K-pop girl group BLACKPINK emerged as the most subscribed Korean YouTube channel with over 50 million, earning them the Custom Creator Award or “Ruby Play Button.”
As such, they are the first Korean channel to receive the “Ruby Play Button” award from YouTube, given to channels that reach 50 million subscribers.
BLACKPINK reached the 50-million mark in early October and as of Nov. 24, YouTube listed them as the second most subscribed artist in the world with 53.5 million subscribers behind Justin Bieber who had 58.9 million.
As of writing, BLACKPINK’s YouTube subscribers reached 53.9 million and their channel has total views of 14.34 billion since June 29, 2016.
With 53.9 million, BLACKPINK have earned the distinction of being the No. 1 most subscribed female artist, music group and K-pop artist in the world on YouTube.
YouTube gives Creator Awards to channels depending on the number of subscribers. A Silver Creator Award is given to a channel with 100,000 subscribers, Gold for 1 million, Diamond for 10 million; and Red Diamond for 100 million. While not listed on YouTube’s Creator Award channel, the Ruby Button Play is given to channels which have reached 50 million subscribers.
YG Entertainment uploaded a video titled “BLACKPINK-The Invitation” last Dec. 1 showing the YouTube logo. It will be unveiled at 11 a.m. KST (10 a.m. in the Philippines) today, Dec. 3. The YG blog hinted that BLACKPINK will hold a major event by the end of the year.
BLACKPINK have three music videos which have reached one billion views each. Last Oct. 13, their “Boombayah” music video reached the milestone since its release on Aug. 8, 2016. The “Kill This Love” music video reached one billion views last Sept. 2 while “DDU-DU DDU-DU” amassed one billion views on Nov. 11, 2019.
BLACKPINK have four music videos in the top 10 most viewed MVs in the first 24 hours of release on YouTube.
“How You Like That” is in second place with 86.3 million views in the first 24 hours, “Ice Cream (with Selena Gomez)” MV ranks third with 79.08 million, “Lovesick Girls” is in seventh place with 61.4 million and “Kill This Love” ranks eight with 56.7 million.