The red diamond play button is the ultimate standard award in the YouTube Creator Awards programme. Reaching 100,000,000 subscribers means a channel has captured roughly five percent of YouTube’s entire active user base - an audience larger than most sovereign nations. For the full hierarchy of every Creator Award tier, see our complete guide to YouTube play buttons.
As of early 2026, only 17 channels in the history of the platform have crossed this threshold. The group ranges from multinational corporate media conglomerates and children’s entertainment networks to pioneering individual creators and global music sensations. The award itself is a luxury art piece featuring a dark red crystal forged by Baccarat, the legendary French crystal manufacturer founded in 1764.
This guide covers the subscriber threshold, the Baccarat crystal craftsmanship, the “Ruby” nickname origin, every eligibility requirement, and the complete list of channels that hold the red diamond creator award.
How Many Subscribers Do You Need for the Red Diamond Play Button?
The threshold is exactly 100,000,000 verified subscribers.
The 100M tier was formally added to the Creator Awards FAQ in September 2020, but its origin story dates to the legendary subscriber war between T-Series and PewDiePie throughout 2018-2019. That race proved a 100-million audience was mathematically possible and forced YouTube to codify a new standard tier above the Diamond Play Button (10M) and the Custom Creator Award (50M).
For historical context: when the Diamond tier was unveiled at VidCon 2015, only 35 channels qualified. Today, over 2,800 channels hold the Diamond. The Red Diamond exists to preserve exclusivity at the absolute peak of the platform.
Scaling to 100 million requires years of sustained audience retention, broad cross-cultural appeal, and sophisticated content localisation strategies. Creators at this level do not simply upload videos - they operate transnational digital media empires.
What Does the Red Diamond Play Button Look Like?
The red diamond button youtube is engineered to reflect the gravity of the 100M milestone. Unlike the flat metal plaques of the Silver and Gold tiers, this award is a substantial, multi-material luxury piece.
The metal base: A heavy, dark silver-plated metal casing shaped into the play button silhouette.
The Baccarat crystal centrepiece: The defining feature. A massive, dark red, multifaceted crystal precision-cut into the play button triangle shape. The crystal is custom-forged by Baccarat (founded 1764, Lorraine, France) through an exclusive partnership managed by Society Awards. The deep red colour comes from a proprietary manufacturing process: a blend of sand, barium oxide, and authentic gold dust is fired in specialised furnaces. The inclusion of gold dust is the critical chemical catalyst that produces the signature luminous red hue at extreme temperatures.
YouTube officially revealed the design on September 6, 2019, via a time-lapse video showcasing Baccarat’s master artisans performing the glassblowing, moulding, and faceting work.
The packaging: The award arrives in a custom-built, heavily padded bright red briefcase stamped with the YouTube logo. The briefcase and award combined weigh approximately 4 kilograms (9 pounds) and measure 17 x 24 x 4 cm, with a solid aluminium body protecting the fragile crystal.
| Component | Specification |
|---|---|
| Base material | Heavy dark silver-plated metal |
| Centrepiece | Dark red multifaceted Baccarat crystal |
| Crystal chemistry | Sand + barium oxide + gold dust (fired at extreme temperatures) |
| Manufacturer | Society Awards (Charlotte, NC) + Baccarat (Lorraine, France) |
| Packaging | Custom red briefcase, ~4 kg total |
| Dimensions | 17 x 24 x 4 cm |
Durability test: In December 2022, British creator JackSucksAtLife partnered with SentIntoSpace to launch MrBeast’s Red Diamond Play Button into the stratosphere on a weather balloon. The award reached 112,532 feet, then hurtled back to Earth at 178 mph after the balloon ruptured. After landing in a field near Stoke-on-Trent, the Baccarat crystal and aluminium casing were found completely undamaged - a testament to the engineering standards of both Society Awards and Baccarat.
Why Is It Called “Ruby”? (The PewDiePie Origin Story)
The red colour connection traces back to December 2016, when PewDiePie became the first creator to reach 50 million subscribers. YouTube commissioned a custom trophy cast in translucent red resin, shaped into his “Brofist” logo. PewDiePie nicknamed it the “Ruby Play Button” on camera, and the name permanently stuck in the YouTube community’s vocabulary.
When YouTube codified the 100M tier in 2019, they consciously leaned into this community-driven lore by using dark red Baccarat crystal - a direct homage to the “Ruby” aesthetic PewDiePie had popularised. While the official name is Red Diamond Creator Award, the visual lineage connects directly to that original ruby-coloured custom trophy. For more on the Custom/Ruby tier, see our Custom Play Button guide.
Red Diamond Play Button Eligibility Requirements
Reaching 100 million triggers a comprehensive manual review, but does not guarantee the award. YouTube treats all Creator Awards as discretionary honours. For the complete eligibility framework across all tiers, see our full eligibility and redemption guide.
The review evaluates:
- Active channel - At least one public upload in the preceding six months. Dormant channels are ineligible.
- Clean Community Guidelines record - No active violations and no strikes within the past 365 days.
- No copyright strikes - Zero active intellectual property violations.
- Original content - Aggregation channels, compilations, and un-transformative reuse of third-party content are routinely denied.
