What Are YouTube Creator Awards?

Discover what are YouTube Creator Awards and what it takes to achieve one.

You must have seen successful YouTubers showing off their shiny play button awards. As a growing content creator, don’t you feel the desire to own one such award? Well, if you do desire it, then you have come to the right place. In this article, we will explain what exactly is YouTube Creator awards and what it takes for you to achieve one. So, let’s dive deeper.

What Are YouTube Creator Awards?

YouTube Creator Awards

The world’s largest video-sharing platform celebrates the extraordinary efforts creators put into growing their channels through the YouTube Creator Awards. These Creators Awards are often called as YouTube Play Buttons and are awarded to every YouTuber for reaching a significant subscriber milestone, thus building a thriving community. Getting any of the YouTube play buttons puts you in an elite category and makes you a part of the megastar YouTubers.

It all starts with your consistent efforts to grow your YT channel. There are over 3,00,000 YouTubers who have gained enough subscribers to qualify for a silver YouTube play button. It is an achievable goal you can set your eyes upon while you begin to grow your channel. Creators are rewarded with different play buttons awards based on their subscribership count.

How Many YouTube Awards Play Buttons Are There?

You might be wondering what is the first YouTube play button. There are 3 prime YouTube creator awards that you gain for reaching a particular subscriber count. Besides, if you still grow your channel further and build a huge community of loyal fans, YouTube has two other significantly special creator awards to reward you with. We have elaborated all the five YouTube Play buttons below:

1. YouTube Silver Play Button Award

It is the first creator award that you can apply for once you reach 100,000 subscribers. There are numerous channels eligible for this category of YouTube awards. If you have multiple channels, you can earn multiple silver play buttons for each of those channels.

Silver Play button

2. YouTube Gold Play Button Award

YouTubers earn this award after hitting 1,000,000 or 1 Million subscribers. Launched before the Silver Play Button Award, the YT gold play button requires significant effort and hard work from the creator. There are around 30,000 channels on YT that have reached this milestone.

Gold Play Button

3. YouTube Diamond Play Button Award

This was the latest category of YouTube creator awards unveiled in 2015 for channels with over 10 Million subscribers. Channels with a huge fan following, like Marvel and America’s Got Talent, have managed to bag this prestigious award.

Diamond Play button

4. YouTube Custom Creator Award

The YouTube Custom Creator Award was given to content creators who had over 50 Million subscribers on their channel. Its design matched the channel’s theme and came in various shapes and sizes. Channels like 5 Minute Crafts, Canal KondZilla and Justin Bieber have managed to get this award. However, YouTube no longer makes custom play buttons and has discarded this award category.

5. YouTube Red Diamond Play Button Award

This is the ultimate award for YouTubers. To achieve a Red Diamond Play button award, your channel must have over 100 Million subscribers. The popular channels that have received this award include Pewdiepie, Mr Beast and T-Series. Besides, there are less than 20 YouTubers globally who have received this category of YouTube creators award. Now you know the types of YouTube creator awards, let’s see the requirements to earn one.

Red Diamond play button

Eligibility Criteria To Earn A YouTube Creator Awards

The other requirements to get your first YouTube Play button award include-

  • An active channel with consistent uploads in the last 6 months
  • Your channel has not received a Community Guidelines violation in the last 365 days
  • Your channel is in compliance with YouTube’s Terms of Service
  • You haven’t been suspended from the YT Partner Program
  • Your channel is neither terminated nor linked to an account that has been terminated
  • Your content is original and not recognized as deceptive, spammy or a scam
  • You have less use of someone else’s copyrighted content

YouTube fraternity carefully reviews each channel for the above-mentioned criteria before making it eligible for the respective award.

How To Get YouTube Play Buttons?

If your channel meets the eligibility criteria, you will see a banner in YouTube Studio with a redemption code. During this moment, give yourself a well-deserved pat on your back. YouTube recognizes your hard work and consistency. Follow the simple steps below to order your YouTube Play button.

  • Visit the Creator Awards Redemption website and enter your code.
  • See how your channel name should be displayed on your creator award.
  • Enter your shipping information.
  • Click on ‘Order Now‘ to complete the award redemption process and wait for your very own YouTube play button.

Conclusion

Now, you are well aware of what it takes to achieve YouTube Creator awards and the steps to apply for one. Follow our guidelines to grow your YouTube channel consistently over the long term. Familiarize yourself with YouTube analytics and SEO and experiment often to come up with your own growth strategy. It may take significant time to achieve these stunning results. Remember, every YouTuber who has gained impressive YouTube play buttons has gone through their journey of growing their channel from scratch. Nobody can stop you from getting your very own creator award.