YouTube Creator Awards

Not to be confused with YouTube Awards or YouTube Music Awards.

YouTube Creator Awards, commonly known as YouTube Play Buttons or YouTube Plaques, are a series of awards from the American video platform YouTube that aim to recognize its most popular channels. They are based on a channel's subscriber count but are offered at the sole discretion of YouTube. Each channel is reviewed before an award is issued, to ensure that the channel follows the YouTube community guidelines.^[1] YouTube reserves the right to refuse to hand out a Creator Award, which it has done for channels featuring horror or extremist political content.^[2][3]

YouTube Creator Awards
A 100,000 subscriber award gifted to MixMorris
Awarded for	Achieving a subscriber milestone on YouTube
Country	Worldwide
Presented by	YouTube
First awarded	June 28, 2012; 12 years ago (2012-06-28)
Website	Award page

Awards

When a YouTube channel reaches a specific milestone and is deemed eligible for a YouTube Creator Reward,^[1] they are awarded a relatively flat trophy in a metal casing with a YouTube play button symbol. The trophies are of different sizes: each button and plaque gets progressively bigger with the channel's subscriber count.^[4] The Gold Creator Award was introduced at VidCon 2012,^[5] alongside the Silver Creator Award at VidCon 2013^[6] and the Diamond Creator Award at VidCon 2015.^[7] The Creator Awards are made by the New York firm Society Awards.^[8]

Prior to March 2021, YouTube featured three additional benefit levels. These are not eligible for Creator Rewards, but they do offer several preliminary benefits:

• Graphite was for channels with 1 to 999 subscribers.^[9]
• Opal was for channels with 1,000 to 9,999 subscribers.^[10] This is the minimum subscriber count required for the YouTube Partner Program, which also requires a minimum of 4,000 total viewer watch hours in the past 12 months, plus a manual review of the channel's content to determine compliance with the program guidelines.^[11]
• Bronze was for channels with 10,000 to 99,999 subscribers.^[12] The YouTube NextUp program is exclusive to channels meeting this threshold and other program criteria. This is also the minimum subscriber count required for a Spreadshop^[13] or Teespring merchandise shelf.^[14]

There are currently three regular Creator Awards tiers,^[1] plus a fourth and fifth that have been awarded a few times:

Silver, Gold, and Diamond Creator Awards

• 
  Example of a Silver Creator Award
• 
  Left: Jan Zimmermann, Silver award
  Right: Tim Lehmann, Gold award
• 
  Salvadoran YouTuber Fernanfloo holding his Diamond Creator Award

Silver Creator Award

Awarded to the channels that reach or surpass 100,000 subscribers. The old version was made of nickel-plated cupronickel alloy.^[15] The new version (as of March 1, 2017) is 92% nickel, 5% carbon and 2.5% zinc, with traces of other metals.^[16] In March 2018, the look of the Silver Play Button was updated from a metal button housed within a window box with the channel's name printed on the front glass pane to a cleaner-looking flat designed metal plaque award featuring the channel's name embossed on it.^[17][18] Channels at this level are also eligible to apply for a digital verification badge.^[19]

Gold Creator Award

Awarded to the channels that reach or surpass 1,000,000 subscribers. It is made of gold plated brass.^[15] In March 2018, the look of the Gold Play Button was updated from a metal button housed within a window box with the channel's name printed on the front glass pane to a cleaner-looking flat designed metal plaque award featuring the channel's name embossed on it.^[17][20][21]

Diamond Creator Award

Awarded to channels that reach or surpass 10 million subscribers. It is made of silver-plated metal inset with a large piece of colorless crystal in the shape of a play button triangle.^[22][23] When introduced during VidCon 2015, 35 channels qualified for the award.^[24] As of March 23, 2024, there are 995 channels that have reached this level.^[25]

