What new milestones can a tech platform reach after having been around for close to two decades? YouTube continues to defy expectations. For example, in February this year, YouTube crossed the 100 million premium subscribers mark for its paid music and video tiers globally. That’s a massive figure for a service used globally.

It has also been the year when YouTube lost one of its beloved faces to cancer — Susan Wojcicki. She was Google’s 16th employee who helped jump-start the company in her garage and later helmed YouTube for most of the past decade.

But how did the year go for creators who put out videos on the platform and fans who watched them a zillion times? Fans are supersizing the biggest moments of pop culture on YouTube.

“It has been a significant year for us. It is a year when content creators started reshaping entertainment on the back of important cultural moments. Viewers are no more one-sided recipients of content. Viewers are creating on their own. Consuming content is not restricted to rigid schedules. We are beginning to see that viewers are screen agnostic, time agnostic and format agnostic.… Creators have become A-listers,” said Ajay Vidyasagar, regional director, APAC, YouTube.
The creator ecosystem in India continues to thrive — there are 110,000-plus channels in India with more than 100K subscribers and over 11,000 channels in India with more than one million subscribers.

In 2024, major cultural moments like the Cricket World Cup, Olympic Games, Ambani wedding, Diljit Dosanjh’s rise and multiple hit movies were transformed into shared moments. The year was as much about the moment, as it was about the fan conversation surrounding it. Creators like comedian Samay Raina are harnessing this power of fans through new interactive IP’s like India’s Got Latent. Debuted in June 2024, the show has already crossed 150 million-plus views on the creator’s channel and has dominated Internet conversation on the back of viral clips, members-only fan content and live ticket sales. Globally, there have been over 1.5 billion views of videos related to Raina in 2024.

Geography doesn’t matter

YouTube Shorts has helped drive regional hits in Marathi and Garhwali to country-wide prominence, while helping Indian users discover new global sounds, be it Hanumankind’s Big Dawgs to a little known Serbian song and POV memes. This year, the Marathi song Gulabi sadi has been used in more than 3 million Shorts globally. In India, videos with the words “Moye moye” in the title received more than 4.5 billion views this year. Creators too had their big moments. Top names like Mr Beast gained millions of Indian fans through Hindi dubs and historic local collabs, while hyper-local Malayalam creator KL Bro Biju hit 60 million subscribers with relatable content formats.

Fan communities

Cristiano Ronaldo’s YouTube debut drew over 19 million subscribers in the first 24 hours from the channel’s launch, driven heavily by Indian fans.

Gaming creator Total Gaming or Ajjubhai revealed his face to 37 million subscribers, boosting his fan base with on-camera vlogs and watchalong gameplays that have collected over 900 million views in 2024. And niche emerging creators like Box of Vengeance, known for his quirky reviews of various sports balls, became a breakout creator.

Top 10 creators

MrBeast, Filmy Suraj Actor, Sujal Thakral, KL Bro Biju Rithvik, UR: Cristiano, Box of Vengeance, Stokes Twins, Priyal Kukreja, Album Creations, Unknown Boy Varun.

At a glance

Globally, there have been over 1.5 billion views of videos related to Samay Raina in 2024

In India, there have been over 7 billion views of videos related to the ICC T20 World Cup

In India, videos with the words “Ambani” and “Wedding” in the title received more than 6.5 billion views

In India, videos with the words “moye moye” in the title received more than 4.5 billion views in 2024

In India, videos with the keyword “Diljit Dosanjh” or related to Diljit Dosanjh received more than 3.9 billion views in 2024

The creator ecosystem in India continues to thrive — there are 110,000-plus channels in India with more than 100K subscribers and over 11,000 channels in India with more than one million subscribers