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People publish income percentiles by state because $100K means something different in Mississippi and Manhattan. Subscriber counts work the same way. A million subscribers puts you in the top 1% of real estate channels and outside the top 5% in fitness. So I ranked every active channel in 20 niches and read the number at each line.
By Aditi · Published 9 September 2026 · Data pulled from the OutlierKit channel index on 9 September 2026 · 112,562 channels ranked
Among active channels, the top 1% line runs from 1.03 million subscribers in real estate to 5.91 million in fitness. Gaming needs 3.93 million, personal finance 2.52 million, and AI tools 1.16 million. The median active channel has between 7,000 and 33,000 subscribers depending on niche. Those are exact rank lookups across 112,562 channels in the OutlierKit index, pulled on 9 September 2026.
| Niche | Top 1% | Top 5% | Top 10% | Top 25% | Median |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fitness & workouts | 5.9M | 1.3M | 539K | 100K | 18K |
| Cooking & recipes | 5.5M | 1.6M | 715K | 172K | 33K |
| Science & education explainers | 5.1M | 1.1M | 428K | 69K | 12K |
| Family & kids (incl. parenting) | 4.7M | 834K | 334K | 69K | 13K |
| True crime & mysteries | 4M | 868K | 330K | 64K | 11K |
| Gaming | 3.9M | 835K | 362K | 91K | 16K |
| Beauty & makeup | 3.8M | 995K | 474K | 117K | 20K |
| Tech reviews & gadgets | 3.5M | 855K | 415K | 108K | 20K |
| Productivity & self-improvement | 3M | 688K | 261K | 66K | 13K |
| Cars & automotive | 2.8M | 748K | 354K | 90K | 18K |
| Personal finance & investing | 2.5M | 689K | 304K | 69K | 13K |
| Programming & software | 1.9M | 473K | 213K | 39K | 8K |
| Travel | 1.9M | 480K | 203K | 47K | 9K |
| Home improvement & DIY | 1.9M | 594K | 265K | 63K | 14K |
| Health, nutrition & wellness | 1.8M | 552K | 200K | 60K | 13K |
| Business & entrepreneurship | 1.4M | 403K | 152K | 37K | 8K |
| Crypto & Web3 | 1.4M | 522K | 274K | 103K | 30K |
| Fashion & style | 1.3M | 387K | 179K | 54K | 14K |
| AI tools & tutorials | 1.2M | 321K | 147K | 36K | 9K |
| Real estate | 1M | 199K | 93K | 25K | 7K |
Subscriber count of the channel at that exact rank. Sorted by the top 1% line. Population sizes and views per tier are in the full table further down.
Pick your niche and enter your subscriber count. The percentile is interpolated between the exact rank thresholds above, so the answer is as good as the ladder, not a guess.
Top 58%
With 10,000 subscribers you rank around #1,090 of 1,877 active Fitness & workouts channels. The median line is 18K, so you need about 7,500 more subscribers to cross it. The top 1% line is 5.9M.
Fitness needs 5.91 million subscribers. Real estate needs 1.03 million. Cooking (5.47 million), science and education (5.11 million) and family and kids content (4.68 million) all sit above 4 million. Business (1.42 million), crypto (1.39 million), fashion (1.26 million) and AI tools (1.16 million) all sit below 1.5 million. A "million-sub channel" is a top 1% result in five niches and a top 5% result in the rest.
The median runs from 7,000 subscribers in real estate to 33,000 in cooking. Gaming, the largest population at 33,680 channels, has a median of 16,000. Half of the channels competing in any of these niches sit below those numbers, and the 75th percentile is under 7,000 in every niche. If you have 10,000 subscribers you are already ahead of most channels that are actually publishing.
Its top 1% line is 415x the median channel: 5.11 million against 12,000. Family and kids (371x), true crime (350x) and fitness (338x) are close behind. Crypto is the flattest at 46x, because its median channel is unusually large at 30,000 and its top is unusually small at 1.39 million. A steep ladder means the top tier is a different business from the middle, not a bigger version of it.
Top 1% family and kids channels average 4.07 million views per video, about 39% of their subscriber count. Top 1% crypto channels average 29,000 views, about 1% of theirs. Personal finance (9%), health (8%), programming (6%), business (6%) and real estate (5%) all convert under a tenth of their audience into views on a typical upload. The full reach ratio table is below, because it changes what a subscriber count is worth.
