Ray William Johnson Should Hit 5 Million Subs By November 2011

Not a bad way to ring in the new year, 2012 with 5,000,000 subs right? If RayWilliamJohnson continues gettings subs like he has been doing all through 2011, he will hit the five million subscriber mark sometime before Christmas 2011 or New Years at the latest.

You might have heard that Ray passed Nigahiga as the most subscribed channel on Youtube in late June 2011 (something I predicted would happen back in November 2010 in this blog post) and two weeks alter his Equals 3 channel passed 4 million subs. Here he is along with a number of familiar faces celebrating at VidCon and going to a party put together in his honor by Maker Studios.



So, now that he's number one and has 4,000,000 subscribers how long will it be before Ray hits the five million mark? He's already a third of the way there. At last count, his main channel has 4,376,533 subscribers. And that's not all. His two other channels, Yourfavoritemartian has 1,379,341 subs and his 3rd channel, BreakingNYC which has 827,896 subs. So across all three of Ray's channels he has an amazing 6,583,770 subscribers. Never mind 5 million, when's he going to hit 10 million subscribers overall?

So right now the main channel of Ray William Johnson has 4.376 million subs. He needs 623,467 new subscribers to hit the five million mark. He has been averaging about 55K in new subs each week. That means if he keeps getting about 55,000 each week (and recently his new subs totals have been around the 70K mark) he will hit 5 million sometime in November 2011.

I wrote a post a few days ago called Youtube Flashback: August 2007 Top 100 which showed the number one channel at that time (Smosh) with just 148,000 subscribers and they looked untouchable back then which just shows how far Youtube has grown since 2007. What does the future hold? Will anybody be able to knock Ray out of the number one spot? Right now he's shining pretty brightly but Youtube keeps evolving and changing so who knows who could be the next number one most subscribed channel. Yours? Mine? (yeah, right lol), someone who is starting out today? I'm looking forward to seeing if anyone can challenge Ray as top dog.

Youtube Flashback: August 2007 Top 100

Picture from 2007 curtesy of Wayback Machine

What were you doing in August 2007? Were you even on Youtube either as someone who watched the videos of others or were you one of the few who uploaded clips and got listed in this Top 100 from August 5, 2007?

Look at the numbers these people had just 4 short years ago and compare them with the millions of subscribers that the Top 100 Most Subscribed have today and you can see the astounding growth this website has generated. How many of these channels do you remember and how many are still actively uploading videos? Each channel can still be found by the links provided unless they have been closed which is the case for some of them. Others just have not been updated in years.

1 smosh 148,992
2 lonelygirl15 97,821
3 esmeedenters 70,844
4 miaarose 68,787
5 WilliamSledd 66,743
6 HappySlip 62,098
7 thewinekone 59,781
8 LisaNova 59,764
9 CBS 57,144
10 BaratsAndBereta 54,542
11 JamesNintendoNerd 54,114
12 Brookers 53,693
13 kevjumba 47,251
14 GayGod 46,685
15 LittleKuriboh 45582
16 TheHill88 45,127
17 geriatric1927 44,479
18 universalmusicgroup 43,518
19 linkinparktv 42,705
20 FueledByRamen 40,914
21 NBC 39,259
22 blamesocietyfilms 38,070
23 digitalfilmmaker 35,965
24 derrickcomedy 35,483
25 boh3m3 35,255
26 Daxflame 34,712
27 Blendtec 34,586
28 ashleytisdale 33,847
29 mYcheMicALroMaNcE 33,396
30 renetto 29,418
31 impytherap 29,039
32 charlestrippy 28,828
33 ysabellabrave 27,612
34 communitychannel 27,593
35 lassegg 26,945
36 abbegirl 26,930
37 RonPaul2008dotcom 24,379
38 vlogolution 23,505
39 Danielbeast 23,431
40 Emmalina 21,678
41 ItTakes5IVE 21,439
42 smpfilms 21,192
43 warnerbrosrecords 20,748
44 MadV 20,704
45 littleloca 20,194
46 rockongoodpeople 19,996
47 EclecticAsylumArt 19,937
48 mrpitifulband 19,761
49 sxephil 19,735
50 terranaomi 19,641