Custom Creator Award

Formerly awarded to channels that reach or surpass 50 million subscribers. Since September 1, 2020, it is the sole award to be missing from the Creator Awards FAQ.^[26] However, it continued to be granted at YouTube's discretion after this date. PewDiePie gave the nickname of Ruby Creator Award to this award, as he received a ruby-colored award in the shape of his channel's logo. The color can vary per creator, however: for example, T-Series received a colorless award, while Blackpink received a black award on top of a pink base. Channels with a hash tag (#) symbol have presented their Custom Creator Award to the public. As of October 17, 2024^[update], 18 channels have reached this level.^[25]

Red Diamond Creator Award

Awarded to channels that reach or surpass 100 million subscribers. Inspired by the Diamond Creator Award, it features a play button triangle with a large dark red crystal. It was added to the Creator Awards FAQ by September 1, 2020.^[26] There are currently twelve channels that have reached this level:

1. T-Series (May 29, 2019)^[27][28]
2. PewDiePie (August 25, 2019)^[29][30][28]
3. Cocomelon (December 12, 2020)^[31]
4. SET India (March 28, 2021)^[32]
5. MrBeast (July 28, 2022)^[33]
6. Kids Diana Show (August 16, 2022)
7. Like Nastya (August 25, 2022)
8. Vlad and Niki (August 13, 2023)
9. Zee Music Company (September 24, 2023)
10. WWE (March 8, 2024)
11. Goldmines (September 20, 2024)
12. Stokes Twins (November 30, 2024)