Subscriber columns are the exact count at that rank. The two views columns are the median average views per video for channels inside that tier, so they describe the tier rather than a threshold. Channels is the size of the population ranked for that niche.
| Niche | Channels | Top 1% | Top 5% | Top 10% | Top 25% | Median | Top 1% avg views | Median avg views |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fitness & workouts | 1,877 | 5.9M | 1.3M | 539K | 100K | 18K | 1.8M | 10K |
| Cooking & recipes | 1,297 | 5.5M | 1.6M | 715K | 172K | 33K | 1.1M | 17K |
| Science & education explainers | 7,186 | 5.1M | 1.1M | 428K | 69K | 12K | 1.6M | 21K |
| Family & kids (incl. parenting) | 12,659 | 4.7M | 834K | 334K | 69K | 13K | 4.1M | 9K |
| True crime & mysteries | 10,373 | 4M | 868K | 330K | 64K | 11K | 1.2M | 15K |
| Gaming | 33,680 | 3.9M | 835K | 362K | 91K | 16K | 1.5M | 14K |
| Beauty & makeup | 3,036 | 3.8M | 995K | 474K | 117K | 20K | 1.3M | 9K |
| Tech reviews & gadgets | 7,660 | 3.5M | 855K | 415K | 108K | 20K | 1.1M | 10K |
| Productivity & self-improvement | 2,049 | 3M | 688K | 261K | 66K | 13K | 604K | 6K |
| Cars & automotive | 4,462 | 2.8M | 748K | 354K | 90K | 18K | 941K | 17K |
| Personal finance & investing | 2,004 | 2.5M | 689K | 304K | 69K | 13K | 327K | 6K |
| Programming & software | 797 | 1.9M | 473K | 213K | 39K | 8K | 328K | 3K |
| Travel | 8,573 | 1.9M | 480K | 203K | 47K | 9K | 1.1M | 7K |
| Home improvement & DIY | 2,721 | 1.9M | 594K | 265K | 63K | 14K | 963K | 16K |
| Health, nutrition & wellness | 1,842 | 1.8M | 552K | 200K | 60K | 13K | 269K | 6K |
| Business & entrepreneurship | 1,511 | 1.4M | 403K | 152K | 37K | 8K | 139K | 2K |
| Crypto & Web3 | 717 | 1.4M | 522K | 274K | 103K | 30K | 29K | 3K |
| Fashion & style | 2,628 | 1.3M | 387K | 179K | 54K | 14K | 468K | 6K |
| AI tools & tutorials | 6,691 | 1.2M | 321K | 147K | 36K | 9K | 157K | 6K |
| Real estate | 799 | 1M | 199K | 93K | 25K | 7K | 66K | 2K |
Source: OutlierKit channel index, 9 September 2026. For what those views are worth in dollars, read the RPM benchmarks report.
The reach ratio is average views per video divided by subscribers. It is the metric we use to rank creators in our influencer discovery guide, and it explains why a subscriber count alone can mislead. In every niche the top 1% converts a smaller share of its audience into views than the median channel does. That is expected, since old subscribers go quiet. What matters is how far the two fall.
| Niche | Top 1% reach ratio | Median channel reach ratio |
|---|---|---|
| Family & kids (incl. parenting) | 39% | 77% |
| Home improvement & DIY | 36% | 111% |
| Travel | 34% | 75% |
| Fitness & workouts | 30% | 53% |
| Beauty & makeup | 22% | 46% |
| Cars & automotive | 22% | 101% |
| Science & education explainers | 20% | 177% |
| Cooking & recipes | 20% | 48% |
| True crime & mysteries | 19% | 130% |
| Gaming | 17% | 88% |
| Productivity & self-improvement | 15% | 51% |
| Tech reviews & gadgets | 14% | 49% |
| Fashion & style | 12% | 45% |
| AI tools & tutorials | 9% | 70% |
| Personal finance & investing | 9% | 47% |
| Health, nutrition & wellness | 8% | 43% |
| Business & entrepreneurship | 6% | 23% |
| Programming & software | 6% | 38% |
| Real estate | 5% | 31% |
| Crypto & Web3 | 1% | 11% |
Two things stand out. First, mid-pack channels in science and education (177%), true crime (130%), home and DIY (111%) and cars (101%) get more views per video than they have subscribers. Those are discovery niches: the browse and search feeds carry the video, and the subscriber count is a lagging indicator. Second, the money niches sit at the bottom. Crypto's top 1% runs at 1%, real estate at 5%, business and programming at 6%. A 1.4 million subscriber crypto channel averaging 29,000 views reaches fewer people per upload than the median DIY channel, which has 14,000 subscribers and averages 16,000.
