, explained how the economy works in depth, what inflation is and how it works, why inequality exists, and why political shifts matter.
These people trend because of how they approach their content creation. Their love for their videos, respect for their audience, and the desire to educate show loud and clear.
But Shorts didn’t just disappear or become irrelevant. The trend for snappy short-form content is still going strong and will continue to do so, which is why you shouldn’t underestimate its power.
United by Music
K-pop Demon Hunters have become their own phenomenon globally. Its music had been at the top of the charts worldwide, and fans still listen to the viral hits such as Golden, How It’s Done, Takedown, Soda Pop, and Your Idol. People have created covers, there has been a wave of cosplays, and we all cannot wait for K-pop Demon Hunters 2 if it brings such great music hits!
Another global phenomenon is a collaboration between Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars with the song ‘Die With A Smile’ that has gotten 1 billion views in just a year! APT is another song that has become viral worldwide, both on YouTube and as a Shorts sound.
But that’s not all! Even non-verbal tracks (like “Passo Bem Solto”) dominated global Shorts charts and have been successful doing so!
IRL Events for Online Content
It had always been a trend to take photos and videos of an online exclusive event to later post them on social media. But the creators are taking it a step further. They’re making it a whole experience, a whole content funnel.
Every convention, every major event - creators are there, taking pictures and videos to later talk about it on their YouTube channels.
Content Strategy in 2026
The trends of the last year are clear as day. But how do you carry it into the next while propelling your channel forward? Here’s how:
- Mix formats: It’s easy to get stuck in one format (Shorts, long-form, or streams), but if you combine them all, you get the best out of all worlds. You’re getting the discovery and the connection.
- Watch the trends closely, adapt them if possible: Focus on your niche, and if you see a popular meme that would be perfect for it, don’t hesitate to use it!
- Use AI as tools: AI is growing in popularity very rapidly, so why not use it as a helping tool? It’s important not to overdo it here.
The success doesn’t come randomly. It comes when you’re strategic with your approach and understand how trendy topics work.
If you need help in adapting trends or see why your content doesn’t work in the way you’ve intended.
Don’t hesitate to reach out!
With over 3,000 channels behind our backs, we know what works and what doesn’t. We can help you adapt formats, grow, and succeed!
![YouTube Updates: Recap, TV Shorts, Voice Replies, and More! [December 2025]](https://air.io/storage/TBva7nAlFkRUKurWfQ0aHp3r3E3ZbbrxVRvswY2z.jpg "YouTube Updates: Recap, TV Shorts, Voice Replies, and More! [December 2025]")
