WWE wrestles its way to top of YouTube
David Farnor | On 06, Oct 2015
WWE has wrestled its way to the top of the YouTube charts this summer.
The latest Tubefilter chart shows that the official channel for the American wrestling empire is now the most popular channel on the whole of the streaming site.
The channel’s videos amassed 456.4 million views in August 2015, jumping ahead of rival Little Baby Bum, which provides songs for parents at home to play for their toddlers – a reminder of just how diverse YouTube’s content can be. Little Baby Bum’s videos were played more than 448 million times, up 15 per cent on the previous month, taking it from third into second place.
A new entry in the chart seized third place: netd muzik, a Turkish music video channel that enjoyed 433.59 million videos last month. Together, all three pushed down The Diamond Minecart into fourth, after it topped the chart for July 2015. With 394.47 million videos last month, though, it still enjoys the title of most popular gaming channel, beating not just PewDiePie (now in 11th, as he pursues a rumoured project on old-fashioned television) but BuzzFeed Video too.
Tubefilter also highlights the rapid rise of Disney Music’s Vevo channel, which saw its views surge 96 per cent month-on-month in August 2015. The home of Disney songs from the House of Mouse’s made-for-TV movies – including hit single Sofia Carson’s Rotten to the Core, from Descendants – is now the 39th most popular channel worldwide.
The month’s spotlight, though, is firmly stolen by WWE, which has been beefing up its online video presence in recent years. Indeed, last year, when the channel was already in the top 20, the corporation launched its own streaming site, WWE Network, a subscription service. That eventually arrived in the UK, after some teething issues, helping the platform’s subscribers to pass the million mark this year. In the second quarter of 2015, WWE Network hit 1.2 million subscribers, up 31 per cent from the first quarter, while the company expects a 5 per cent growth during Q3 2015.
Can it stay in the streaming ring for more months to come?
