Four of the five most popular YouTube channels in March are aimed at children, and they racked up nearly 1.5bn video views between them that month.
The latest chart from online video analytics firm OpenSlate and industry site Tubefilter shows that US-based toy unboxing channel Funtoys Collector was the biggest YouTube channel by some distance in March, with 477.5m views.
It was joined in the top five by second-placed Little Baby Bum, the British nursery rhymes channel, with 385.1m views that month. Two Russian cartoon channels, Masha and the Bear and Get Movies, ranked fourth and fifth with 323.1m and 311.2m views respectively.
Only musician Taylor Swift prevented a kids’ clean sweep of the top five with her channel’s 355.5m views in March, although if her views tail off in the near future, sixth-placed channel The Diamond Minecart, with its child-friendly Minecraft videos, could swoop in: it had just under 298m views last month.
The rise of children’s channels on YouTube has been rapid, yet also under the radar of the traditional television industry – at least until the recent launch of the YouTube Kids app.
The trend has even pushed one of the biggest YouTube-born stars, gamer PewDiePie, down the chart: his was the seventh most popular channel in March with 295.5m views, although with 35.7m subscribers, he remains the most followed channel on Google’s online video service.
Child-friendly gamer Stampy, who used to be a fixture near the top of the OpenSlate/Tubefilter chart, has also been overtaken in recent months: with a still-impressive 210.3m views in March, he was only the 20th most popular channel on YouTube that month.
The launch of YouTube Kids was pitched as a way for parents to be sure their children wouldn’t stray into unsuitable videos or advertising on the main YouTube service, although the app – still US-only for now – has caused controversy of its own.
Watchdog groups have complained to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) about the app, claiming it blurs the boundaries between advertising and children’s shows – including potential product placement in toy-unboxing channels.
Separately, YouTube has begun investing in children’s shows on its service, buying up exclusive rights to the first series of Stampy’s new Wonder Quest educational series, for example.
“They’re definitely understanding that the younger audience is coming into YouTube,” Stampy creator Joseph Garrett told the Guardian in an interview. “Google saw potential in the show.”
Some of the children’s channel owners that have been catapulted to global popularity are now working hard to build sustainable businesses. Little Baby Bum, for example, was founded by a UK-based couple in 2011 because they were disappointed with the quality of nursery rhyme videos on YouTube.
“This wasn’t by design, it was by luck – we were in the right place at the right time,” co-founder Derek Holder told the Guardian in an interview. “It’s been mindblowing. Staggering. We pinch ourselves every day.”
