It’s end-of-the-year list season.
Spotify Wrapped felt like it kicked things off when it dropped early December, and many others have been dropping 2025 company recaps, including YouTube. The streaming platform’s culture and trends team revealed lists of top trending topics, songs, songs on shorts, podcasts, and creators of 2025. Of the latter, just two Black creators made the list of highlights.
IShowSpeed, born Darren Watkins Jr., landed the third spot on the list of the top 10 YouTube creators. The 20-year-old caught the internet’s attention with his energetic, emotive, and adventurous streams. He has garnered nearly 6.4 billion total views on the platform, boosted by videos with stars like Kevin Durant, Tom Brady, and fellow top YouTube creator Mr. Beast.
He “pushed the limits of livestreams with his 24/7 IRL streams across the country,” Culture and Trends Manager Maddy Buxton wrote in YouTube’s report. (Beyond YouTube, IShowSpeed has also been recognized as streamer of the year for the past couple years at the Streamer Awards.)
CoryxKenshin, born Cory DeVante Williams, landed no. 8 on the top creator list. The 33-year-old with over 9.5 billion total views is known for his highly reactive videos walking through various horror games. He also has been a beacon of representation and feeling seen in the gaming community for many Black and POC gamers.
He debuted his own manga in the past year, and it has inspired his “passionate fan base [to have] purchased hundreds of thousands of copies of his self-published manga series,” per YouTube.
There’s no doubt that IShowSpeed and CoryxKenshin more than earned their spots on the list, but given that Black creators drive YouTube culture, their broader lack of presence on the Top 10 is disappointing but, perhaps, not surprising. Zero Black women made the list. (As a matter of fact, no single woman made the list, only women in dating duos.)
More than a lack of representation, YouTube’s methodology for choosing its top creators yielded some interesting results. For example, YouTube ranked Charlie Kirk as the no. 6 top creator, despite him having only 14% of views and 24% of subscribers compared to CoryxKenshin in eighth place. YouTube replied to ESSENCE’s request for comment, explaining that the top U.S. creators are based on in-country subscribers gained in 2025. An actual algorithm that takes more data into account would probably serve better here, making this ranking feel more culturally credible.