Despite millions of people finding enough success on YouTube to make it a full time job, there isn’t a playbook on how to become a YouTuber. Sure, there are qualities that YouTubers tend to share such as persistence, creativity and more, but how to create content that attracts people on a regular basis is something that remains a mystery.

There is no clearer evidence of this than South Africa’s top ten most subscribed YouTube channels.

Ignoring the channels set up by musicians, news agencies, and sports channels, there is a diverse mix of creators in the top ten all with millions of subscribers and views.

While we may not be talking about MrBeast levels of views here, we suspect that these creators – which you can also find on other platforms – are earning a decent amount of money for their content, if it’s monetised of course.

These are the top ten most subscribed South African channels on YouTube:

10. Michael Jamison

The Tiger King on Netflix made for the perfect collective viewing party when COVID-19 spread around the world. South Africa has its own king of tigers in Michael Jamison who reportedly owns three tigers. These tigers form the core of Jamison’s channels and he’s amassed some 1.14 million subscribers and 522.1 million views. While today Jamison’s content only racks up a few thousand views, his biggest video has 65 million views for good reason. Yes, those tigers appear to just be chilling in the backyard. We wouldn’t be as calm.

9. MacG

The oft-controversial podcast host is the only channel dedicated to podcast content in the Top Ten. With 1.24 million subscribers and over 237.5 million views, it’s easy to see why controversy rolls off MacG’s back like water in a searing pan. The success of the content depends largely on which guests appear on the show so views can range from a few thousand to hundreds of thousands.

The latest podcast episode, uploaded on Monday has already amassed 154 000 views.

8. Ofentse Mwase Films

We’ve been subscribed to this channel for a long time. Ofentse Mwase Films or OM Films as it’s now known haven’t only created some slick and well-produced content for YouTube, but the team also worked on Netflix original film Collision which debuted in 2022. The channel has 1.4 million subscribers and has amassed some 302.8 million views since it started posting in 2011.

We highly recommend you have this channel a look, you won’t be disappointed.

7. Noodle and Bun

You have more than likely stumbled across the misshapen cat and dog known as Noodle and Bun somewhere on your travels through the internet. The pair are the creation of animators Gottfried Roodt and Lloyd Wilgen from Polycat Visual Effects which has done work for the likes of Cooler Master and Corsair among other big-name clients. The animation found success on TikTok but over on YouTube the official channel boasts two million subscribers and over 714.1 million views.

6. Princess Sachiko

We’ll confess, we didn’t know this creator was South African. We first encountered Princess Sachiko on TikTok where dancing often went viral and flooded the platform. That success has started to transfer over to YouTube where the creator mainly posts shorts to her 2.6 million subscribers, amassing 644 million views in the process.

5. Iconic Coins

There is a very strong likelihood that you have seen something from this channel before today. Iconic Coins’ content is very simple, the creator cleans half of a coin. It’s simple and we can’t argue with the results. As of time of writing this channel has 3.28 million subscribers but more importantly, one billion views. Given that this channel was created in 2020, that is some rapid growth.

We can’t embed content here so click here for the latest from Iconic Coins.

4. Wian

We’re not going to lie, there’s something about the slight of hand that magicians have that really gets us excited. We don’t care if it’s a card trick or some cleverly constructed ruse, magicians are cool. Millions seem to agree with us as Wian Van Den Berg is among the most subscribed to YouTubers in South Africa. As like many on this list, Van Den Berg has leaned hard into Shorts which now amass more views than his video content. With 4.26 million subscribers and over three billion views, it’s nice to see the illusion of magic still interests people.

3. Noel Deyzel

Before you roll your eyes at the sight of a “gym bro” we urge you to give Noel Deyzel a watch. Not only is his content informative if you’re into fitness but it’s also rather funny. Even for PC warriors such as ourselves, Deyzel offers valuable advice about nutrition and even supplements. It’s really good content and we highly recommend you give him a watch.

2. Ryan HD

We’ll be frank, we’ve seen Ryan Lombard’s content on TikTok, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube but did we know he was South African? We didn’t even suspect it. The creator has an American accent despite having been born in South Africa and per his website lives in Gordon’s Bay. This has likely helped Lombard appeal to a wider audience and put him near the top on South African YouTube. Lombard has 5.39 million subscribers and 3.2 billion views.

1. Superherointraining

While we may not be the biggest fans of reaction content, we must admit that we were expecting to see more react content in this top ten. However, Superherointraining is the only creator billing themselves as a react channel. Despite the controversy that circles around this type of content given that it often doesn’t add much and often is just a person sitting in a corner, there is no denying it brings in viewers. Just take a look at react Andys like xQc and Asmongold who have built a livelihood off of simply watching content and providing some commentary.

However, we’d lump Superherointraining together with the likes of Cody Ko in that the creator provides additional context, commentary, and opinion in his videos so you walk away feeling like you’ve watched something transformative. The creator has 8.3 million subscribers, making him the biggest channel in South Africa, based on subscribers, by a long shot. However, when it comes to views, others on this list have a lot more than Superherointraining’s 43 million collective views.

[Image – Nubelson Fernandes on Unsplash]