How Long Does It Take To Get Subscribers On YouTube: Facts & Figures
How long does it take to get subscribers on YouTube? There is no exact formula to accurately predict that. However, we have developed a methodological way to do so.
In our research, we found out that:
- On average, it takes about 85.5 days to get 100 YouTube subscribers;
- It takes at least 12 months to get 1,000 subscribers;
- An average of 5 years to get 10,000 subscribers;
- And you’ll need at least 129.7 views to get 1 new subscriber on your channel.
Now the stats seem bleak. Hence, we have written a complete guide to help you grow your YouTube Channel a little faster.
Anyway, how did we arrive at the numbers above?
We’ve collected data from different content creators on how long it took them to get 100, 1,000, and 10,000 subscribers on YouTube.
We hope this information can be used as a benchmark, so new YouTubers will know what to expect when qualifying for the YouTube Partner Program.
So without further ado, let’s take a look at the numbers.
Average Time To Get Subscribers On YouTube
The table below represents the average time and views it takes different YouTubers to get subscribers.
| Number of Subscribers | Average Time To Achieve | Average Video Views Needed |
|---|---|---|
| 100 | 85.5 days (Roughly 3 months) | 12,970 |
| 1,000 | 11.75 months (Roughly 1 year) | 129,700 |
| 10,000 | About 5 years (60 months) | 1,297,000 |
Read on to get the full breakdown.
How Long Does it take to get 100 Subscribers on YouTube?
Best on several channels we have analyzed, it takes an average of 85.5 days to get 100 subscribers on YouTube.
| Source | Time To Hit 100 Subs |
|---|---|
| Smart Family Money | 73 days |
| Financial Wolf | 144 days |
| Misfit Hustler Channel 1 | 65 days |
| Misfit Hustler Channel 2 | 94 days |
| Misfit Hustler Channel 3 | 76 days |
| vidIQ | 61 days |
| Average Days Needed to Hit 100 Subs | 85.5 days |
Smart Family Money – 73 days
Cindy is the person behind Smart Family Money.
Her YouTube channel shares tips and tricks about saving money ideas, cheaper alternatives to expensive products, DIY projects, and being a savvy shopper.
Cindy uploaded 18 videos in total before reaching 100 subscribers in 73 days.
Financial Wolf – 6 months (~144 days)
William Nazarkewich, aka The Financial Wolf, took 6 months (~ 144 days) to get 100 subscribers.
His YouTube channel is about entrepreneurship and personal finance
Misfit Hustler
Misfit Hustler is a digital entrepreneur and affiliate marketer who makes money online through affiliate links.
Below is the data on how long each of their 3 YouTube channels acquired 100 subscribers.
Channel 1 (Luxury Goods): 65 days
During those 65 days, Misfit Hustler posted 35 videos evenly throughout the entire period. That is about 3 to 4 videos per week consistently.
Channel 2 (Digital Marketing): 94 days
For this channel, Misfit Hustler posted 32 videos for the first 9 weeks, posting 3 to 4 videos per week on average.
Channel 3 (Music Production And Reaction): 76 days
During the entire period, Misfit Hustler only posted 20 videos for this channel, about 2 videos per week on average.
However, one of their videos went viral and got promoted by YouTube. Hence, the instant boost in views and subscribers in just a short amount of time.
vidIQ – 61 days
vidIQ, an online education website offering video tutorials and analytics on YouTube channel growth, launched a survey and asked content creators how long it took them to gain 100 new subscribers.
Their anecdotal results suggest that it takes 61 days on average to get 100 subscribers on YouTube.
vidIQ also added that to potentially get 100 subscribers within the next 61 days, you’ll need:
- 1.6 subscribers per day
- Nine videos uploaded on your channel
- About 11.5 subscribers were generated from each video
What happens when you get 100 subscribers on YouTube?
The main perk when you get 100 subs on YouTube is you can unlock the feature to customize your channel’s URL.
A customized URL will greatly help your brand and give your YouTube channel a more professional feel.
How Long Does it take to Get 1,000 Subscribers On YouTube?
