YouTube star Zoella reaches 10m subscribers milestone

She may be a bestselling author and makeup mogul now, but Zoe “Zoella” Sugg is still attracting new fans on her original stomping ground: YouTube.

The vlogger’s main YouTube channel has just reached the milestone of 10 million subscribers, making it the fourth British channel to reach that mark after One Direction, KSI and Adele.

Subscribers have become one of the key metrics to measure YouTube channels’ success, representing fans who have signed up to receive notifications when a creator posts a new video.

Zoella’s videos focus on beauty, fashion and collaborations with other YouTubers, although she has also addressed issues like anxiety and panic attacks.

In 2014, she became one of the first British channels to be promoted by YouTube with TV, print and billboard ads, alongside Vice News and The Slow Mo Guys.

Sugg’s main channel’s videos have now been watched more than 665m times on YouTube. She also has a second channel, More Zoella, which has nearly 3.9 million subscribers and 377.2m views – meaning across both channels she now has 1.04bn views.

Zoella reached the milestone of 1 million subscribers in April 2013, three years after joining YouTube. By the time of YouTube’s advertising campaign in 2014, she had 6 million subscribers.

Outside music, Zoella and Olajide “KSI” Olatunji are the two most successful British vloggers in terms of subscribers on YouTube. KSI’s main channel has 11.9 million subscribers, while his second channel has 4.2 million.

The most-subscribed-to YouTube channel belongs to gamer Felix “PewDiePie” Kjellberg, with 41.9 million fans signed up. Kjellberg is Swedish, although he lives in Brighton, so could also be claimed as a UK YouTuber.

Sugg continues to post regularly to her YouTube channels, but she has diversified into other areas. Her first book, Girl Online, was released in 2014, sparking a debate when it emerged she had worked with a ghostwriter.

A sequel, Girl Online: On Tour was released in 2015, but Zoella has also fronted her own collection of beauty products; sung on the Band Aid 30 charity single with fellow vloggers Alfie Deyes and brother Joe Sugg; and joined mental-health charity Mind as a digital ambassador.