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]
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
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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 October17,2024[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:
↑ 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.
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Example of a Silver Creator Award
Left: Jan Zimmermann, Silver award
Salvadoran YouTuber Fernanfloo holding his Diamond Creator Award
