[Editor’s Note: Tubefilter Charts is a weekly rankings column from Tubefilter with data provided by GospelStats. It’s exactly what it sounds like; a top number ranking of YouTube channels based on statistics collected within a given time frame. Check out all of our Tubefilter Charts with new installments every week right here.]
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This week, viewership is down across the board in the U.S. Top 50. Four of the top five channels in the ranking got fewer viewers this week than they did during the previous seven-day period. That left reigning chart-topper Toys and Colors as the only U.S.-based channel with at least 500 million weekly views. (It had 637.6 million weekly views, in fact.)
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Kids content is still a big draw among American YouTube viewers, with family-sized operations like Vlad and Niki (#5) and Like Nastya (#6) hovering close to Toys and Colors and the rest of the chart leaders. But there are also some bigger fish in the waters of children’s entertainment, and they’re swimming toward the surface in the most recent U.S. Top 50 ranking.
Here come Netflix and Disney
Two channels in this week’s U.S. Top 50 have a lot in common: They both feature the name of a major entertainment company followed by the title “Jr.” Streaming service owners Netflix and Disney do what they can to drive subscriptions, but they’re finding that young viewers are easier to reach on YouTube, especially when they can access premium content for free.
Netflix Jr., the kid-friendly outpost of the titular streamer, has shown up in the U.S. Top 50 before. Indian hits like Mighty Little Bheem have hauled in ten-digit YouTube view counts by appealing to the hundreds of millions of children who live in South Asia.
As for viewers in the United States, Netflix Jr. is reminding us of a common adage: If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em. CoComelon is a longtime chart-topper in the U.S. Top 50, and its viewership on Netflix is almost as strong as what it gets on YouTube. By sharing full episodes of CoComelon Lane on YouTube (and ensuring that kids from around the world can understand them), the Netflix Jr. channel pushed its weekly view count up to 119.7 million, ensuring a 29th place finish in the U.S. Top 50.
Disney Jr. doesn’t have access to CoComelon content, but that doesn’t stop it from making its mark in the U.S. Top 50. Its strategy is simple: Lads, it’s Disney. By relying on hit franchises like Cars and Moana, the Disney Jr. YouTube channel has been remarkably consistent. Over the past four months, it has even cracked 100 million weekly views on three separate occasions (including this week).
Data via Gospel Stats
The rise of legacy media in the U.S. Top 50 isn’t limited to kid-friendly brands. In the sports world, the WWE (#18) and Bleacher Report-owned House of Highlights (#32) are regulars in our ranking. For as much as YouTube has democratized distribution, these large media companies still have a leg up.
Channel Distribution
This week, there are 38 YouTube Shorts channels in the U.S. Top 50.
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