Ever since its inception in 2005, YouTube has transformed the way we watch and consume content. This phenomenon shows no signs of slowing down as today it is the world’s second most popular search engine. This massive growth of the platform has led to the birth of a brand new generation of celebrities who have emerged just by using YouTube to build an audience.

People love to watch someone with whom they can interact with and relate to. Considering that audience behavior, a lot of YouTube channels led by independent creators have emerged over the years who basically are selling a personality, be it real or fictional. The younger generation is watching YouTube videos as regularly as Television shows, making these YouTubers just as famous as those on cable.

Let’s take a look at the top 10 independent YouTubers in America who continue to innovate and build their audience worldwide in this ever-evolving world of YouTube.

PewDiePie

Felix Arvid Ulf Kjellberg known online as PewDiePie is a Swedish YouTube personality and game commentator. He is known for his “Let’s Play” game commentaries, vlogs, challenges, and rants. He has been immensely successful with his content and thus attained the position of the most subscribed YouTuber on the platform. With more than 63.3 million subscribers, he also stands on the first spot of the top YouTubers in America. He started his YouTube channel by playing Minecraft and developed it into a profitable business, soon becoming the world’s most popular and richest YouTube personality.

He bonds well with his viewers, plays games while they watch and are entertained, chats it up with his crazy-mixed-up hilarity and the viewer feels as if they’re right beside him. He has had a fair share of controversies regarding his channel content but it has also evolved a lot over the years. Just like any other popular YouTuber, PewDiePie also makes money from brand deals apart from the YouTube revenue system and has proved himself to be quite a philanthropist by contributing to various charities from his earnings. He has the tremendous the ability to inspire millions of people around the world to laugh and enjoy themselves while watching his content.

Dude Perfect

Dude Perfect is an American YouTube channel which is created by five guys named Coby and Cory Cotton (twins), Garrett Hilbert, Cody Jones, and Tyler Toney, all of whom were former high school basketball players and college roommates at Texas A&M University. With more than 31.1 million subscribers, it stands on the second spot of the top YouTubers in America. Their channel showcases content in the category of sports entertainment. Their most popular content depicts various trick shots and stunts cut together and set to upbeat music.

The group also regularly uploads videos of battles, where the individual members of Dude Perfect compete against one another in a good-natured game or contest usually featuring elements and creative spins on different sports and a unique set of rules. Over the years, they have created a lot of series content that is frequently updated with new episodes. Dude Perfect has a family-friendly business plan that has helped them bring in big money from YouTube, merchandise and even their own iPhone game. Their YouTube success has also led them to bag a television show of themselves.

Smosh

Smosh is an American sketch comedy YouTube channel initially created by Ian Andrew Hecox and Daniel Anthony Padilla. After a decade of working together on this channel, the duo decided to split in June 2017. SMOSH is a multi-faceted enterprise that is based around its flagship YouTube channel and highly trafficked website, includes multiple record-setting channel spinoffs, top-charting musical endeavors, merchandising brand extensions, mobile apps, gaming and theatrical exhibition. Their channel has seen a growing number of Smosh-minded cast members who are excelling in replicating their most popular content.

While the Smosh brand maintains its comedic tone, the type of content they put up expands and evolves constantly. They have many other spin-off channels dealing with specific types of content, but the flagship channel Smosh attracts the most audience. With more than 23.1 million subscribers, it stands on the third spot of the top YouTubers in America. Their channel does not showcase content around themselves but a style of comedy which has a never-ending appeal. It converts the casual audience into subscribers by promising them more of the same kind of content with various weekly series. This massive success gained on YouTube has led them to create their very own movie titled as “Smosh: The Movie”.

Ryan Higa

Ryan Higa, also known by his YouTube username nigahiga, is an American comedian, YouTube personality, and actor. According to Ryan, his channel name is a combination of “Niga”, which means “rant” in Japanese, and his last name, “Higa”. He also has a secondary channel, under the name “HigaTV”, where he posts video blogs and behind the scenes videos. With more than 21 million subscribers, he stands on the fourth spot of the top YouTubers in America. His channel showcases a variety of content from comedy skits, rants, challenges, trending topics, short films, music and informative videos. So this shows that he can do a little bit of everything and doesn’t really want to be a specialized YouTuber.

His success on YouTube has made him get recognition from various media outlets, such as being a nominee for choice award shows, as well as being on Forbes’ list of Influential young stars. He has also appeared on various TV shows, movies, launched an app and even written his own book talking about his YouTube career. On his channel, he often collaborates with other YouTubers, friends, and celebrities in order to keep growing his audience base and discover new content forms. He tries to keep his viewers’ interests in mind while creating his content which also aligns with his own interests. Gradually, this became his winning method for choosing the subject matter for his YouTube channel.

Markiplier

Mark Edward Fischbach known online as Markiplier is an American YouTube personality. Along with being a successful YouTuber, he is also an aspiring singer and songwriter. He specializes in “Let’s Play” videos, commonly of survival horror video games. Markiplier has been known for his sensationalized video game commentary, involving yelling, screaming, cursing, and even crying during his “Let’s Play” videos. He often makes vlogs to talk one-on-millions with the community about various topics, many inspirational, but usually regarding himself and his channel. With more than 20.6 million subscribers, he stands on the fifth spot of the top YouTubers in America.