51 FilthyWhore 19,200
52 Katers17 19,040
53 MarkDayComedy 18,854
54 francisstokesdotcom 18,626
55 RyanLeslieTV 18,521
56 Blunty3000 18,467
57 valsartdiary 17,798
58 nalts 17,675
59 drewtoothpaste 17,477
60 cutiemish 17,448
61 NHLVideo 17,260
62 liamkylesullivan 17,072
63 prettyrickyvideos 16,978
64 ItsJustSomeRandomGuy 16,936
65 IanH 16,672
66 wantlieswiththat 16572
67 StevenTsapelas 16,450
68 davidchoimusic 16,288
69 NBA 16,239
70 mystoandpizzi 16,227
71 boburnham 16,107
72 BadBoyRecords 16,095
73 DiGiTiLsOuL 16,038
74 JustinSandercoe 15,768
75 phatfffat 15,689
76 ParisHilton 15,621
77 judsonlaipply 15,551
78 NeilCicierega 15,532
79 LazyLionsProductions 15,247
80 BBCWorldwide 15,217
81 jonastko 15,174
82 MediocreFilms 15,123
83 Paperlilies 15,019
84 NoHoGirls 14,718
85 Rubix89 14,713
86 ArtieTSMITW 14,680
87 GiR2007 14,615
88 JiveHonky81 14,549
89 gemmers19 14,483
90 roadrunnerrecords 14,387
91 YouTube 14,293
92 hoiitsroi 14,289
93 Rabix99 14,139
94 macpulenta 14,028
95 spricket24 13,674
96 MysteryGuitarMan 13,579
97 anafree 13,463
98 underoathmusic 13,329
99 peron75 13,206
100 citizenchong 13,051

Right at the top is of course smosh who remain right there, showing incredible staying power. In August 2007 Anthony and Ian had garnered an incredible 148,992 subscribers and had taken over top spot from the rapidly declining lonelygirl15. Now smosh enjoys the support of over 3 million subs. HappySlip is right at the top along with Lisa Nova's channel. Kevjumba was in 13th spot with only 47K subs?!

Charles Trippy had a mere 28,828 subs and CTFxC was still a long way off (this was pre-Alli and obviously Ms Speed and soon-to-be Mrs Trippy had a great effect on Charles' life). Natalie Tran's communitychannel had only 27,593 subscribers at this point.

Whoa. Way down at number 49 is sxephil (Philip DeFranco) with 19,735 subscribers. These days Phil gets 19K a week in subs across his many channels and is hovering near the Top 10 Most Subscribed. Katers17 is still making videos on her main channel but does daily vlogs as katersoneseven and is temporarily located in the states from her native England. Uncle Nalts is up there at number 58 with only 17K subs.

Looking towards the bottom of the list there is spricket24, MysteryGuitarMan (with only 13,579!) and peron75 which is Michael "WhatTheBuck" Buckley's 2nd channel.

If you're looking at these numbers in surprise, don't be shocked. Youtube has grown, mutated and grown again exponentially during the intervening 4 years and who knows who will still be around in another 4 years.

One thing to point out is that this list does not show a Ray William Johnson, Nigahiga or Fred. Some of the most popular Youtube channels today were active in August 2007 but were not even listed in the Top 100. Food for thought. There were many who gave up trying to be successful on Youtube back at this time thinking that the window of opportunity had already closed when actually it was being pried open even further. Look at the numbers in this list again and tell me you don't see potential for the future with this website.

Agents Of Secret Stuff: A Ryan Higa Film

Here it is - Nigahiga's epic "Agents of Secret Stuff". The film (can I call is a film?) is 35 minutes long, so kick back and relax.



Impressions? It seems lots of youtubers are giving it the thumbs up and the movie is getting tons of views as would be expected of anything posted by Ryan Higa on Youtube. I liked the concept and the story. Ryan is a young agent on the verge of becoming a full-fledged A.S.S. (Agent of Secret Stuff), but first, his mentor (agent Tracy "It's a MAN'S name!" played by HiImRawn) sends his on a dangerous assignment guard high school student Taylor (the lovely Arden Cho) against assassination by the evil agents of S.I.N.