If you are choosing a metric to track, this is why we argue that subscribers are the least useful number on a channel page. Rank against the ladder to know where you stand, then judge the channel by views per video and by how often it beats its own baseline.
Each card shows the subscriber line for every tier, the views that tier typically gets, and the three largest channels the index matched to the niche. Channels with a full OutlierKit breakdown link to it. Query drift is noted where it matters: the family query is dominated by kids' entertainment, and the true crime query pulls in mystery and facts channels, so both are labelled that way.
Top 1% channels here pull about 30% of their subscriber count in views per video. Mid-pack channels pull 53%.
Largest channels the index matched
Top 1% channels here pull about 20% of their subscriber count in views per video. Mid-pack channels pull 48%.
Largest channels the index matched
Top 1% channels here pull about 20% of their subscriber count in views per video. Mid-pack channels pull 177%.
Largest channels the index matched
Top 1% channels here pull about 39% of their subscriber count in views per video. Mid-pack channels pull 77%.
Largest channels the index matched
Top 1% channels here pull about 19% of their subscriber count in views per video. Mid-pack channels pull 130%.
Largest channels the index matched
Top 1% channels here pull about 17% of their subscriber count in views per video. Mid-pack channels pull 88%.
Largest channels the index matched
Top 1% channels here pull about 22% of their subscriber count in views per video. Mid-pack channels pull 46%.
Largest channels the index matched
Top 1% channels here pull about 14% of their subscriber count in views per video. Mid-pack channels pull 49%.
Largest channels the index matched
Top 1% channels here pull about 15% of their subscriber count in views per video. Mid-pack channels pull 51%.
Largest channels the index matched
Top 1% channels here pull about 22% of their subscriber count in views per video. Mid-pack channels pull 101%.
Largest channels the index matched
Top 1% channels here pull about 9% of their subscriber count in views per video. Mid-pack channels pull 47%.
Largest channels the index matched
Top 1% channels here pull about 6% of their subscriber count in views per video. Mid-pack channels pull 38%.
Largest channels the index matched
Top 1% channels here pull about 34% of their subscriber count in views per video. Mid-pack channels pull 75%.
Largest channels the index matched
Top 1% channels here pull about 36% of their subscriber count in views per video. Mid-pack channels pull 111%.
Largest channels the index matched
Top 1% channels here pull about 8% of their subscriber count in views per video. Mid-pack channels pull 43%.
Largest channels the index matched
Top 1% channels here pull about 6% of their subscriber count in views per video. Mid-pack channels pull 23%.
Largest channels the index matched
Top 1% channels here pull about 1% of their subscriber count in views per video. Mid-pack channels pull 11%.
Largest channels the index matched
Top 1% channels here pull about 12% of their subscriber count in views per video. Mid-pack channels pull 45%.
Largest channels the index matched
Top 1% channels here pull about 9% of their subscriber count in views per video. Mid-pack channels pull 70%.
Largest channels the index matched
Top 1% channels here pull about 5% of their subscriber count in views per video. Mid-pack channels pull 31%.
Largest channels the index matched
It depends on the niche. Among active channels in the OutlierKit index, the top 1% line runs from 1.03 million subscribers in real estate to 5.91 million in fitness. Gaming sits at 3.93 million, personal finance at 2.52 million, and AI tools at 1.16 million. Across all of YouTube the line is far lower, because most channels ever created are dormant and never compete for views.
Only in real estate, where the top 10% line is 93,000. In the other 19 niches, 100,000 subscribers sits between the top 10% and top 25% lines, and in cooking, beauty, tech reviews and crypto it does not reach the top 25% at all. Cooking's top 25% line is 172,000 subscribers.
The median active channel has between 7,000 subscribers (real estate) and 33,000 (cooking) in our data. Half of all competing channels in a niche sit below that. The 75th percentile is between 1,750 and 6,510 in every niche, so a channel with 1,000 subscribers is in the bottom quarter of active competitors everywhere we measured.
