Cocomelon is an animated kids program that seemingly came out of nowhere to become the most viewed channel on YouTube in the United States. Here is how a Netflix nursery rhyme show might soon pass Felix ‘PewDiePie’ Kjellberg and T-Series in subscribers.
During his June 1, 2020 upload, YouTube’s biggest individual content creator PewDiePie was stunned after learning about Cocomelon, a channel that could soon pass him and T-Series in subscribers. The Swede was blown away by their meteoric numbers.
“They manage to get more views in 10 videos than the population of the Earth,” he exclaimed. The program actually launched in 2006, and only recently found success. Here is how a kids’ show could soon be the top creator on the Google-owned platform.
What is Cocomelon?
The channel was created in 2006 by Treasure Studio, Inc., just a year after YouTube made its public debut. Originally, it was named ThatsMEonTV, and featured music videos aimed at teaching kids the alphabet. In 2016, they began to use their Pixar-esque 3D animation art style they have since become known for.
Despite having an account for over a decade, it wasn’t until later that year that they finally reached one million subscribers. However, it was from 2017-2019 that they saw an explosion in growth. Starting in August 2018, they began to pull in three million subscribers a month.
Insane growth
The numbers for the children’s program are astonishing. According to third-party tracking site Social Blade, Cocomelon went from 60 million subscribers in September 2019, to 96.9 million at the end of October 2020. Their views were no doubt helped by streaming giant Netflix, who acquired the show in 2020.
To put all this into perspective, YouTuber ‘Gabriel Lenny #1′ created a video that showcases Cocomelon’s growth in comparison to PewDiePie’s. Despite launching his channel four years later, the Swede quickly outpaced them in 2010 as his career took off. However, in 2019, the kids’ program started to finally began to outperform him from month to month.
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Cocomelon, PewDiePie and T-Series
It should be pointed out that third-party tracking sites are never 100% reliable, and YouTube has taken steps to obscure live subscriber counts. However, PewDiePie gained roughly around 11 million in the same time frame that Cocomelon brought in close to 40 million.
Infamously in 2019, the Swede found himself in a showdown between him and T-Series for the top spot on the platform. After the entire community rallied behind him with the ‘subscribe2pewdiepie’ campaign, he eventually lost to the India-based corporation who went on to reach 141 million subscribers,
During his June 1, 2020 upload, he jokingly reached out to his former rival after learning about the childrens’ channel’s insane growth. “We need to join forces to defeat this evil! They are gonna take over both of us, unless we join forces,” he laughed.
While it’s impossible to know if Cocomelon’s growth will continue at the same rate, they are currently on track to pass PewDiePie by 2021. And eventually, even mega-corporation T-Series will be unseated from the top spot.
Even if that happens, the Swede shouldn’t feel so bad – he’s still the undisputed individual content creator king, with a staggering 107 million subscribers. For one creator, that isn’t so bad.