OG YouTubers built the platform you watch every day. Before algorithm-tuned thumbnails, twelve-minute mid-roll empires, and Shorts farms, the OG YouTubers were uploading sketches from bedrooms on tripods their parents bought them. Most of the formats that dominate the platform now were invented by these creators, and a list of OG YouTubers is essentially a list of the people who wrote the rulebook.
What actually makes someone an OG YouTuber? The fuzzy answer is anyone who started uploading before YouTube was a real career, back when the algorithm barely existed, the partner program had not launched, and viral hits spread through MySpace embeds and school inboxes. The cleaner answer is a date range. Most of the best OG YouTubers on this list started between 2005 and 2012, the era before Shorts, before partner programs scaled up, and before MrBeast made spectacle the platform’s default.
The fifteen names below built the formats everyone else now competes in. OG gaming YouTubers turned Let’s Plays into careers. The OG beauty YouTubers invented the tutorial as a content category. The OG female YouTubers carved out space on a leaderboard that was, for years, almost entirely male. Some of these creators are still uploading every week. Some are semi-retired. A couple have logged off for good.
If you want to see who is dominating YouTube right now instead, our roundups of the best male YouTubers and the hottest YouTubers cover the current top of the platform.
Top 15 OG YouTubers List (Ranked by Year Started)
The list below is ordered chronologically by the year each creator started uploading, which is the cleanest way to read OG status. Subscriber counts are a June 2026 snapshot and shift constantly, so verify before quoting.
1. Smosh (@smosh) – Started 2005
If anyone has earned the title of OG YouTuber, it is Smosh. Ian Hecox and Anthony Padilla started uploading in 2005, the same year YouTube itself launched, and held the most-subscribed-channel crown three separate times. Their Pokémon Theme Music Video was the most-watched video on the platform until it got pulled for copyright.
Two decades later the brand is still going. The channel has around 27 million subscribers and now operates as a comedy production company with a rotating cast. VidCon inducted Smosh into its inaugural Hall of Fame in 2025, which is about as definitive as OG status gets.
2. Ryan Higa (@nigahiga) – Started 2006
For a stretch between 2009 and 2012, no comedy channel was bigger than nigahiga. Ryan Higa and Sean Fujiyoshi started uploading lip-syncs from Hawaii in 2006, then pivoted to the structured sketch style that made the channel the most-subscribed on YouTube. The “How to be Ninja” series was unavoidable on the early platform.
Higa has long since stepped back from regular uploads. The channel is still up, the impact is still everywhere in modern sketch comedy, and most of the best OG YouTubers in the comedy lane will name him as a direct influence.
3. iJustine (@ijustine) – Started 2006
Long before tech YouTube became its own ecosystem, Justine Ezarik was unboxing the original iPhone on camera. She is one of the earliest OG female YouTubers and easily the first to make tech vlogging a serious lane on the platform.
The viral hit that put her on the map was the 300-page iPhone bill video in 2007. The channel has kept the same tech and lifestyle focus for almost two decades and still posts regularly to roughly 7 million subscribers.
4. Michelle Phan (@MichellePhan) – Started 2007
The category of OG beauty YouTubers basically starts here. Michelle Phan uploaded her first tutorials in May 2007 from a small channel called Ricebunny, and her soft, ASMR-adjacent voiceover style set the template every makeup YouTuber would use for the next decade. Her Lady Gaga “Bad Romance” tutorial in 2009 is still the canonical example of what an OG makeup YouTuber video looked like.
She was the first online makeup artist signed by a major beauty brand, when Lancôme hired her in 2010 with barely half a million subscribers. She also co-founded the beauty sample service Ipsy, which became a billion-dollar company.
Phan stepped away in 2016, citing burnout, and now uploads sporadically to a channel that still holds around 8 million subscribers.
5. Shane Dawson (@shane) – Started 2008
Few creators reinvented themselves on YouTube more than Shane Dawson. He started in 2008 with comedy sketches and character impressions, and within two years had pulled in 500 million views, which was an enormous number at the time.
His second act in the late 2010s was the deep-dive documentary series, which arguably invented the long-form YouTube essay as a format. The early sketch material later drew significant backlash, and his current upload schedule is rare, but the influence on how YouTube tells stories is hard to overstate.
6. Bethany Mota (@Macbarbie07) – Started 2009
Macbarbie07. That username defined preteen YouTube for an entire era. Bethany Mota started haul videos in 2009 and turned them into a content category, eventually scoring a Dancing With the Stars run, an Aéropostale clothing line, and an actual interview with a presidential candidate.