In this section, we tried calculating the average time needed to get 1,000 subscribers on YouTube based on the data provided by other YouTubers who have already achieved this milestone.
| Source | Time To Hit 1000 Subs |
|---|---|
| Smart Family Money | 6 months |
| Kayleigh June | 11 months |
| Financial Wolf | 16 months |
| Dara Denney | 4 months |
| Social Video Plaza | 18 months |
| vidIQ | 15.5 months |
| Average Month Needed to Hit 1000 Subs | 11.75 months (Roughly 1 year) |
Smart Family Money – 6 months
According to Cindy of Smart Family Money, it only took her 6 months to hit 1,000 YouTube subscribers.
Kayleigh June – 11 months
Kayleigh is a digital entrepreneur who shared educational content on her official channel.
It took her 11 months to get 1,000 YouTube subscribers.
Financial Wolf – 16 months
William Nazarkewich of The Financial Wolf hit 1,000 subscribers in 16 months.
Dara Denney – 4 months
Dara is a social media marketing director for a fully-remote marketing agency.
Her YouTube channel helps people grow their businesses through Facebook Ads (and other social media channels).
Social Video Plaza – 18 months
Social Video Plaza is a YouTube channel by Dexxter Clark where he helps entrepreneurs explode their revenue with the help of YouTube.
Dexxter shared that it took 18 months for his channel to get 1,000 subscribers.
vidIQ – 15.5 months
In another research conducted by vidIQ, video creators need an average of 15.5 months to get a thousand subscribers.
How Long Does It Take to Get 10,000 Subscribers on YouTube?
Based on the data from the other YouTube creators above, it roughly takes an average of 3 months to get your first 100 subscribers, while it takes at least a year to hit 1,000 subscribers.
But how about 10,000 subs?
Well, we found two famous YouTubers who shed some light on this topic.
Roberto Blake shared that based on data from a TubeBuddy case study, it usually takes an average of 5 years (60 months) for a new YouTube channel to reach 10K subscribers on Youtube.
Meanwhile, Neil Patel, a veteran digital marketer and top influencer on the web, claims that he hit 10,000 subscribers within 8 months.
So, in the end, the answer to this question is a little blurry than the others.
Getting 10,000 subscribers can be as short as 8 months or as long as 5 years.
How Many Views Do You Need to Get a Subscriber on YouTube?
We calculated how many views you will need to get 1 new subscriber from YouTube users that watch your videos.
And the result? You’ll need to get 129.7 views from your videos (on average) to gain 1 YouTube subscriber.
We get this number by dividing the number of total channel views by the total number of subscribers (Views/Subs) using the data from MrBeast, PewDiePie, and 8 other YouTube channels.
Here’s the complete breakdown:
| YouTube Channel | Total Channel Views (2022) | Total Channel Subscribers (2022) | Views to Subs Ratio |
|---|---|---|---|
| MrBeast (one of the most popular YouTube channels) | 18,347,870,793 views | 110 Million | 166.7 views per subscriber |
| Andy Guitar (one of the best YouTube channels to learn guitar) | 258,549,674 views | 2.35 Million | 110 views per subscriber |
| Budget Girl (one of our sources for the article How Much To Charge For YouTube Sponsorship) | 8,865,158 views | 97.3 Thousand | 91.1 views per subscriber |
| Air Photography (one of our featured faceless YouTube channels ideas) | 64,186,702 views | 343 Thousand | 187.1 views per subscriber |
| PewDiePie (another very popular YouTuber with a massive following) | 28,577,943,714 views | 111 Million | 257.4 views per subscriber |
| Neil Patel (a top influencer on the web and top 100 entrepreneurs under the age of 30 by President Obama) | 51,230,160 views | 1.1 Million | 46.5 views per subscriber |
| Rank Math (one of the top providers of SEO tools for WordPress websites) | 1,093,149 views | 12.6 Thousand | 86.7 views per subscriber |
| Lex Fridman (Russian–American computer scientist, AI researcher, educator, YouTuber, and podcast host) | 287,205,591 views | 2.25 Million | views per subscriber |
| Prowalk Tours (Travel YouTube channel, featured in faceless YouTube ideas) | 91,781,666 views | 499 Thousand | 183.9 views per subscriber |
| Tim Koa (YouTube channel for selling on Etsy and other online opportunities) | 2,809,561 views | 69.8 Thousand | 40.2 views per subscriber |
| Average Views Needed Per 1 Subscriber | 129.7 views |
As you can see, the number of views needed to get subscribers varies from one YouTube channel to another.
