We found the top 15 YouTube channel ideas (based on the 721 most popular YouTube channels)

We researched the 721 most popular YouTube channels by subscribers to reveal the 15 best YouTube channel ideas. We’ll also give you YouTube video ideas for each channel category to get you started.
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15 Most Popular YouTube Channel Ideas:

1. Video Games
2. Comedy
3. Education
4. Fitness
5. Food and Drinks
6. Travel
7. DIY
8. Tutorials
9. Music and Dance
10. Beauty and Fashion
11. Toys
12. Art and Design
13. ASMR
14. Animals and Pets
15. Vlogs

[#TOC1]1. Video Games[#TOC1]

YouTube has over 40 million active gaming channels, and 80,000 of those channels hit 100,000 subscribers in 2020. If you’re an ace gamer, it’s about time you monetize the hours you spend gaming. 

You might default to picturing PewDiePie and Syndicate when thinking of gaming channels on YouTube. Although their massive subscriber count can feel intimidating, they didn’t build their communities overnight. 

Mid-sized channels like TommyInnit have been growing steadily over time, and your channel can too, just by creating top-notch videos like the one below:

Need YouTube video ideas to get your gaming channel rolling? We’ve got some:

• Video Gaming Walkthrough Video
• Game Reviews
• Video Game Listicle

Following are some examples of the best gaming channels for inspiration:

[#TOC2]2. Comedy[#TOC2]

YouTube viewers like themselves a chuckle or two, making comedy one of the most popular channel categories. 

For reference, here’s a video by Collegehumor that got them over 4M views:

Like the sound of it? Here are some video ideas for your YouTube comedy channel to get you started:

• Comedy Skits
• Pranks
• Parody Videos

Also, the following are some of the best comedy channels you can look at to get the lay of the land:

[#TOC3]3. Education[#TOC3]

Think you’re good at simplifying complex concepts? An educational channel might be great for you.🤓

If you’re good at entertaining, being an “edutainer” can be an asset for your retention rate and channel engagement. But if you like to focus just on teaching, that’s fine too. The key to creating educational videos your audience will love is to tell a story effectively and edit your videos to make them visually appealing.

If your channel is anything like Be Amazed, you’ll find it relatively easier to create an entertaining script. But making Economics concepts fun? Tricky—but not impossible.

Look at Jacob Clifford’s channel for instance. He has been simplifying Economics for students for over seven years without making it sound boring.

You’re not restricted to teaching something if that’s not your jam. Know a lot about history? Focus your videos on history. If you’re a good animator and writer, you can create nursery rhyme videos too.

Sold on starting an educational channel? Here are YouTube video ideas to get the ball rolling:

• Explainer Videos
• Video Presentation or Webinar
• Productivity Hacks

Looking for what other educational channels are doing? Here are some of the best ones you can look at:

[#TOC4]4. Fitness[#TOC4]

If you get excited about helping people achieve fitness goals, this category might be perfect for you. 

Fitness channels aren’t only about workout routines. Your channel can cover your healthy lifestyle, from all the different workouts to healthy recipes. 

You can also help people who are uncomfortable going to a public gym or just don’t want to pay for a membership by creating videos for equipment-free home workouts.

Yoga With Adriene is an excellent example of how you can successfully run a fitness channel on YouTube. Her tutorials are thorough and creative. For instance, here’s a video called Yoga for Risk Takers:

Here are some YouTube video ideas for your fitness channel:

• Workout Routine Video
• Diet Plan and Nutritional Information
• Equipment-free Routines

Want to take a peek into what other channels post? Here are some popular ones you can check out:

[#TOC5]5. Food and Drinks[#TOC5]

Remember the old days when you used to call your mom asking how to make your favorite native dish? Thanks to YouTube, you don’t need to hassle your mom anymore. 

If you play your cards right, people searching for recipes will see your cooking tutorial at the top of the search result.

It’s natural to straight away associate a food channel with recipe videos but there’s so much more room to explore. You can create challenge videos, pranks, or comedy videos within this category. 

