The 26 Best YouTubers of the 2010s

Ten years of the platform's front page, from the sketch channels that opened the decade to the challenge videos that closed it. A few of these names are still uploading daily; others retired at the peak.

1. 1
   Markiplier

   Horror-game Let's Player whose Five Nights at Freddy's playthroughs made him one of the decade's biggest gaming channels.
   1000pts
2. 2
   Zoella

   British beauty vlogger whose 2014 debut novel broke first-week sales records off the back of her channel.
   953pts
3. 3
   Jenna Marbles

   Comedy vlogger who was the most-subscribed woman on YouTube for much of the decade before retiring in 2020.
   916pts
4. 4
   PewDiePie

   Swedish Let's Player who became YouTube's most-subscribed creator in 2013 and held the title for the rest of the decade.
   840pts
5. 5
   Logan Paul

   Vine star turned vlogger whose 2017-2018 run was the decade's most-watched and most-criticised.
   812pts
6. 6
   Jacksepticeye

   Irish gaming YouTuber whose daily uploads and charity livestreams built one of the 2010s' most loyal audiences.
   811pts
7. 7
   Mark Rober

   Ex-NASA engineer whose glitter bomb and squirrel obstacle-course videos made science the decade's surprise viral genre.
   811pts
8. 8
   Rhett & Link

   Good Mythical Morning hosts who turned a daily talk show into the decade's longest-running YouTube morning programme.
   771pts
9. 9
   Casey Neistat

   New York filmmaker whose 2015-2016 daily vlogs reinvented the format and sold his app Beme to CNN.
   750pts
10. 10
    Lilly Singh

    Canadian comedian whose Superwoman channel led to a world tour and an NBC late-night show in 2019.
    680pts
11. 11
    Ninja

    Fortnite streamer whose 2018 Drake stream broke Twitch records and put gaming on magazine covers.
    680pts
12. 12
    Liza Koshy

    Vine comedian who became the fastest creator to 10 million subscribers in 2017 and hosted the MTV Movie Awards pre-show.
    507pts
13. 13
    Ryan Higa

    Nigahiga, the sketch comedian who was YouTube's most-subscribed channel in 2009-2011 and a fixture all decade.
    507pts
14. 14
    Vsauce

    Michael Stevens' science channel whose 2010s explainers made curiosity a genre with tens of millions of subscribers.
    507pts
15. 15
    Emma Chamberlain

    Vlogger whose jump-cut editing style was copied across YouTube after 2017 and who founded Chamberlain Coffee in 2019.
    507pts
16. 16
    Marques Brownlee

    MKBHD, the tech reviewer whose smartphone reviews became the industry's reference point during the decade.
    507pts
17. 17
    Philip DeFranco

    News-commentary host whose daily Philip DeFranco Show ran through the whole decade without a format change.
    400pts
18. 18
    David Dobrik

    Vlog Squad leader whose four-minute-twenty vlogs were the most copied format of 2018-2019.
    400pts
19. 19
    DanTDM

    British Minecraft creator who was Forbes' highest-paid YouTuber of 2017 and toured arenas with a live show.
    400pts
20. 20
    KSI

    British FIFA YouTuber who co-founded the Sidemen and started the YouTube boxing era with the 2018 Logan Paul fight.
    400pts
21. 21
    Jake Paul

    Team 10 founder whose Disney Channel exit and daily vlogs made him the loudest teen-audience creator of 2017.
    273pts
22. 22
    Michelle Phan

    Beauty pioneer whose makeup tutorials launched Ipsy in 2011 and a Lancome contract.
    273pts
23. 23
    Smosh

    Sketch-comedy channel that was YouTube's most-subscribed in 2013 and sold to Defy Media before its founders bought it back.
    273pts
24. 24
    Tyler Oakley

    LGBTQ vlogger who raised more than a million dollars for the Trevor Project and fronted a 2015 documentary.
    0pts
25. 25
    MrBeast

    North Carolina creator whose 2017 counting-to-100,000 stunt started the challenge-video empire that defined the decade's end.
    0pts
26. 26
    Dan and Phil

    British duo whose Radio 1 show, world tours and the Phandom made them the decade's defining fandom creators.
    0pts

Comments