is it too late to start a youtube? channel this question comes up every single year whether it's 2022 2023 2025 everyone is always going to believe that it's too late to start a youtube channel and so the question is why would you even think that? now I've been on youtube for a very long time.
I started doing consistent youtube content in 2013 and guess what back then people were saying the same thing it's too late to make it on youtube everything is saturated and there's never been anything that I've ever done successfully on youtube where there weren't a lot of people competing at it but you know what youtube is not saturated with it's not saturated with quality content and it's also not very diverse in the type of content or the type of creators that have succeeded not just yet which means there's plenty of opportunity for you.
I'm going to give you some statistics and facts about youtube that you've probably never heard before.
How many Youtubes have silver play button?
if you're worried about being oversaturated or too competitive on youtube that's just your insecurity talking there is still plenty of room at the top of youtube and the reason.
I know that is because there are only about 300 000 content creators in the entire world with silver play buttons that have over a hundred thousand subscribers.
How many Youtubes have a gold play button?
Speaking of people who have gold guess how many people that is it's only 30 000 creators who have gold play buttons.
How many Youtubes have a diamond play button?
as of making this ARTICLE, it's less than 1200 that have diamonds and most of those are big major outlets and networks or the top YouTubers on the entire planet and what that means is there are less than 1 million content creators in the entire world despite there are 2 billion viewers on youtube there's still less than a million content creators who've even got a silver play button.
There are plenty of opportunities to let you in little secret channels that have silver play buttons aren't always YouTuber creators and it's not 300 000 people, not 300 000 creators for one thing some creators have multiple silver play buttons and multiple channels some even have as many as 10 of them to themselves and there are plenty of companies that have multiple play buttons.
in terms of media companies' tech companies that happen to have popular youtube channels which means the number of homegrown YouTubers that have silver play buttons is probably closer to maybe
a hundred and eighty thousand people as of the making this video it's still not even close to being a million or half a million people.
so what that means is in terms of top tier YouTubers there's still plenty of room how can it be saturated when there are not even a million people in your niche that are very very successful when there are not even a million youtube creators that are very very successful and have built large audiences.
if a million people haven't built large audiences across the entire platform across every language every country and every type of content think about it collectively that are not that many people at the top and to prove it to you, I want you to understand this it's estimated that there are 75 million to 100 million content creators worldwide wide right now so guess what that means that means that we have not even come close to peaking not even close because not even one percent of all the potential content creators have even built an audience of a hundred thousand, There's still massive opportunity.
How many channels monetized on Youtube
in terms of monetized youtube channels there are only three million channels in the youtube partner program and to get into the youtube partner program like I've talked about in an article about youtube monetization you can read those especially if you're trying to get your first 1000 subscribers get your first 4 000 hours of watch time.
There are only 3 million people in the partner program which means that the far majority of content creators don't even earn money on youtube it's not even 10 of the people on the entire platform that have been able to meet youtube's monetization requirements.
What this tells you is what I said earlier youtube is not saturated unless you think it's saturated with mediocre content below-average content.
people don't want to watch sure it's saturated with that, youtube is saturated with content nobody wants to watch well youtube is not saturated is high-quality content there's probably not a single niche in youtube that has like 5 000 people with silver play buttons there's probably not a single niche in youtube that has 5 000 creators that are all at 100 000 subscribers or more.
I doubt it and the niches in youtube don't have the same amount of content creators there are not as :
- Car channels
- Animal or pet channels
- Science channels
- Channels for gaming
There are probably more gaming channels than anything on Youtube even at the top of youtube, yes the top of youtube has a lot of high tiers gaming channels, but not every video game has been made not every video game franchise has been made not every video game console has been made which means there will always be new trends which means there'll be new opportunities.
There'll be new creators there are also people who are going to retire people are going to fall off people are going to quit making content there will always be room for a new generation of content creators and that's in every niche on the entire platform.
No Youtube doesn't have a problem with being saturated if you are going to make quality content it's certainly not saturated with people who make slightly above average content more consistently a lot of people are trying to pull a quality over quantity and they're trying to make the biggest best content in the world which they in many cases can't do they usually go broke trying because you can't start by making extravagant content.
