The Truth About YouTube Creator Awards

YouTube, the largest video sharing platform, currently has millions of creators putting out content everyday. To recognize their efforts YouTube has a program known as YouTube Creator Awards or more commonly known as YouTube Play Buttons.

Before we get into the details of the YouTube Play Button (Creator Awards). Let’s have a look at the additional benefits level which YouTube provides. According to Wikipedia, 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. Channels with 100 subscribers or more can apply for a custom URL.

Opal was for channels with 1,000 to 9,999 subscribers. 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.

Bronze was for channels with 10,000 to 99,999 subscribers. The YouTube NextUp program is exclusive to channels meeting this threshold and other program criteria.

Now let’s have a look at the Creator Awards (YouTube Play Buttons):

Silver Play Button

This play button is awarded to channels that have surpassed the milestone of 100,000 (or 100k) subscribers. Channels at this level are also eligible to apply for a digital verification badge.

Golden Play Button

This play button is awarded to channels that have surpassed the milestone of 1,000,000 (or 1 million) subscribers.

Diamond Play Button

This play button is awarded to channels that have surpassed the milestone of 10,000,000 (or 10 million) subscribers. When introduced during the VidCon 2015. 35 channels then qualified for the award.

Custom Play Button

This play button is awarded to channels that have surpassed the milestone of 50,000,000 (or 50 million) subscribers. Funnily, PewDiePie gave the nickname of Ruby Play Button to this award, as he received a ruby-colored award in the shape of his channel’s logo.

Red Diamond Play Button

This play button is awarded to channels that have surpassed the milestone of 100,000,000 (or 100 million) subscribers. So far there are only four channels that have reached this level. Namely: T-Series, PewDiePie, Cocomelon and SET India. If you’re curious about how the button looks then watch PewDiePie unboxing his Red Diamond Play Button.

Unboxing 100 MIL YouTube AWARD!!

While you’re at it don’t forget to check out this video from the YouTube channel What’s Inside?

What’s inside YouTube Red Diamond Award?