Because the population is different. Most published averages divide by every channel ever created, including the tens of millions with no uploads. This report ranks only channels that OutlierKit has indexed because they produced at least one video that beat their own baseline. That is a population of active competitors, so every percentile sits higher than an all-of-YouTube count would.
Each niche is one semantic query against the OutlierKit channel index with a 0.40 similarity floor. The matched population was sorted by subscribers, its exact size found by binary search on the result offset, and the channel at rank 1%, 5%, 10%, 25%, 50% and 75% read directly. The figures are exact ranks inside the index, not sample estimates.
Yes. The OutlierKit API channel search endpoint accepts any query, sorts by subscribers, and pages to deep offsets, which is all the method needs. Pro and Max plans can also ask for it through the OutlierKit MCP connector in Claude. The method section below describes the exact steps.
Not on this number alone. A lower line means fewer subscribers stand between you and the top, but it also means the top tier commands less reach. Top 1% real estate channels average 66,000 views per video; top 1% fitness channels average 1.84 million. Pick the niche where your videos can win, then use this ladder to set realistic milestones inside it.
No. Revenue is views multiplied by RPM, and subscriber rank predicts neither reliably. Top 1% crypto channels average only 29,000 views per video, about 1% of their subscriber count, while top 1% family and kids channels average 4.07 million. Our RPM benchmarks report covers the earnings side, and the views-to-money report does the arithmetic.
Aim for the next line in your niche, not the top. In personal finance the ladder runs 13,000 (median), 69,000 (top 25%), 304,000 (top 10%), 689,000 (top 5%) and 2.52 million (top 1%). The calculator on this page tells you which line is next and how far away it is.
The population. Each niche is one semantic query against the OutlierKit channel index through the channel search endpoint, with a similarity floor of 0.40. The index holds channels that have produced at least one outlier video, so it represents active channels competing in the niche, not every channel ever created. Dormant channels are excluded by construction, which pushes every threshold higher than a raw all-of-YouTube count would.
The ranks. The matched population was sorted by subscribers and its exact size found by binary search on the result offset. The top 1%, 5%, 10%, 25%, 50% and 75% figures are the subscriber counts of the channel at that exact rank. Views figures are medians of average views per video for the channels in each band (the top 1% band, the 1 to 5% band, the 5 to 10% band, and 100-channel windows around the 25%, 50% and 75% ranks). The whole pull cost about 500 API credits. Everything was retrieved on 9 September 2026.
Queries used
Limits. Semantic matching is global and language-agnostic, so a Hindi finance channel and a US finance channel both count in personal finance. Small populations make the top line noisier: crypto matched 717 channels and real estate 799, so their top 1% figure is the eighth-ranked channel. Two queries drifted and were relabelled rather than re-run. The parenting query returned mostly kids' entertainment, so it is reported as family and kids. The true crime query pulled in mystery and facts channels, so it is reported as true crime and mysteries. Subscriber counts are the index's figures at pull time and will differ slightly from YouTube's live count.
What this report cannot tell you: any channel's revenue, watch time or audience geography. For the earnings side, read the RPM benchmarks report and the views-to-money arithmetic. For which niches are producing outliers right now, read the trending niches report.
See these strategies in the wild — full data-backed analyses of channels in this niche, including outlier videos, upload cadence, and growth patterns:
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Mark Tilbury
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Nischa
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BiggerPockets
Real estate investing
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Alex Hormozi
Business & scaling
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Ali Abdaal
Productivity & education
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Marques Brownlee
Consumer Technology & Hardware Reviews
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Technical Guruji
Consumer Tech & Gadgets
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Mrwhosetheboss
Consumer tech reviews and experiments
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Programming with Mosh
Software Engineering Education
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Kevin Stratvert
Software tutorials
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Mark Rober
Creative Engineering & Pop Science
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BRIGHT SIDE
Animated curiosity and facts explainers
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Zack D. Films
Animated curiosity Shorts
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Cocomelon
Kids nursery rhymes
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Village Cooking Channel
Village-scale Indian cooking
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James Charles
Beauty & Lifestyle Entertainment
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Ryan Trahan
Travel and challenge vlogs
Stats are from our most recent snapshot of each channel. For live numbers, outlier videos, and up-to-date revenue estimates, run a fresh analysis on OutlierKit →
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