14 types of YouTube Channels you can start and be successful
In this article, we’re going to cover some of the most popular YouTube channel types, what makes them successful and which type of channel you can start.
YouTube has now become a content phenomenon. Back in 2005 when the first video on YouTube was uploaded titled Me at the zoo, and at that time nobody would have ever imagined just how important this video-sharing medium was going to become popular.
Google at the time clearly saw the potential in this company, and only 18 months after YouTubers shared his zoo visit with the world, Google then announced that they are paying it was paying 1.65 billion for this service.
Since then the power and influence of YouTube have grown at a very fast speed. It is now the world’s second-largest search engine after Google itself. Here are some of the statistics which are quite staggering:
- No of the people who use YouTube — 2 billion
- Hours of video uploaded to YouTube every minute — 500 hours
- Number of videos viewed on YouTube every day — 1 billion
So, with so much time being spent on YouTube, on a wide variety of devices, which type of content people are watching? It turns out that people watch a wide variety of things actually, which is quite visible to everyone that YouTube viewers now span the whole spectrum of ages and types of people.
If you want to become a YouTuber, then we have written a dedicated blog post on that topic — How to become a YouTuber — The Ultimate Guide
So many people on YouTube only watch music videos, as it is an easy way to watch music videos. And music videos can’t be ignored — as there are so many of them.
But there is much more to YouTube than simply music videos. From an influencer marketing point of view, an official music video offers a small opportunity for influencer promotion. There are many other types of videos giving much better opportunities for marketers.
1.Comedy/ Skit
Quite a few people make comedy videos to keep their audience amused. Of course, your sense of humour is quite personal, but there are already so many comedy videos on YouTube that you can surely find somebody who matches your style.
These comedy videos are among some of the most shared videos on social media, This is one of the most likely types to go viral.
Some of the YouTube comedy channels generate audiences greater than many network comedy television shows.
Top comedy YouTubers are unabashedly self-deprecating and have observational skills like-
BB ki Vines is an Indian comedian, writer, singer, songwriter and YouTube personality from Delhi. In 2018, he became the first Indian individual YouTube content creator to cross 10 million subscribers.
- He is the director of BB Ki Vines Private Limited and a designated partner at AMB Youthiapa LLP, the company behind his channel merchandise.
Be YouNick is a leading personality in the comedy sphere. He has over 7 million followers on his Instagram and over 1.2 billion views on his YouTube channel.
2. Gaming
YouTube has nowadays being dominated by gaming channels. Even creators that were in completely different niches are now setting up their own gaming channels — Flying beast is a vlogging YouTube channel but he has now set up his own gaming channel named Rasbari ke Papa.
With gaming channels now being eligible for sponsorships and live streaming growing in popularity, monetizing your gaming channel is becoming easier. The most popular types of gaming channels are commentary or let’s play. These channels as their name suggests, play through gaming and entertaining commentary.
There are many popular gaming channels like -
Felix Arvid Ulf Kjellberg is known as PewDiePie he is a Swedish YouTuber and comedian who is one of the most followed gamers and most subscribed YouTubers of all time with almost 108 million subscribers.
Luis Fernando Flores Alvarado is known as Fernanfloo, he is Salvadoran gaming. He is the second most followed gamer and has almost 39 million subscribers.
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3. Vlogging
A vlog is actually a short form of a weblog but most people have it nowadays, this started off as a web-based log of what people do every day in their life — sort of an internet-based diary. Of course, blogs have diversified since then, but you can still find some people bright and breezy people happily writing about their daily lifestyle like — what they have in their breakfast and what they managed to achieve the day before.
Vlogs and video blogs the idea behind this is the same as what the original blog was. They are effectively equivalent to your diary.
Of course, being on YouTube they are somewhat more public than a diary hidden under your bed, so the content is usually more engaging.
Just like a diary, vlogs are also unscripted dialogue and generally come across as an authentic look into the video maker’s mind. They often focus on a specific topic.
Daily vloggers are some of the most consistent creators on YouTube, they publish videos each and every day. These types of creators use two main camera angles to capture their daily life: one where the camera faces outwards and another that’s selfie-style.
Two characteristics are unique to this YouTuber type:-
- the ability to create a compelling storyline out of seemingly ordinary events
- the ability to provide engaging, improvised commentary as a film.
Best daily vloggers feel like close friends.
There are some of the most vlogging YouTube channels -
Casey Neistat (real name is Casey Owen Neistat) is an American Youtuber personality, filmmaker, vlogger, and co-founder of multimedia company Beme (which was later acquired by CNN).
Flying Beast started his career as a Youtuber who used to upload his bodybuilding tips and nutrition tips videos, he then started making vlogs. He owns three popular YouTube channels that are Flying Beast, Fit Muscle TV and Rasbhari ke Papa.
Mumbaikar Nikhil is one of the most famous names among the bikers and moto vloggers of India. He shoots and uploads videos of vlogging regarding travelling and lifestyles. He has 3.55 million subscribers on his YouTube channel.
4. Reviews and Unboxing
Whenever you think of review and unboxing channel technology may be the first thing that comes to your mind. There are other wide varieties of other niches that could be applicable. The interest in the review and unboxing channels for viewers is to gauge whether the specific product will be worthwhile purchasing or not.
There are most popular with tech channels, smartphones, laptops and cameras being some of the most popular products to be reviewed.
Unboxing is another aspect of a review channel. These channels typically show what you get when you purchase and they highlight some of the main features of the product without going into too much detail.
There are some of popular unboxing and review YouTube channels like-
Technical Guruji is an Indian YouTube Personality. He is notable for producing Youtube videos concerning technology in Hindi. He currently has more than 20 million subscribers on his YouTube channel.
