# 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.

*By YPB Team · Published October 24, 2026 · https://youpick.best/ranking/the-26-best-youtubers-of-the-2010s*

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## Current results (no votes yet)

1. **Markiplier** — score 1000/1000
   Horror-game Let's Player whose Five Nights at Freddy's playthroughs made him one of the decade's biggest gaming channels.
2. **Zoella** — score 953/1000
   British beauty vlogger whose 2014 debut novel broke first-week sales records off the back of her channel.
3. **Jenna Marbles** — score 916/1000
   Comedy vlogger who was the most-subscribed woman on YouTube for much of the decade before retiring in 2020.
4. **PewDiePie** — score 840/1000
   Swedish Let's Player who became YouTube's most-subscribed creator in 2013 and held the title for the rest of the decade.
5. **Logan Paul** — score 812/1000
   Vine star turned vlogger whose 2017-2018 run was the decade's most-watched and most-criticised.
6. **Jacksepticeye** — score 811/1000
   Irish gaming YouTuber whose daily uploads and charity livestreams built one of the 2010s' most loyal audiences.
7. **Mark Rober** — score 811/1000
   Ex-NASA engineer whose glitter bomb and squirrel obstacle-course videos made science the decade's surprise viral genre.
8. **Rhett & Link** — score 771/1000
   Good Mythical Morning hosts who turned a daily talk show into the decade's longest-running YouTube morning programme.
9. **Casey Neistat** — score 750/1000
   New York filmmaker whose 2015-2016 daily vlogs reinvented the format and sold his app Beme to CNN.
10. **Lilly Singh** — score 680/1000
   Canadian comedian whose Superwoman channel led to a world tour and an NBC late-night show in 2019.
11. **Ninja** — score 680/1000
   Fortnite streamer whose 2018 Drake stream broke Twitch records and put gaming on magazine covers.
12. **Liza Koshy** — score 507/1000
   Vine comedian who became the fastest creator to 10 million subscribers in 2017 and hosted the MTV Movie Awards pre-show.
13. **Ryan Higa** — score 507/1000
   Nigahiga, the sketch comedian who was YouTube's most-subscribed channel in 2009-2011 and a fixture all decade.
14. **Vsauce** — score 507/1000
   Michael Stevens' science channel whose 2010s explainers made curiosity a genre with tens of millions of subscribers.
15. **Emma Chamberlain** — score 507/1000
   Vlogger whose jump-cut editing style was copied across YouTube after 2017 and who founded Chamberlain Coffee in 2019.
16. **Marques Brownlee** — score 507/1000
   MKBHD, the tech reviewer whose smartphone reviews became the industry's reference point during the decade.
17. **Philip DeFranco** — score 400/1000
   News-commentary host whose daily Philip DeFranco Show ran through the whole decade without a format change.
18. **David Dobrik** — score 400/1000
   Vlog Squad leader whose four-minute-twenty vlogs were the most copied format of 2018-2019.
19. **DanTDM** — score 400/1000
   British Minecraft creator who was Forbes' highest-paid YouTuber of 2017 and toured arenas with a live show.
20. **KSI** — score 400/1000
   British FIFA YouTuber who co-founded the Sidemen and started the YouTube boxing era with the 2018 Logan Paul fight.
21. **Jake Paul** — score 273/1000
   Team 10 founder whose Disney Channel exit and daily vlogs made him the loudest teen-audience creator of 2017.
22. **Michelle Phan** — score 273/1000
   Beauty pioneer whose makeup tutorials launched Ipsy in 2011 and a Lancome contract.
23. **Smosh** — score 273/1000
   Sketch-comedy channel that was YouTube's most-subscribed in 2013 and sold to Defy Media before its founders bought it back.
24. **Tyler Oakley** — score 0/1000
   LGBTQ vlogger who raised more than a million dollars for the Trevor Project and fronted a 2015 documentary.
25. **MrBeast** — score 0/1000
   North Carolina creator whose 2017 counting-to-100,000 stunt started the challenge-video empire that defined the decade's end.
26. **Dan and Phil** — score 0/1000
   British duo whose Radio 1 show, world tours and the Phandom made them the decade's defining fandom creators.

Tags: youtube, video, 2010s, internet, creators