Why is Taylor marked for death? Will "Jose" and Taylor get together? You will have to watch to find out.

Nigahiga In Agents Of Secret Stuff

So THIS is what Ryan Higa has been working on! Below is the trailer for Agents of Secret Stuff which is scheduled to be released November 24, 2010. I need to see more before offering an assessment, but parts of it look funny from what you see here.



Ryan Higa is cast as a super-secret agent given the task of guarding the incredibly lovely Arden Cho from some fiendish bad guys, led by HiImRawn it would look like.

Wong Fu Productions is credited with directing this 40 minute epic that will premiere on the Nigahiga channel. They are also listed along with Ryan as co-writers and co-producers and the motion graphics are the work of Derrick Lee of rikognition. The music is very ably done by George Shaw who is a rising musician/composer in Hollywood. Check out his website for more about him and for some samples of his music: georgeshawmusic.com.

Ass Vs Syns

An interesting play on the word assassins? Ass (Agents of Secret Stuff) vs Syns (Society Involving Not-so-good Stuff) = clever. Sorta reminds me of that old television series Get Smart with the good guys: Control versus the bad guys: Chaos.

Ryan is a good choice as the good-looking, cleancut good guy going up against Rawn (who will tower over Ryan) who is like six foot five. I can almost picture the scene where Ryan has to battle Rawn and will be nose to bellybutton with him, but Higa will undoubtedly kick some major buttocks when they have to throw fists.

Some of the usual suspects make up some of the smaller roles, love seeing KassemG cast as the school teacher and the boys from Smosh. D-Trix (thedominicshow on YouTube) is one guy I'm subbed to that you may not know, but you have to see this hilarious video he did a while back called Mother's Milk.

But like I said, it looks like it may be good, but until I see more, I can't give it the thumbs up or down. I will say this though, this is a very ballsy move to make a 40-minute film even if you are the numero uno and most subscribed Youtuber. This is really stretching the envelope by Nigahiga, so definitely a hats off to him and the people who worked on this. There's already a lot of hype from what I can see and I for one look forward to seeing the full movie. And did I mention that Arden Cho was totally hot and an excellent choice for the love interest/damsel in distress that Ryan (or is it "Jose") gets to rescue?

You will be able to see the film in its entirety on November 24, 2010, but for those lucky few who can make it to CGV Cinemas in Los Angeles for the 23rd, you can get a sneak preview at a special screening. For more details, you'll need to jump over to wongfuproductions.com.

When Will Ray William Johnson Pass Nigahiga As Most Subscribed On Youtube?

I don't think there is any personal animosity between Ray and Ryan and don't want to promote any ill feelings between the two. I've never asked one of them about the other (I don't know either personally) and I haven't seen any comment, good, bad or indifferent, made by either one about the other guy's numbers either. Both of their channels have their good and bad points, as well as fans who love everything they do. No doubt there are hundreds of thousands subscribed to both guys because they put out interesting content.

All I'm saying is that there's nothing wrong with a little friendly competition. I don't think they will get into a pissing contest or anything (we used to have those at our family reunions. Grandma would always win, but that's a story for another time). I'm sure they are probably looking at each other's number of subscribers, but they're probably more worried about what they are going to post next week rather than worrying about every bump the other gets as far as subscribers.

Here's the numbers.

This is the number of subscribers each has today (November 14th, 2010):
2,850,649 nigahiga
2,260,115 RayWilliamJohnson

590,534 is the difference in subscribers right now. Last month Ray once again received massive numbers of new subscribers, adding 157K, while Ryan had the 2nd most of anyone on Youtube with 82K. Both are crazy numbers for new people subbing to a channel as it takes other mere mortals years to generate their subscriber base to that number. The actual difference is that Ray got 74,290 more than Ryan. And he's doing that month, month out. That's why he is gaining on Ryan.

