In this video, the creator explains how many YouTube channels have earned the Gold Play Button, which is awarded for reaching one million subscribers. He starts with an analogy that the Indianapolis Speedway, the world’s largest stadium (250,000 seats), could hold a million people if four people sat in each seat, illustrating the size of a million. He then uses SocialBlade to show that, at the time of recording, 1,643 channels have surpassed one million subscribers. Multiplying that number by the $2,500 value of each Gold Play Button yields a total payout of $4.1 million that YouTube has made to creators for these awards. To put that figure in perspective, he notes that PewDiePie earned $7 million in 2014, meaning YouTube earned an equal amount from that single creator—more than enough to cover all Gold Play Button costs. The video also references a related Diamond Play Button video, shares a personal anecdote about the Call of Duty YouTuber Drifter, and ends with a call to action encouraging viewers to subscribe so the creator can eventually reach the one‑million‑subscriber milestone.
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Okay, so I'm editing this video right now, and in this video I said the world's largest stadium is the Indianapolis Speedway, but it's just— yeah, the world's largest stadium is the Indianapolis Speedway, which can hold 250,000 people. So if you were to take every single seat in the world's largest stadium and put 4 people per seat, that would give you a million people. Now, how many people have 4 times the world's largest stadium as fans on YouTube? So to answer this question, we're gonna head over to socialblade.com and look at their list of most subscribed to YouTubers. And if you scroll down the list to number 1,643, you'll see the last channel to hit a million subscribers, which means 1,643 channels have over a million subscribers. And by the way, at the time of me recording this, Drifter, the Call of Duty YouTuber, hit a million subscribers like an hour and a half ago. I actually used to watch him a lot, like he was a big inspiration to me. He's one of the reasons I got into YouTube. So, you know, I thought that was pretty cool. So let's do some math. 1,643 people have over 1 million subscribers, and the Golden Play Button reward each of them got is worth $2,500. How much has YouTube paid to give each of them a Golden Play Button? Well, I already did the math. 1,643 times $2,500 comes out to $4,100,000. So YouTube so far has paid $4,100,000 to deliver all its content creators their Golden Play Buttons. Now keep in mind, PewDiePie made $7 million in 2014, and whatever a content creator makes, YouTube makes just as much because, you know, YouTube gets half the money, the content creator gets half the money. So if PewDiePie made $7 million in 2014, that means YouTube also made $7 million off of PewDiePie. So if YouTube took the money they've made off of PewDiePie, that alone would be more than enough to pay for all the golden play buttons every content creator has ever received. So that's, uh, that's, yeah, that's knowledge. Knowledge. So that's pretty much the video. I did one similar on the Diamond Play Button, which actually has over 400,000 views. You should go check that out. But before you leave, make sure you subscribe because I one day obviously want to get a Gold Play Button. So if you subscribe, you can get me one step closer to hitting that 1 mil milestone. It seems far away, but I think I can reach it, you know, in the next couple years. I'm very confident in my channel. You know, you may not be, But, uh, thanks for watching. I really do appreciate it. Go check out my one on the Diamond Play Button if you haven't seen it, and have a nice day.