She uploads rarely now but is still credited as one of the OG female YouTubers who pioneered teen lifestyle content. The channel still holds about 10 million subscribers.
7. Zoella (@zoella280390) – Started 2009
Zoella was the face of the British YouTube boom. Zoe Sugg started her beauty and lifestyle channel in 2009 and quickly became one of the OG beauty YouTubers and one of the most popular OG female YouTubers in the UK. Her debut novel hit number one on the Sunday Times bestseller list, the first time a YouTuber had managed it.
She launched her own beauty line, an Etsy shop, and the photo app Filmm before mostly stepping away from uploading. The main channel still sits at around 10 million subscribers.
8. Jackie Aina (@JackieAina) – Started 2009
One of the most influential OG Black YouTubers and OG beauty YouTubers, period. Jackie Aina launched her channel in 2009 as a Nigerian-American makeup artist and spent years pushing the industry, on camera, to actually make foundation shades that worked for darker skin.
That advocacy moved the entire beauty market. Brands restructured their shade ranges in part because she would not stop talking about it. She also launched her own fragrance and home brand, FORVR Mood, and was named to TIME 100 Next.
9. PewDiePie (@PewDiePie) – Started 2010
110 million subscribers and counting. Felix Kjellberg is the most-subscribed OG gaming YouTubers pick on this list, the man who held the most-subscribed crown for the better part of a decade, and the creator who turned the screaming-at-horror-games format into a billion-view template.
PewDiePie has since semi-retired in Japan, uploads on his own schedule, and has shifted toward tech and hobby content. Almost every modern OG gaming YouTuber, from Markiplier down, will name him as a direct influence.
10. Jenna Marbles (@JennaMarbles) – Started 2010
The most influential of the OG female YouTubers is no longer making videos, and the channel still sits at around 19 million subscribers. Jenna Mourey uploaded “How to Trick People Into Thinking You’re Good Looking” in 2010, it pulled 70 million views, and the rest of the decade was hers. For a long stretch she was the most-subscribed woman on YouTube.
She stepped away from the platform in 2020 after revisiting some of her old material, and has stayed off since. The dignity of the exit, plus the body of work, has made her one of the best old YouTubers fans still talk about.
11. Lilly Singh (@IISuperwomanII) – Started 2010
Sketch comedy about family, culture, and everyday life. Lilly Singh started uploading as IISuperwomanII in 2010 and built one of the largest South Asian audiences on YouTube. The channel hit 14 million subscribers, and she crossed into late-night TV when NBC gave her A Little Late with Lilly Singh, the first time an Indian-Canadian woman hosted a major US network late-night show.
She is also a bestselling author and a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador. Among top old YouTuber names, she stands out for actually translating YouTube fame into traditional media.
12. CaptainSparklez (@CaptainSparklez) – Started 2010
“Revenge”. The 2011 Minecraft parody of Usher’s “DJ Got Us Fallin’ in Love” was one of the defining videos of the early Minecraft era, and it holds Guinness records for the most-watched Minecraft YouTube video and the most-watched machinima. Jordan Maron, CaptainSparklez, sits firmly among the OG Minecraft YouTubers and OG gaming YouTubers.
His channel created the Minecraft-music-parody format that ran the platform for years, and he is still posting Minecraft and other gameplay content to roughly 11 million subscribers.
13. Stampylonghead (@stampylonghead) – Started 2011
An entire generation of British children grew up on this voice. Joseph Garrett started Stampylonghead as a family-friendly Minecraft channel in 2011, and the Lovely World series became appointment viewing for kids the same way Saturday-morning cartoons used to be. He sits around 11 million subscribers and was nominated for a BAFTA Children’s Award.
Among the OG Minecraft YouTubers, Stampy is the one who made the case that kids gaming content could be enormous and genuinely wholesome at the same time.
14. Markiplier (@markiplier) – Started 2012
Horror games and screaming made the channel. Mark Fischbach started uploading in 2012 as markiplierGAME, doing playthroughs of Amnesia and Five Nights at Freddy’s, and that loop carried him to 36 million subscribers. He is one of the youngest creators on this list and arguably the last clean OG of the original era.
He has since branched into film directing, the clothing brand Cloak with jacksepticeye, and a string of massive charity streams. Among the OG gaming YouTubers, his trajectory is the closest thing to PewDiePie’s career arc.