For instance, here’s a challenge video posted by People vs. Food as an example:

Here are some video ideas you can use as inspiration to create your first video:

• Cooking Videos
• Food Reviews
• Challenges

You should also look at what other food and drinks channels are posting. You don’t want to copy them, but you can take inspiration and get a better understanding of what you’ll be competing against:

[#TOC6]6. Travel[#TOC6]

Before spending money on the next big vacation, people want to research and find out several things like how much the trip will cost, places where they can stay, and if the experience will be worth the cost.

Travel channels on YouTube shed light on all of these questions. Your audience will rely on your content as an “all you need to know” guide—the sites, available cuisines, public transport, the whole bunch. But each individual video doesn’t necessarily need to have all the details. 

For instance, here’s one of Yes Theory’s videos that skips covering cost-effective accommodations and focuses just on new experiences:

When it comes to your travel channel the world, quite literally, is your oyster. 

Here are some YouTube video ideas for your new travel channel:

• Itinerary
• Travel Guide
• Adventure Videos

Here are other popular travel channels creating excellent travel content:

[#TOC7]7. DIY[#TOC7]

Are you good at life hacks and making things yourself? A DIY (do it yourself) channel can be an excellent category for you. You can either go the generalist route or pick a sub-category with a more focused audience.

You can teach people how to build cool and interesting things like TKOR does. Or you could focus on a niche audience like 5-Minute Crafts focuses on DIY and hacks for moms:

Here are a few types of videos you can create for your new DIY channel:

• Teach How to DIY Cool Stuff
• Teaching Life Hacks
• Life Hacks Experiments

Here are some of the most popular channels in the category you can look at to see the type of content you’ll need to create:

[#TOC8]8. Tutorials[#TOC8]

Tutorials are all about creating how-to type of content. While a channel can be exclusively a tutorial channel, other channels such as DIY or Food channels might include tutorial content. 

When you make a tutorial channel you want to have a clear niche you’re serving. If you’re posting tutorials for coding, you can review website builders or no-code platforms, but you shouldn’t post a tutorial on knitting a sweater. 🤷

You can teach pretty much anything you love—makeup, games, or even dance. NikkieTutorials is a great example of a makeup tutorial channel that posts tutorials that don’t only teach, but also entertain:

Here are a few YouTube tutorials ideas for your new channel:

• Teach a Language
• Product Tutorials
• Teach a Lesson

Want to look at some channels that are killing it with tutorials? Here you go:

[#TOC9]9. Music and Dance[#TOC9]

If you’re an aspiring artist or a passionate musician, starting a music or dance channel on YouTube can be a great marketing tool for a successful career 

For instance, you can create covers of popular songs, teach how to play an instrument or a style of dance, or post karaoke videos.

Conor Maynard started his YouTube channel back in 2006 to post videos of him singing covers. Over time, his YouTube channel grew and it now has over 12.7M subscribers. Now, he also does concerts and has since also been on a world tour. Cool, huh?

If you need video ideas, we’ve got some to get things moving:

• Tutorials for Singing, Playing an Instrument, or Dancing
• Music Reviews
• Covers

Who’s acing the music and dance category on YouTube? We found some popular channels you can look at for inspiration:

[#TOC10]10. Beauty and Fashion[#TOC10]

Can you quickly transform a just-out-of-bed face into an elegant one? Or maybe you’re the friend people always go to for fashion advice. Well, how about sharing your makeup and fashion knowledge with an audience that craves it through a YouTube channel?

You can share fashion tips, teach people quick and creative ways to put on makeup, or review beauty products. Jeffreestar has probably one of the most vibrant YouTube channels in the beauty and fashion category. Have you looked at how fun Jeffree’s videos are:

So, what type of videos can you create once you start a beauty and fashion channel? Here are a few video ideas:

• Beauty Product Reviews
• Celebrity Looks
• Fashion Brand Reviews

We found some of the most popular beauty and fashion channels you can look at to see what they’re doing as you start your YouTube journey:

[#TOC11]11. Toys[#TOC11]

Ryan Kaji became the world’s most popular YouTube star by reviewing toys. 