If you go back a year to November 2009, Ryan had 1,626,743 subscribers (and was in 1st place overall) and Ray was way back at a still extremely respectable 32nd place on the Top 100 with 335,072 subscribers. As a sidenote, the channel in the 100th spot today, has 351K subs, which shows how much Youtube is bursting at the seams. The site is still experiencing massive growth as seen by the recent announcement of Youtube having one billion accounts. Ryan averaged about 101,000 new subscribers each month over this last year while Ray's channel has had 160,000.

Anyone who works with numbers will tell you one of the 1st rules is that "past performance is no indication of future results." They can only be used as a guide.

Right now, if Ray William Johnson and Ryan Higa continue getting the same number of subscribers each month, Ray will pass Ryan in June 2011.

Kevjumba And Nigahiga Prove They Are Manly Enough To Shed A Tear

Yes guys, you can be a manly man and still be sensitive enough to allow your tears to fall. At least that's what Kevjumba, Nigahiga and Chestersee would have you believe after watching their music video for their song Shed A Tear available on iTunes.



If you're on Youtube for any length of time you already know who Ryan Higa (nigahiga) and Kevin Wu (kevjumba) are, but you might not be familiar with the 3rd dude in the video: Chester See. He's a talented singer/musician with over 100 videos uploaded on his channel, so check out his music over on the link given above. Here's one of his great songs you might like: God Damn You're Beautiful.

Of course, you may be thinking "If he's so talented, what's he doing with those two knuckleheads?" Well, both Kevjumba and Nigahiga are not lacking in talent themselves - The Nigahiga channel is the most subscribed channel on Youtube (Ryan's closing in on 3 million subscribers) and Kevjumba's numbers are right up there too. Both have musical videos so, if somehow you aren't subbed to either of them, go watch their videos to find out what the fuss is all about.

TheWillofDC: Winners & Losers Halloween 2010

I don't know about you, but as a regular viewer of TheWillofDC's Winners & Losers I like how Will did this video rather than his other recent videos with the green screen. That said, there were some interesting developments in the rankings of the Top 100 Youtubers this week and Will lets us know what's what.



The big winner this past week was DieAussenseiter a German YouTube channel that moved up from 80th to 77th place on the overall Top 100. "DieAussenseiter" translates into english as "The Outsider". This does show the growth of the international scope of YouTube and other channels using languages other than primarily English should take heart and receive some motivation to keep working to make more videos and channels in their native languages - there are audiences in every country that want great content in their own language. Below is a Halloween video from DieAussenseiter.



DieAussenseiter is made up of two German brothers: Alexander "Sascha" Koslowski and Dimitri "Dima" Koslowski and their channel now has 437K subscribers and 111 million views! Those are some solid numbers.

According to Will, the biggest loser seems to be therealdemilovato channel which garnered only 2,903 new subscribers over the last 2 weeks and fell to 49th place from 44th. It looks like Demi Lovato's in a new series called Sonny With A Chance (that seems like a re-run of 57 other Disney shows - hope that didn't sound too harsh). They've released a bunch of clips of the series on Demi's channel, but nothing truly unique content-wise, just more from the Disney machine. If you want to see a clip with Shaq, check it out:



Ray William Johnson Got 73,000 New Subscribers?!

Yes, Ray keeps on generating massive numbers in the subscriber race more than doubling Nigahiga's new subscribers 35,013 with RWJ getting 73,252 new subs. That is amazing. Last year when it was Shane Dawson pulling the big numbers, I'm pretty sure even Shane didn't get that many all at once. Ray William Johnson is still about 600,000 behind Nigahiga but Ray's gaining on him fast. It's probably only a matter of time before there's a new number one most subscribed on YouTube.

Also, Fred got passed by Shane Dawson for 3rd overall. Poor Fred who everyone loves to hate was once the big kahuna but he's slipping. His numbers are still solid, but Smosh is breathing down the little guy's neck (Anthony and Ian are about 100K behind Fred).

A couple of other big name Youtubers that Will didn't mention are sxephil and realannoyingorange who are neck and neck for 9th and 10th spots, with collegehumor and davedays both really, really close behind.

How Did Ray William Johnson Become So Popular On Youtube?

