The YouTube Creator Awards come in the form of Play Buttons and are used to recognize the achievements of the platform's biggest creators.

YouTube is a platform that has evolved significantly since its humble beginnings in 2005. As a result of the drastic increase in popularity of the site, the biggest creators have amassed serious followings over the years.

As more and more creators started achieving what was once considered impossible milestones, YouTube developed a commendable system to directly reward those who amassed different levels of subscribers on the site. While there are many awards that most will be familiar with, there are some at the higher-end that may surprise even the most dedicated fans.

The Silver Play Button

The Silver Play Button is the first YouTube Creator Award that can be earned, although that is not to say that it is any easy feat. YouTubers will have to reach a highly respectable 100,000 subscribers on a channel to be eligible for a Silver Play Button, which will come engraved with their channel name and include a signed letter from YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki.

Although smaller than the other play buttons, the Silver Play Button's prestige is still more than present, as evidenced in it being made of 92% nickel. The Silver Play Button was first created in 2013, and over 300,000 have been given out to this day, further establishing the massive scale of the YouTube platform.

The Gold Play Button

The second tier of YouTube Creator Awards comes with the Gold Play Button. Being quite a big step above the aforementioned Silver, the Gold Play Button requires a creator to amass over 1,000,000 subscribers.

To further convey this massive achievement, the Gold Play Button is significantly larger than its Silver counterpart, and is made of gold-plated brass. The Gold Play Button was the first Creator Award to be implemented, being introduced originally in 2012. As of today, there are around 29,000 channels that meet the Gold requirements, a significantly lower figure than that of Silver eligibility.

The Diamond Play Button

A truly coveted tier of the Creator Awards comes with the illustrious Diamond Play Button. In order to be eligible for this award, a channel must surpass a staggering 10,000,000 subscribers, significantly expanding upon the pre-requisites of the Gold Play Button.

Simply being in the shape of a giant Play Button without the surrounding plaque that the aforementioned tiers possess, the Diamond Play Button is made out of a silver-plated metal inset, with the Play Button triangle being made of clear crystal. First appearing in 2015, there are currently just over 1,000 channels that meet the Diamond requirements.

Custom Creator Award

Launched in 2016, The Custom Creator Award is a seriously difficult achievement to reach, and is by its very nature the most unique of all YouTube Creator Awards. An extremely exclusive award, the Custom Creator Award is completely customized to the recipients channel, and thus each one is entirely unique.

To meet the requirements of a Custom Creator Award, a channel has to reach a massive 50,000,000 subscribers in total. Due to this huge number, there are currently only 17 channels across the entire platform that have earned a Custom Creator Award.

Red Diamond Play Button

Without a doubt, the single-most exclusive YouTube Creator Award is the legendary Red Diamond Play Button. First awarded in 2019, the Red Diamond Play Button is for the select few channels that culminate an incomprehensible 100,000,000 total subscribers.

The Red Diamond Play Button is aesthetically similar to the Diamond Award, but instead features deep red crystal as opposed to the clear crystal of standard Diamond. As of today, the only channels to be eligible for this extremely prestigious award are PewDiePie, T-Series, Cocomelon, and SET India. With how rapidly the platform is still growing, YouTube may have to release an even higher tier of award in the near future.

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