- Authentic engagement - The 100M count must be organically achieved. Bot networks, paid Sub4Sub, and artificial inflation result in instant rejection.
- Account integrity - No links to previously terminated Google accounts.
- Geopolitical restrictions - Unavailable to channels in sanctioned nations (Belarus, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Myanmar, and others).
- Forfeiture clause - YouTube reserves the right to demand the award’s return if a creator severely violates Terms of Service after receiving it. The award is strictly prohibited from being sold or auctioned.
All 17 Channels With the Red Diamond Play Button
As of early 2026, exactly 17 channels hold the 100 million subscribers play button. This list reveals distinct patterns in how content scales to the 100M level.
| Rank | Channel | Subscribers | Date Reached 100M | Country | Category |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | MrBeast | 503M | July 28, 2022 | USA | Entertainment |
| 2 | T-Series | 313M | May 29, 2019 | India | Music/Film |
| 3 | Cocomelon | 201M | Dec 12, 2020 | USA | Children’s Education |
| 4 | SET India | 189M | Mar 28, 2021 | India | Television |
| 5 | Vlad and Niki | 150M | Aug 13, 2023 | Russia/USA | Children’s |
| 6 | Stokes Twins | 140M | Nov 30, 2024 | USA | Entertainment |
| 7 | Kids Diana Show | 138M | Aug 16, 2022 | Ukraine/USA | Children’s |
| 8 | KIMPRO | 134M | Apr 17, 2025 | South Korea | Comedy/Shorts |
| 9 | Like Nastya | 132M | Aug 25, 2022 | Russia/USA | Children’s |
| 10 | Zee Music Company | 122M | Sep 24, 2023 | India | Music/Film |
| 11 | Alejo Igoa | 118M | Dec 26, 2025 | Argentina | Entertainment |
| 12 | WWE | 113M | Mar 8, 2024 | USA | Sports |
| 13 | PewDiePie | 110M | Aug 25, 2019 | Sweden | Gaming |
| 14 | Goldmines | 110M | Sep 20, 2024 | India | Film |
| 15 | Sony SAB | 105M | Mar 17, 2025 | India | Television |
| 16 | Blackpink | 101M | Feb 20, 2026 | South Korea | K-Pop Music |
| 17 | Alan’s Universe | 101M | Mar 12, 2026 | USA | Comedy/Shorts |
Key Patterns Among Red Diamond Holders
Children’s content dominance: Four of the 17 channels (Cocomelon, Kids Diana Show, Like Nastya, Vlad and Niki) are dedicated children’s entertainment. Brightly coloured animations and non-verbal physical comedy transcend language barriers, and children’s content has inherently high replay value - toddlers watch the same videos on loop, driving compounding algorithmic growth.
Indian corporate media: T-Series, SET India, Zee Music, Goldmines, and Sony SAB represent the massive digitisation of Indian broadcasting. Channels like SET India upload 30-40 videos per day, functioning as vast digital archives for a population exceeding 1.4 billion.
The Shorts revolution: KIMPRO and Alan’s Universe built their audiences almost entirely through YouTube Shorts. Alan Chikin Chow operates from a 10,000 sq ft production studio in Los Angeles, generating over 62 billion views through serialised short-form comedy.
The MrBeast effect: MrBeast pioneered multi-language audio dubbing, removing the English barrier entirely. A single upload serves viewers across dozens of languages without fracturing the audience into separate regional channels.
How to Get Your Red Diamond Play Button
The claiming process mirrors the standard Creator Awards workflow but involves bespoke Baccarat craftsmanship:
- Studio notification (7-10 days after passing 100M): A banner appears in YouTube Studio with a unique redemption code.
- Society Awards portal: Enter the code and specify the exact channel name for engraving onto the metal casing.
- Bespoke manufacturing: Because the crystal is custom-forged by Baccarat artisans in France, manufacturing takes 2 to 4 weeks.
- International shipping: Use full legal names and corporate entity details. The heavy crystal artifact requires meticulous customs documentation. Creators are responsible for customs duties and import taxes.
- Inspection window: Strict 7-day window to report transit damage for a free replacement.
Frequently Asked Questions
What’s the Next Milestone After Red Diamond?
The 100M mark is no longer the absolute ceiling. As channels like MrBeast (503M) and T-Series (313M) grew far beyond it, YouTube developed ultra-exclusive custom awards for higher thresholds:
- 200M Award: MrBeast received a custom trophy shaped like his Tiger logo with blue play icon and purple eyes (dubbed “Tiger’s Eye” or “Amber” by the community).
- 300M Award: Features a green crystal centrepiece (nicknamed “Emerald” or “Malachite”).
- 400M Award: Features a blue crystal centrepiece (nicknamed “Sapphire” or “Lapis Lazuli”).
- 500M Award: In 2026, MrBeast became the first channel to reach 500 million subscribers. YouTube commissioned a fully custom trophy featuring a black diamond within a metallic construct of his channel mascot - the Custom Panther Trophy.
For the complete breakdown of these ultra-rare tiers, see our guide on the newest YouTube play buttons in 2026. For the complete overview of all tiers, return to the YouTube Play Buttons Complete Guide.