Tech Burner is an Indian tech YouTuber with more than 4 million subscribers on his YouTube channel. He uploads videos related to tech on his channel.
5. Health and Fitness
Health and fitness YouTubers detail their workout routines and diets for audiences in an effort to inspire others to lead healthier lifestyles. Some post full—length workout videos that viewers can take with them to the gym or they can do that in their homes. Some creators post short clips which guide viewers through quick workouts.
Top health and fitness YouTubers have millions of subscribers. Some creators share their personal health journeys in great detail with viewers.
6. Cooking
YouTube videos are an ideal way to show people how to cook recipes. Recipe books are ok, but people love to see exactly how ingredients are mixed properly and a dish is made.
There are lots of possible sub-niches within the topic of cooking that you should focus on.
This type of YouTube channel can also attract video marketing opportunities as well. If your channel becomes popular, you may be approached by businesses to promote their products.
Some of the popular cooking YouTube channels are -
Tasty is a BuzzFeed division that produces and shares content related to food. This channel changed the cooking video space forever with its signature filming style which, of course, is now all over the place.
Sanjyot Keer is the founder of Your Food Lab. He gained recognition for posting cooking videos on Facebook and YouTube, and he gained millions of views for his content.
7. Lifehacks
People love to find new and innovative ways to save some time and money, so there is always a big demand for lifehacks. You can start a channel with general lifehacks, or you can concentrate on things like — makeup hacks, cooking hacks, or household hacks.
This types of channel also offer the prospect of using the proven method of top lists. Whether it’s clever hacks you should know, or 25 budgets hack you need to try, lists like these are a great way to attract viewers.
Some of the most popular Lifehacks YouTube channels like -
5 minutes crafts is a DIY -style YouTube channel owned by The Soul Publishing, a company based in Limassol, Cyprus. The videos uploaded on this channel are usually compilations, life hacks, pranks etc.
8. Infotainment
These channels combine information with entertainment to create engaging and enlighting content. These channels don’t rely on humour as their main form of entertainment, instead, they provide interesting facts and historical events you’ve never heard of.
It doesn’t do any harm to them if they throw some charismatic humour into the equation, however.
Some of the most popular infotainment YouTube channels are -
TED-ED is a YouTube channel from TED which creates short animated educational videos. They also own their own website. They create videos by collaborating with educators and animators.
Vox is a YouTube channel where that regularly posts videos on news and informational subjects. The channel has over 9.04 subscribers and over 2.313 billion views.
9. Make-Up and Beauty
These types of YouTube channels focus primarily on makeup and skincare. With their expertise, they offer viewers detailed tutorials to attain certain looks, or how to use certain skincare products to get the best results.
They cover their daily makeup routine and give insight to both makeup novices and experts alike.
The popularity of beauty YouTubers means that makeup brands often reach out to them in order to reach their target markets. These YouTubers are seen as trendsetters and often products they feature also become popular.
Some of the most popular makeup and beauty YouTubers are -
RCLBeauty 101 is one of the biggest beauty YouTubers and has one of the fastest-growing YouTube channels in the world. Her audience is slightly younger, and the internet personality makes types of videos ranging from DIYs, life hacks, comedy, skits and more.
Jeffree star, who goes by Jeffree star on YouTube is a singer/songwriter and a true OG beauty influencer on the internet. Her channel has over 16.9 million subscribers and 2.4 billion views.
10 . Tutorials
These types of channels show you how to do things. YouTube is the 2nd most popular search engine in the world. Second, only Google, and even there a lot of the time when you search something on Google in the search result, YouTube videos will be presented.
YouTube tutorials are visual, which makes it easier for people to follow along with them and judge if doing something correctly or not.
11. Prank / Challenges
Prank and challenge channels are popular for their entertainment value. These channels push their boundaries and follow trends. They do pranks their family and friends or eat weird things, and they try to shock and fun of their viewers.
Roman Atwood is one of the most successful and popular prank channels, as well as he is also one of the most financially successful YouTubers.
12. Education
Most people come to YouTube to find answers to their questions. So it makes perfect sense to create videos that would help the audience find those answers.
Starting from students to adults, anybody who wants to learn to watch YouTube videos. That’s because educational videos are free and easily available on YouTube.
So if you are one of those that want to educate people, the educational channel is the way to go.
Some of the popular education YouTube channel is -
Khan Academy is a cool channel with 6.36 Million subscribers and more than 1.8 billion total views. It focuses on helping out both teachers and students to improve their skills to make education and learning more fun.
13. Sports
YouTube has various amount of sports highlights, hilarious sports blunders, and even motivational sports videos. Creators in this niche celebrate the topic of athletes, and either post videos focused on a specific sport or many.
If creators in this niche focus on a single sport, the content might include product reviews and skill tutorials. Other channels incorporate multiple sports by starring professional athletes and performing trick shots and challenges.
Some of the most famous YouTubers in this niche -
Dude Perfect content consists of videos depicting various trick shots and stunts. It is one of the second most subscribed sports channels on YouTube, and the fifteenth most subscribed channel overall. They have also collaborated with various top brands, in addition to launching multiple apps, publishing a book, and creating an original television show.
Freekickerz content consists of football tutorials, free kicks, challenges, foot boots/ cleats tests, amateur goals and football tricks and skills. It is one of the biggest YouTube football channels.
14. News/ Journalism
News and Journalism channels on YouTube have gained in popularity, but thanks to some of the new rules around monetization on YouTube, channels which make content on political news and sensitive subjects have to find an alternative source for monetization.
Other forms of news channels are thriving, however, with gossip channels also falling in this category.