But purely based on the data we collected from the 10 channels above, it appears that you will need an average of 129.7 views to get 1 subscriber on your YouTube channel.
But we would also encourage you to do your own research and share with us your own findings regarding how many video views you need (on average) to get a subscriber on YouTube.
Best Ways to Get More YouTube Subscribers
Building your loyal YouTube subscribers requires patience and hard work.
So to help you out, below are the best practices and the fastest way to gain subscribers on YouTube.
Create engaging and informative YouTube videos
How to create great content for your channel? It all starts with a lot of research about your chosen niche.
Before you even start filming your first video, you should have already spent a lot of time learning everything about the YouTube channel you want to start and how you can provide the best videos for your target audience.
This might involve keyword research, reading blog posts, visiting social media sites, and watching related videos from other YouTube channels.
Invest in Better Equipment
The quality of your content plays a crucial role in whether you get more YouTube views and subscribers. Let’s be honest, no one wants to watch a blurry video.
And don’t worry. Having better equipment for your YouTube channel doesn’t necessarily cost a lot of money.
For starters, there are many sophisticated Youtube video editing tools that you can use for free!
You also don’t need to have a YouTube studio. As long as you have an HD webcam, microphone, and proper lighting, you can make high-quality videos in your home.
Create a channel trailer
YouTube channel trailers are a powerful way to turn viewers into instant subscribers.
Channel trailers are usually short videos that help new viewers understand what your channel is about and why they should subscribe.
Below are examples of YouTube channel trailers from Primal Video.
Ask your audience to subscribe
One of the easiest ways to increase your subscribers is to simply ask your audience to hit that subscribe button.
While it may seem obvious, some people need a little push to actually subscribe to your channel, even if they already love and follow your content.
This is why in almost all YouTube videos today, content creators always remind their viewers to subscribe during the first seconds of the video. Do the same.
Consistency is the key
Uploading a new video regularly is another great way to increase your channel’s subscriber count.
The YouTube algorithm loves consistency, and if you follow a tight upload schedule, there’s a good chance that your video will go viral for your target keywords.
Interact with your audience
The YouTube comment section is not just for your viewers to leave questions and reactions to your content. It also serves as a way for you to build a connection with your audience.
Make it a habit to reply to comments and show your audience that you actually care for them and genuinely want to help them.
Write a compelling channel description
The channel description is the text you can find on the “About page” of your channel.
It helps viewers understand the type of content you upload to your YouTube channel and tells them exactly what to expect from you as a content creator.
Hence, a compelling and well-thought YouTube channel description will capture your viewers’ audience’s interest, help gain new subscribers, and increase your channel’s overall watch time.
Customize your video thumbnails
Video thumbnails are still images that act as a cover for your video. They are among the first things users see after doing a YouTube search.
A highly captivating thumbnail will help convince YouTube users to click on your content instead of the other search results.
Promote your videos on social media and other platforms
Social media and other online platforms provide a great opportunity for YouTubers to promote their content to many people.
So every time you upload a new video, promote it on your blog, Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, and other platforms.
The Bottom Line
While there is no exact formula that accurately predicts how long it takes to get subscribers on YouTube, we hope that the data we shared in this article from other YouTube stars can become a benchmark for monitoring the progress of your YouTube channel.
That being said, how fast or how slow you can build your YouTube subscribers depends on you and other factors, including:
- How creative you are as a content creator;
- What kind of content do you upload on your YouTube channel (are they interesting or provide value to your audience);
- How many videos do you regularly upload (consistency);
- The video quality of the content you upload on your channel;
- Are you using good thumbnails;
- Are you using effective channel descriptions, tags, and SEO;
- Do you promote your channel on social networks and other platforms;
- And more.
Also, remember that every YouTuber will have varying results in terms of growing the number of subscribers on their channel, and every content creator will have a unique YouTube journey.
Until here and good luck!
And besides growing your subscribers, discover the 13 proven ways how to become a successful YouTuber.