On his channel, he creates content around hilarious gaming, original comedy sketches, animated parodies, and other bits of entertainment. To further grow his audience base, he has often collaborated with other YouTubers for his sketch comedy and gaming content buckets. A recurring staple of Mark’s channel is charity livestreams, during which he plays games while campaigning for and collecting donations for various charities. His YouTube success has led him to go on sketch comedy tours across the U.S and Europe. He is often considered to be the “most caring YouTuber” due to his heartfelt appreciation to his viewers and his tendency to show his emotion on camera.

Jenna Marbles

Jenna Nicole Mourey better known by her pseudonym Jenna Marbles, is an American YouTube personality, vlogger, comedian and actress. She uploads a new video to her YouTube channel every Wednesday or Thursday. She is regarded as a pioneer for women on YouTube. With more than 18.1 subscribers, she stands on the sixth spot of the top YouTubers in America. Though fans never know what they’re going to find when they tune into her channel every week, it’s Marbles’ charisma and lovably awkward personality that has built her a loyal fanbase. Marbles is far from a digital-only star.

Her YouTube fame has given her an opportunity to be cast in a fair amount of lower-end indie films, usually appearing as herself. Following her first viral video, Marbles established herself as one of the first creators to make it big on the platform. Her success depends on multiple factors but ultimately boils down to one thing: authenticity. Despite having been on YouTube for eight years, Jenna Marbles videos never give off this air of pretentiousness that comes along with an older YouTuber changing their content to fit with the times. Whether you like her content or not, she has definitely established herself as a YouTube personality who is worth admiring.

Logan Paul Vlogs

Logan Alexander Paul is an American actor, director, YouTube personality, screenwriter, rapper, and white collar boxer. Paul first gained fame through videos shared on former internet video service Vine. He owns two YouTube channels, the official one being used to upload comedy sketches and short films while the other one is where he uploads daily vlogs – attracting a much larger audience. With more than 17.5 million subscribers, he stands on the seventh spot of the top YouTubers in America.

After widespread criticism of Paul for his insensitivity and poor behavior in multiple incidents, he decided to stop creating daily vlogs on this channel in order to pursue creativity in different ways. Logan tries to position himself as a kind of thought-leader, but in a sort of fun, boisterous, playful way that appeals to a younger demographic – his recent controversies have started to prove the audience otherwise. Despite the recent downfall of his channel’s success, he still makes it to this list considering his past successful projects. He is now focussing on other content categories and platforms to avoid his impending doom on the internet.

FBE

Fine Brothers Entertainment (FBE) is an American media company, founded by brothers Benny Fine and Rafi Fine, creators and media entrepreneurs. FBE is best known for their React video series. On their main channel, the brothers upload a multitude of series, creating some of the most popular scripted, narrative, and unscripted series in web history including their award-winning and notable reaction series. With more than 17.3 million subscribers, they stand on the eight spot of the top YouTubers in America. The channel consists of the REACT series, shows across scripted, unscripted, animation, interactive, sketch comedy and more.

They have been making some of the web’s most popular series on this channel and across the internet for over a decade and now also make TV series and feature films. They have allocated a content category to each day of the week on this channel which makes it very convenient for the audience to pick when they want to tune in to their channel for content. Their popular ‘React’ Series videos are created with a high production quality with spot-on editing and plenty of reactions from their varied guests. FBE is a nontraditional entertainment company capable of doing traditional material while still tapping into digital audiences.

Liza Koshy

Elizabeth “Liza” Koshy is an American actress, YouTube comedian, and television host. She is of half-Indian and half-white descent. Koshy began posting comic videos on the Vine platform, in 2013, under the pseudonym “Lizzza”. Koshy’s videos feature her loud facial expressions, quick pace, and her commitment to looking as ridiculous as possible as the joke demands. Some of her videos also take serious issues – like anxiety, the pressure to fit in and internet trolls – and make them accessible and engaging for her viewers. With more than 14.9 million subscribers, she stands on the ninth spot of the top YouTubers in America.

Her comedy content is heavy on self-deprecation, slapstick, and wordplay. This works perfectly for advertisers due to the repeat value of her content. Since her debut on YouTube, Liza has been well known for her fast-paced, all over the place, over the top, quirky, upbeat, clever and humorous personality she displays in her videos. She has been killing the game with her award-winning online content creation and acting gigs. She has collaborated with various popular faces of YouTube either on her channel or theirs which has led to an expansion of her audience base.

RomanAtwoodVlogs

Roman Bernard Atwood is an American YouTube personality, comedian, vlogger, and prankster. Despite having a main channel featuring his comedy and prank content, he is best known for his vlogs, where he posts updates about his life on a daily basis. On his vlogging channel, he focuses on showcasing his life as a Father to his sons Noah and Kane and daughter Cora, along with his finance Brittney in Ohio. With more than 14.5 million subscribers, he stands on the tenth spot of the top YouTubers in America.

Recently in March 2018, he announced that he will end his daily vlogging streak in order to try out different types of content. Roman is no stranger to change as he was once a popular prankster and in recent years he completely remade his content brand, focusing it on his family. He handles both his channel well by simultaneously creating a viral video and showcasing his life as a dad.