Top 10 Most Popular YouTube Channels of 2014 - TopX Ep.22

- Starting off our list is perhaps the most perplexing entry we’ll see today. The second most viewed channel in the world for 2014, and the most viewed channel this year so far is FunToyzCollector, the penultimate surprise egg and toy-unboxing channel. What’s that, you don’t know what surprise egg channels are? That’s cuz’ you’re not a 3 year old or currently taking care of one.
- Although rumors swirl about what the host of this channel did before she got into the chocolate egg game – now she’s the queen of this runaway niche genre. For those of you who still haven’t figured it out, there are channels out there that are completely devoted to opening Surprise Eggs, eggs usually made out of chocolate that have a little toy surprise inside.
- While on the surface it’s hard to tell these Surprise Egg channels apart, you can generally tell your watching one from this channel by the trademark accent of the host and her colorful nails and accessories.

- Next up is the first channel we’ve ever featured on TopX that’s not primarily done in the English language. elrubiousOMG is a Spanish Let’s Play Channel … think PewDiePie or JackSepticEye – only in Spanish. I hope he or his fans aren’t offended by that analogy.
- Like his English language counterparts, this channel features pretty much everything you’d expect from a popular let’s play channel: over the top reactions, irreverent use of songs and random but slick editing style to seal the jokes.
- Ruben, or Rubius, also has a pretty dedicated publishing schedule, pumping out clips on a daily basis that all garner over a million views. He’s livin’ the dream for sure.

- Created by Ian Andrew Hecox and Anthony Padilla in 2005, Smosh quickly became one of the most popular YouTube Channels and has stayed that way pretty much ever since.
- It’s actually kind hard to say what Smosh does on their channel, but suffice to say that do skits and shorts about a huge variety of crazy crap, with a noted preference for geek culture and video game stuff.
- It’s also impossible to mention Smosh without touching on the fact that they have a YouTube Empire. They have a channel for gaming, a channel for cartoons, a second channel to house more of their main content and separate channels for French and Spanish. Essentially, if you like their stuff, you got years of content to work with across multiple channels.

- Next up we have a channel that’s considered one of the grandfathers of the industry – TheFineBros – run by real life brothers Ben and Rafi Fine. In the simplest terms, they have a channel devoted to making people laugh, and over the years pretty much every prominent YouTuber in the biz has made appearances on in their videos – I’m still waiting for that call…
- Although they’ve been making videos for years now, recently they’ve managed to stay popular thanks in large part to their “React” video series, which is simple yet hilarious concept – people reacting to things not intended for their demographic. Senior Citizens reacting to video games, children reacting to VCRs, they’re videos that are satisfying because of the organic reactions of the subjects. They’re actually so popular that a second channel has been created to support even more React content.
- I mentioned before that they feature a lot of prominent YouTubers in their videos, and the React videos are also a great example of this. If you’re the type that loves YouTube culture in general …You probably already know about this one.

- For all the phenomenon’s taking over YouTube these days, it seems that channels that focus on Minecraft are still dominating the playing field – and the first one we’ll see here today is here at #6 with TheDiamondMinecart.
- This channel, also coincidentally hosted by a guy named Dan, is one that really thinks outside the box in terms of Minecraft. Essentially, there’s really nothing vanilla about the stuff he does. Whether it’s elaborate scenarios, strange new mods or ongoing series with persistent characters TheDiamondMinecraft is sorta like Minecraft itself – very deep to those who know it, but very confusing and almost impenetrable to those who don’t.

- By now, you might be noticing a pattern as to what’s really, really popular on YouTube. At #5, we have another extremely successful let’s play channel – this one run by the extremely cheerful Stampy, who also sometimes goes by the human name of Joseph Garett.
- While Stampy does play a fair amount of other games, most of them child friendly, Minecraft is the central pillar of his channel. He uploads a new Minecraft video every single day, and most of them are 20 minutes or longer. If you ever needed to feel like a terribly uncreative person, you’d only have to watch one for a few minutes.
- Like I mentioned way back in one of our earliest episodes, Stampy’s videos all have a very whimsical nature. While they’re not made only for kids, not by a long shot, they’re also prettyy kid friendly – something that can’t always be said for let’s play channels.

- Coming up next is yet another let’s play channel, the second on our list to be all in Spanish – #4 on this mathematical countdown is vegeta777.
- Now, I wish I could go into huge amounts of detail about what Vegeta covers on his channel, but unfortunately my Spanish isn’t exactly …existent. However, what I can tell you is that he exemplifies a lot of the qualities you’ll find in other popular let’s Play channels – namely his crazy, eccentric personality, something you don’t need to know the language to pick up on.
- One other thing worth mentioning is that while Vegeta definitely does the Minecraft thing pretty hard, he also plays a lot of other games as well, with GTA Online taking up a fair amount of his time lately.

- Remember that pattern I said that you might beginning to notice – well we aren’t bucking the trend just yet, cause at #3 we have yet another gaming channel – this time it’s Vanossgaming.
- If you’re the type of person that’s confused by the whole “Let’s Play” phenomenon, then Vanossgaming is probably not the place to start. Don’t get me wrong, it’s some of the funniest let’s play’s out there but this stuff is about as random and crazy as this stuff gets… with the possible exception of our #1 pick.
- One thing that’s a really strong element of this channel is the friend’s aspect. Almost every video features a number of the host’s friends playing with him, something that really emphasizes the shared experience aspect of the games in question. If you go in trying to take this stuff seriously, you’re bound to be annoyed – but if you come in with an open mind hoping to share in the fun, you shouldn’t be disappointed.

It’s at this point in the countdown where we’d appear if we had included ourselves, with a score of 7 – or at least, we’d be tied with …

- When we started this list, we decided to exclude VEVO channels in order to prevent an oversaturation of pop stars that you probably already know about anyway - Katy Perry doesn’t need the publicity anyway. However, our brilliant system did not factor out one musical act on YouTube, primarily because they’re not a musical act at all, but a record label. The #2 most popular YouTube Channel for 2014 was Spinning Records.
- Spinning Records is an independent, Dutch record label that specializes in progressive house, electro house and big room house. They boast some pretty big acts, like Calvin Harris and Tiesto. Remember that Barbara Streisand song from 2010 that you probably just couldn’t get out of your head? Ya that’s them.
- If you don’t know where to start or if you wanna just put something on and forget about it, they have a weekly radio show called spinnin’ sessions, and, naturally, a ton of playlists curated by the staff.


HM JuegaGerman – Spanish channel
youtube.com/JuegaGerman

HM holasoygerman – Spanish Channel
youtube.com/HolaSoyGerman

HM Good Mythical Morning
youtube.com/rhettandlink2

HM gmmgrammyofficial
youtube.com/gmmgrammyofficial

HM getmovies – Russian
youtube.com/getmovies

- What’s the average of 1 and 1? No matter, which way you slice it, by subscribers or by views, in 2014 there was one channel, or rather, one guy, sitting on the top. This should come as no surprise to many, but the #1 most popular channel on YouTube in 2014 was ….PewdiePie. [Soundbite Montage]
- If you’ve been paying attention to this countdown, you’ll see that Let’s Play Channels dominated this year, and no other channel dominated more than PewDiePie.
- Pewdiepie has evolved into the penultimate YouTube celebrity. You’ll see him on other channels, you see him on t-shirts, you’ll see him on South park. No study of YouTube in 2014 could exclude a mention of this crazy Swede, and 2015 is shaping up to be another big year for him as well. Love him or hate him, his influence isn’t just shaping YouTube, its starting to define this chapter of media history.