One of the most popular people on Youtube is Ray William Johnson who is currently the 2nd most subscribed person on the website with over 2 million subs. He averages about 30,000 new subscribers every week! Ray's main channel (Equals 3 or =3) could eventually take over the Most Subscribed spot on YouTube from Ryan Higa (known as Nigahiga and he is closing in on his 3 millionth sub).

According to Ray's main channel, this is what he says about himself: "I'm just a regular guy with an entertaining hobby. I review viral videos twice a week -- every Monday and Thursday. I'm paid to clean the urinals at the local strip club."

Take a look at the growth in subscribers to Ray's channel:

06Sep 2009 145,938

27Sep 2009 205,179

25Oct 2009 258,900

22Nov 2009 358,303

14Feb 2010 803,977

18Mar 2010 1,000,000

28June 2010 1,500,000

25Sep 2010 2,000,000

18Oct 2010 2,115,547

How did that happen? And how can you do the same thing?

Ray's channel suddenly appeared on the Top 100 Most Subscribed List in early September 2009 with 145K subs - good enough for 91st place. That doesn't just happen. He had been uploading great videos for months before that and was being discovered by other youtubers who subbed and passed the word to others that "You gotta check out this guy's videos." Here's Ray's first available video from April 17, 2009:



He kept uploading videos and just 3 weeks later he broke the 200,000 sub mark just 3 weeks later. By Christmas last year his Equals 3 channel was closing in on 400,000 subscribers. At this point, Ray started posted daily vlogs to a 2nd channel he started called BreakingNYC. This was a great channel, but because of time constraints, Ray stopped posting on it in May 2010. That was too bad because the vlog gave fans of his main channel a chance to see Ray "behind-the-scenes" and a closer look than his Equals 3 persona allows.

Plus there was great music, street scenes from around New York City and appearances by several youtubers. Meekakitty and Ray's roommate TheWillofDC were both featured in many BreakingNYC videos - and the funny thing is that I was subbed to both Meekakitty and TheWillofDC long before I even heard of Ray. If you haven't watched any of the BreakingNYC videos, I'd recommend you do so especially if you are fans of Ray, Meekakitty and Will. The channel still has over half a million subs. Wish it had continued.

Breaking The One Million Subscriber Mark

By February 2010, Ray's main channel was steadily gaining more and more subs and shot from 350K subs at the end of November to over 800,000 in February. Just a month later Equals 3 had 1,000,000 subscribers and was in the Top 10 Most Subscribed of All Time List. To say it was a wild ride would be quite an understatement. As the graph above shows, he steadily gained new subs and just hit the 2 million subscribers mark this past September. Every month of 2010 Ray William Johnson has outpaced all other youtubers averaging about 30,000 new subs each month and should hit the three million mark sometime in 2011. I think he can probably quit his gig at the strip club mens room now.

Below is his latest video dated 12 October, 2010.



He does have another new channel he's started called Your Favorite Martian with just one video uploaded so far (called "Be Patient") lol, c'mon Ray! Get on this! This channel already has 100K subs and will probably jump to half a million when he starts posting on it too.

Here's some more Bradshaw's Blog posts about RayWilliamJohnson.

Hey, and feel free to comment below about Ray's channel, or this blog. Nothing worse than writing something and getting no feedback.

Nigahiga & KevJumba Can't Dance. I'm Just Sayin'

Run for your lives! It's the Killer Bees! Um, well, it's actually just Nigahiga and KevJumba showin' some sweet moves as they battle with POREOTICS, who won Season 5 of America's Best Dance Crew. Love that one dude "What you do here?" lol.

Too bad we didn't get a chance to see a little more of these guys schooling Nigahiga and KevJumba how to really dance, but below is a clip from the show:

Lisa Mason Lee Meets Up With A Gaggle Of Top Youtubers

Lisa Mason Lee, aka thecount meets up with a TON of youtubers at the Hyatt Regency and we see a bunch of favorites from Nigahiga (the most subscribered youtuber of all time), LisaNova, The Shaytards among others. It seems you can't turn around without tripping over youtubers with massive subscriber bases. Don't you wish you could go to one of these partner gatherings?