References

1. "YouTube Creator Rewards". YouTube. Archived from the original on 2017-08-25. Retrieved 2016-04-12.
2. Weiss, Geoff (February 6, 2018). "YouTube On 'Play Button' Awards: "Not All Creators Who Apply Will Receive Awards"". Tubefilter.com. Archived from the original on 2018-06-13. Retrieved 2018-06-09.
3. Alexander, Julia (February 2, 2018). "YouTube says 'not all creators who apply' for Creator Awards will receive them". Polygon.com. Archived from the original on 2018-06-12. Retrieved 2018-06-09.
4. "YouTube Creator Hub". YouTube. Archived from the original on 2017-02-01. Retrieved 2017-02-01.
5. Jcohen, Joshua (June 29, 2012). "YouTube Gives 24-Karat Gold 'Play Button' to Channels with 1M+ Subs". Tubefilter.com. Archived from the original on 2021-02-03. Retrieved 2021-01-14.
6. Storbeck, Devon; Wang, Christine (September 3, 2013). "VidCon Round-Up: What's New". YouTube Official Blog. Archived from the original on 2021-08-26. Retrieved 2022-01-01.
7. "YouTube Gives New Diamond Play Button To Channels With 10 Million Subscribers". Tubefilter.com. July 24, 2015. Archived from the original on 2019-04-10. Retrieved 2021-01-14.
8. Watts, James D. Jr. (July 10, 2020). "Some of the most famous trophies in the entertainment world get their finishing touches in Grove". Tulsa World. Archived from the original on 2022-08-01. Retrieved 2020-09-02.
9. "Graphite". YouTube Creators. October 30, 2018. Archived from the original on 2021-02-04. Retrieved 2021-05-18.
10. "Opal". YouTube Creators. October 30, 2018. Archived from the original on 2021-02-04. Retrieved 2021-05-18.
11. "Channel memberships eligibility, policies, & guidelines". YouTube Help. Archived from the original on 2019-04-02. Retrieved 2019-05-06.
12. "Bronze". YouTube Creators. October 30, 2018. Archived from the original on 2021-02-04. Retrieved 2021-05-18.
13. "Spreadshop Partners with YouTube to Grow Merchandise Sales Globally". Business Wire. Greensburg, Pennsylvania. November 12, 2020. Archived from the original on 2022-08-01. Retrieved 2021-01-20.
14. Alexander, Julia (June 21, 2018). "YouTube partners with Teespring to help creators sell official merchandise". Polygon. Archived from the original on 2018-08-22. Retrieved 2018-08-21.
15. "What is the Gold Play Button REALLY Made Of?". YouTube. December 3, 2016. Archived from the original on 2019-09-03. Retrieved 2017-06-06.
16. "What is the NEW Silver Play Button REALLY made of?!". YouTube. March 2017. Archived from the original on 2019-09-04. Retrieved 2018-04-29.
17. "YouTube's silver and gold play buttons are getting a new look". SocialBlade.com. Archived from the original on 2018-06-15. Retrieved 2018-06-15.
18. "YouTube's Silver and Gold play Button Awards Get Redesigned". Youtubermag.com. April 2018. Archived from the original on 2020-06-16. Retrieved 2018-06-01.
19. McPhie, Jonathan (September 19, 2019). "Updates to YouTube's verification program". YouTube Creator Blog. Archived from the original on 2019-09-20. Retrieved 2019-09-20.
20. Acuna, Kirsten (July 19, 2012). "YouTube Is Rewarding Its Most Popular Users With Gold". Business Insider. Archived from the original on 2016-04-21. Retrieved 2016-04-12.
21. Cohen, Joshua (June 29, 2012). "YouTube Gives 24-Karat Gold 'Play Button' to Channels with 1M+ Subs". Tubefilter.com. Archived from the original on 2016-04-09. Retrieved 2016-04-12.
22. Brouwer, Bree (July 24, 2015). "YouTube Gives New Diamond Play Button To Channels With 10 Million Subscribers". Tubefilter.com. Archived from the original on 2019-04-10. Retrieved 2016-04-12.
23. Dillon, Poppy (August 3, 2015). "YouTube Announced Diamond Play Button". TenEighty. Archived from the original on 2019-01-17. Retrieved 2016-04-12.
24. "YouTube Announces Diamond Play Button". Archived from the original on 2019-01-17. Retrieved 2020-09-02.
25. "Top 5000 Subscribed YouTube Channels (Sorted by Subscriber Count)". Archived from the original on 2020-02-24. Retrieved 2020-02-27.
26. "Join the Creator Awards Program - YouTube Help". YouTube Help. September 1, 2020. Archived from the original on 2020-09-01.
27. Leskin, Paige (May 31, 2019). "Bollywood music channel T-Series beat out PewDiePie after a months-long battle to become the first YouTube channel to reach 100 million subscribers". Business Insider. Archived from the original on 2020-07-28. Retrieved 2020-04-03.
28. Weiss, Geoff (September 9, 2019). "YouTube Forges New 'Red Diamond Creator Award' For Channels With 100 Million Subscribers". Tubefilter.com. Archived from the original on 2020-03-27. Retrieved 2020-04-03.
29. @YouTube (August 25, 2019). "Married to @marziapie 💍Revived our love of Minecraft ⛏️ Reached 100 million subscribers on YouTube ✔️ What a month to celebrate and congratulate @PewDiePie 👊" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
30. Alexander, Julia (August 26, 2019). "PewDiePie becomes the first individual YouTube creator to hit 100 million subscribers". The Verge. Archived from the original on 2019-08-26. Retrieved 2020-04-03.
31. Bean, Travis (December 14, 2020). "100 Billion Views And Counting: 'CoComelon' Is Absolutely Dominating Netflix And YouTube". forbes.com. Archived from the original on 2022-07-31. Retrieved 2022-08-01.
32. "Sony Entertainment Television reaches 100 million global subscribers on YouTube". exchange4media.com. April 6, 2021. Archived from the original on 2022-07-31. Retrieved 2022-08-01.
33. Spangler, Todd (July 28, 2022). "MrBeast Tops 100 Million YouTube Subscribers: 'I Hope to Do YouTube Until the Day I Die'". variety.com. Archived from the original on 2022-07-29. Retrieved 2022-08-01.

External links

• Official website