15. DenisDaily (@denisdaily) – Started 2016 (OG Roblox)
OG status is platform-relative, and Roblox simply came later. Denis Kopotun launched DenisDaily in March 2016 and rode the first big wave of Roblox content to roughly 9 million subscribers. He is the cleanest pick among OG Roblox YouTubers, the era when the platform was still mostly seen as a kids’ game, and creators were figuring the format out from scratch.
The Pals collab channel he was part of, his obstacle-course gameplay style, and the Sir Meows A Lot mascot are now part of Roblox YouTube’s foundational layer.
OG YouTubers List by Category
Most people searching for OG YouTubers want a specific angle, not the full chronological dump. Here is how the fifteen above break down across the categories people actually look for.
OG gaming YouTubers. PewDiePie, CaptainSparklez, and Markiplier are the three definitive OG gaming YouTubers on this list. PewDiePie owns the broad gaming Let’s Play category, CaptainSparklez owns the music-parody-gaming hybrid, and Markiplier owns the horror lane.
OG Minecraft YouTubers. CaptainSparklez and Stampylonghead are the two OG Minecraft YouTubers from this list. Captain anchored the music-parody era around 2011, and Stampy built the family-friendly kids lane right after.
OG Roblox YouTubers. DenisDaily is the cleanest pick. The Roblox creator scene only matured around 2016, which makes 2016 effectively the OG-era cutoff for the platform.
OG beauty YouTubers and OG makeup YouTubers. Michelle Phan, Bethany Mota, Zoella, and Jackie Aina. Phan invented the format, Mota and Zoella scaled it into multi-million-subscriber brands, and Jackie Aina rebuilt it with inclusivity at the center.
OG Black YouTubers. Jackie Aina is the standout on this list. For a broader picture, KSI also belongs in any honest list of OG Black YouTubers, having uploaded FIFA commentary since 2009.
OG female YouTubers. iJustine, Michelle Phan, Bethany Mota, Zoella, Jenna Marbles, Jackie Aina, and Lilly Singh. They cover tech, beauty, fashion, comedy, and sketch, and together they account for the entire backbone of women-led OG YouTube.
Where the OG YouTubers Are Now
The status on this list splits into three buckets, and it is worth being explicit about which is which.
Still actively uploading. Smosh, iJustine, Jackie Aina, CaptainSparklez, Markiplier, Lilly Singh, and DenisDaily all still post on something close to a regular schedule. These are the OG YouTubers you can subscribe to today and actually see content from this month.
Semi-retired or sporadic. PewDiePie, Stampylonghead, Bethany Mota, Michelle Phan, Zoella, and Shane Dawson upload rarely or in waves. Subscribe to the catalog more than the cadence.
Fully stepped away. Ryan Higa and Jenna Marbles have effectively left. The channels are archived rather than active. The body of work, especially for Jenna, holds up surprisingly well.
Conclusion
This OG YouTubers list spans the years 2005 to 2016 and covers every founding lane of the platform: sketch comedy, gaming, beauty, tech, vlogs, Minecraft, and Roblox. Some of the best OG YouTubers on this list are still going strong, some moved into business or traditional media, and some logged off entirely. The platform you watch today was built on top of what these fifteen creators figured out.
If a creator on this list is new to you, the catalog is right there. The early YouTube format, low budget, high personality, no algorithm chase, still holds up remarkably well.
Frequently Asked Questions
Smosh is widely regarded as the most OG YouTuber, having started uploading in 2005, the same year YouTube launched, and having held the most-subscribed crown three separate times. PewDiePie is the OG YouTuber with the biggest current subscriber count at roughly 110 million.
PewDiePie, CaptainSparklez, and Markiplier are three of the best OG gaming YouTubers. They cover broad Let’s Play content, the Minecraft music-parody lane, and the horror gaming category, respectively.
The two OG Minecraft YouTubers on this list are CaptainSparklez, who started Minecraft content in 2010, and Stampylonghead, who started in 2011 and built the family-friendly kids lane. DanTDM, who launched in 2012, is another major OG Minecraft creator worth mentioning.
Michelle Phan, Bethany Mota, Zoella, and Jackie Aina are the OG beauty YouTubers and OG makeup YouTubers from this list. Phan effectively invented the tutorial format on YouTube in 2007, and the others scaled the category through the late 2000s and early 2010s.
Jackie Aina is the standout OG Black YouTuber on this list, as a beauty creator and inclusivity advocate. Among OG female YouTubers, the list covers iJustine, Michelle Phan, Bethany Mota, Zoella, Jenna Marbles, Jackie Aina, and Lilly Singh, spanning tech, beauty, fashion, comedy, and sketch.