Marques Brownlee as exemple
in most cases, if you're not coming from a background of I'm already rich like you can't usually do that most YouTubers have to start very modest and very humble, Marques Brownlee is one of the biggest if not the biggest tech Youtuber with over 15 million subscribers and his first 100 videos he only got 74 subscribers.
the reality is that a lot of you just aren't putting in the work to improve and you're not patient and you think you're supposed to get somewhere just because you've been uploading or you've been doing it for a long time it takes most people five to seven years to see success on Youtube if they keep at it.
The reason there are not more creators that are successful is that people give up too soon and they get discouraged mkbhd 100 videos 74 subscribers.
Mrbeast as example
MrBeast who is about to hit 100 million subscribers if he hasn't hit already by the time this video is out with his first 100 videos got like
780 subscribers.
Pewdiepie as example
Pewdiepie the biggest solo creator right now got like he has 100 million-plus subscribers in his first 100 videos he got 2 500.
What is wrong?
I think the biggest problem is and I covered this in my video about how to grow a successful youtube channel and what is Youtube success.
I think a lot of you are using these unicorns as your goal posting you're looking at what they're doing now you're not realizing how challenging it was for the starting and how long it took them to get somewhere a lot of them were small YouTubers longer than they've been big YouTubers that's true for most people.
Youtube is very difficult it's very hard to learn all these skills writing titles and making thumbnails, that are like graphic design that's copywriting you know that's a whole career somebody could do and you have to do both of those things and you have to learn how to produce a video that's a whole career you have to learn about lighting that's whole career audio that's a whole career video editing that's a whole career.
There are about eight things you have to do to be a successful Youtuber and to start making a full-time income, get to a hundred thousand subscribers and get a silver play button get to a million subscribers get a gold play button.
There are like eight to twelve different skills you have to learn along the way and every one of those things could have just been a career it could have just been a job or a career by itself that someone earns a full-time living from and can claim to success from.
you're having to do eight or twelve of those things why would any of you if you're being realistic with your current circumstances going to school going to work having a family whatever it is not necessarily being born rich why would any of you be able to do eight to twelve things that you've never done well that you've never done a hundred times and let alone a thousand times and be good at it in one to two years make that make sense.
I think that the biggest problem with the idea that it's too late to make it on youtube and everything's been done and everything's been saturated is impostor syndrome a lot of nonsense a lot of constantly looking at and watching big YouTubers instead of realizing that you could be one of those people that your first year on youtube maybe your goal is just to learn how to make videos that are less crappy then your first video and you just make a hundred crappy videos until you figure it out then you know how to make even one good video and now your next 100 videos they don't suck so much maybe they're not so bad and then by the the time you've made 300 400 500 videos you're on to something you have:
- the experience
- data
- people have seen you come up along the way
Then maybe you're getting somewhere and that's usually what it takes I did a case study with youtube buddy about three million channels we had the anonymized data it takes most people five hundred to a thousand uploads to get success on youtube it takes people five to seven years on average to get success on youtube it is a marathon looking at a handful of people who blow up and go viral is not mentally healthy.
it's the reason a lot of you are not gonna make it is that all you do is wish to win the lottery instead of committing to a career as the content creator and realizing, you know what to get somewhere in your career.
maybe you got to do on-the-job work and training for a couple of years earn your stripes you know to pay your dues and then maybe you get to be somewhere why would that not be the case with youtube if you legitimately think that this is a career how are you just going to manifest.
being good at career conjure out of thin air being good at a career that you haven't done anything with and haven't practiced that in a year or two there are some talented blessed geniuses and unicorns out there maybe you're not one of them and that's okay and you can just work hard and you can get better along the way.
do I believe for any reason that's too late to start a youtube channel no I think that what you have to do I think youtube is saturated or oversaturated yeah with mediocre content maybe but not quality content.
if you strive to make quality content or above-average content that can be consistent you have a future in this platform you have a place in this platform the majority of creators ninety percent of creators never even get to ten thousand subscribers.
You don't need to necessarily get to a hundred thousand subscribers to make a claim to some success on youtube I've made a video about this.
I think more of you should be reaching to learn the platform make 100 videos get monetized on youtube and meet those requirements make your first 1000.
I think what you should be striving for is to be one of the ten percent of people on this platform and even get 10 000 subscribers and then everything after that is just gratitude.
that's what I think a lot more of you should be focusing on if you want to be successful and grow a youtube channel speaking of which.
if you enjoyed this article and you want to know how to grow a successful youtube channel. if you want my playlist on youtube tips then you can also check here as always thank you so much for reading and don't forget to go out there and create something awesome today take care.