Ryan’s not the only one killing it with toys though. Like Nastya Show has since exceeded Ryan’s channel. You don’t always need to review toys. You can just entertain your audience by playing with them like Nastya:

What else can you do with toys for running your YouTube channel? Here are a few ideas:

• Toy Reviews
• Unboxing Toys
• Toy Collection Videos

If you’ve got children at home who seem curious about content creation, a toy channel could be a great idea. Here are some popular toys channels you can look at:

[#TOC12]12. Art and Design[#TOC12]

If you like fine arts, YouTube can give you a great visual platform to show your skills to the world. The great thing about art and design is it’s hard for others to mimic your content. 

Sure, someone can spin your script and create a similar comedy video that will compete with your video in the search results, but how many people can mimic your painting?

The category is a great fit for extroverts too. While a lot of the videos in this category focus on the art object, you can also have them focus on you, the artist. Here’s an excellent example of how Sam Does Art:

Sound exciting? Here are a few ideas for your first video to get things moving:

• Art Challenges
• Art DIY
• Art for Kids

Want to explore what other YouTube creators in your category are doing to succeed? Here are some of the most popular art and design channels:

[#TOC13]13. ASMR[#TOC13]

A growing number of people are looking for ways to feel calm. It's not surprising ASMR videos are turning heads on YouTube. 

ASMR (Auditory Sensory Meridian Response) gives you a tingling sensation and makes you feel relaxed. While the term ASMR makes it sound like creating videos for this category is technical, it’s fairly simple. 

You’ll need a good-quality microphone to become an “ASMRtist,” but that’s pretty much it. It might take a little bit of practice whispering or chewing in front of the mic. Here’s a tip: you should aim to make the sounds near the side of the mic rather than directly into it.

Here’s an example of an ASMR video from one of the biggest ASMR channels Hongyu ASMR:

Need ideas to kick things off? Here are some video ideas for your new ASMR channel:

• Whispers or Softly Spoken Videos
• Fabric Sounds
• Eating Sounds

Want to check out what other ASMRtists are doing? Here are the biggest channels you should visit:

[#TOC14]14. Animals and Pets[#TOC14]

If you’ve got some pets or love recording footage of animals in the wild or goofballs at home, animals and pets could be the perfect category for you.

Creating wholesome videos of animals doesn’t require a lot of ideation. They’ll create a lot of the content for you themselves; you just need to be holding the camera at the right time or encourage your audience to submit footage of their own. 

If you don’t have any footage, you can also look for animals and pets videos on YouTube and other platforms, and compile them into one video.

Here’s a great example of a compiled video:

The Dodo has been sharing animal videos since 2014 and has received lots of love from viewers.

Why wouldn’t they when their videos look like this:

Looking for video ideas for your animals and pets channel? We have some for you:

• Cute Baby Animal Videos
• Pet Halloween Costumes
• CCTV Footage Videos

Curious what other animal and pets channels post? Here are the best ones to look at:

[#TOC15]15. Vlogs[#TOC15]

People are curious about other people. It’s why things like reality TV and entertainment magazines sell so well. The same goes for vlogging.

Daily vloggers record footage of their daily activities. As a daily vlogger, you can post a video of your trip to the grocery shop or express your opinions about something. 

Casey Neistat is an excellent example of how daily vloggers can become incredibly successful. Over his vlogging career, he has built a company (called Beme) that was acquired by CNN, created a commercial for Nike, and recently released his new documentary called Under the Influence.

Neistat earned all his fame through his YouTube vlogs, and in case you’re wondering, here’s what they look like:

Feeling positive about starting a daily vlog? Here are some ideas to get started:

• Daily Activities
• Vlogging Kid-Friendly Activities (going to the zoo)
• Family-Oriented Videos

If you want to check out other daily vloggers to get ideas for your YouTube channel, here are some of the best in the business:

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Ready to Get Started With Your New YouTube Channel?

Now that you know the 15 most popular YouTube channel ideas, you’re ready to kick things off. 

An online video editor like VEED will make sure you make videos like a pro without needing to learn any crazy complex software. You can add captions, download SRT files, add music, resize your video, or collaborate with your team.

‍Edit your next YouTube video with VEED!