BLACKPINK has made history on YouTube, becoming the first Official Artist Channel on the platform to surpass 100 million subscribers. To mark the milestone, YouTube presented the group with its most prestigious creator honour: the Red Diamond Creator Award.
Key Takeaways
- BLACKPINK became the first Official Artist Channel to hit 100 million YouTube subscribers. General network channels like T-Series crossed that threshold earlier, but they are not Official Artist Channels.
- YouTube presented the group with the Red Diamond Creator Award, one of the rarest honours on the platform.
- The channel has nine music videos with over 1 billion views each, plus individual billion-view hits from Lisa and Jennie.
- Their channel pulled in 3.3 billion views in the past year across six continents.
- Their comeback album DEADLINE releases on 27 February 2026, with lead single JUMP.
What Exactly Is the Red Diamond Creator Award?
YouTube introduced the Red Diamond Creator Award as recognition for channels that cross 100 million subscribers. It sits at the very top of YouTube’s Play Button award system, above the Silver Play Button (100,000 subscribers), Gold Play Button (1 million), and Diamond Play Button (10 million).
The award is exceptionally rare. As of today, only a small number of channels across the entire platform have received it. The first channel to cross 100 million subscribers and claim the Red Diamond was T-Series, the Indian music label and film production company and PewDiePie who crossed the milestone in 2019. Other recipients include MrBeast, SET India, and Cocomelon.
However, an important distinction separates BLACKPINK’s achievement from those earlier milestones. T-Series and channels like SET India are content networks or media companies that publish content from multiple creators and artists. They are not Official Artist Channels, which YouTube defines specifically as channels representing a single performing artist or group. BLACKPINK’s channel falls into that category, and no Official Artist Channel had ever reached 100 million subscribers before theirs. That is the precise record they broke.
How Did BLACKPINK Build Their Way to 100 Million?
BLACKPINK, consisting of Jennie, Jisoo, Rosé, and Lisa, did not arrive at this number overnight. Their YouTube presence grew steadily through a string of viral music videos, record-breaking debut numbers, and one of the most engaged fanbases in the world, known as BLINKs.
Here are the verified numbers that tell that story:
- Their Official Artist Channel now hosts nine music videos that have each individually crossed 1 billion views, including DDU-DU DDU-DU, Kill This Love, How You Like That, BOOMBAYAH, and Pink Venom.
- Solo releases from members Lisa and Jennie have also each crossed the 1 billion view mark on the channel.
- BLACKPINK holds multiple entries in YouTube’s top 10 all-time 24-hour music video debut records. Pink Venom drew over 90 million views in its first 24 hours, while How You Like That pulled in over 86 million views on debut day.
- Lisa’s solo track LALISA also ranks among the biggest first-day debut performances in YouTube history.
- Over the past year alone, the channel accumulated 3.3 billion views, with the top viewing countries being South Korea (277 million+ views), India (223 million+ views), Indonesia (218 million+ views), Mexico (182 million+ views), the United States (180 million+ views), and Brazil (168 million+ views).
When Did This Milestone Happen?
YouTube made the official announcement on Friday, 20 February 2026, sharing the news across their social media platforms. The accompanying message to fans read: “BLINKs, you did it! A massive congratulations to BLACKPINK for reaching 100 million subscribers on YouTube!”
YG Entertainment followed that up by posting a photo on BLACKPINK’s official Instagram account showing all four members alongside the Red Diamond Play Button. The caption read: “BLACKPINK HITS 100 MILLION SUBSCRIBERS ON YOUTUBE.” The group added a brief message of their own directed at fans: “Thank you, BLINKs!”
How Does This Fit Into BLACKPINK’s Broader YouTube History?
To understand why this milestone lands differently, it helps to look at where BLACKPINK stood at each stage of their YouTube journey:
- In 2021, they became the most subscribed Official Artist Channel on YouTube, overtaking major global pop acts.
- In 2022, they became the first Official Artist Channel to reach 75 million subscribers.
- In 2026, they crossed 100 million, a number that no performing artist or group had ever reached on the platform before.
Each of those records was significant at the time. However, the 100 million mark is in a different category altogether because it places BLACKPINK alongside channels that are, in most cases, large-scale content networks rather than individual artists. Reaching this number as a four-member K-Pop group with a single Official Artist Channel is genuinely without precedent in music.
What Is Next for BLACKPINK?
The timing of this milestone works out well for fans on both sides of the Atlantic. After completing a world tour covering 33 shows across 16 cities, BLACKPINK is returning as a full group for the first time in nearly three years.
Their third mini album, DEADLINE, drops on 27 February 2026. The lead single is titled JUMP, and the full tracklist also includes GO, Me and My, Champion, and Fxxxboy.
From their very first music video to a Red Diamond Play Button, BLACKPINK has spent nearly a decade proving that borders, languages, and genres are no barrier to great music, and with DEADLINE just days away, it is clear the story is far from over.
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