At the end of 2025, The Diary of a CEO has about 14.2M subscribers, 5.36M more in a year, far ahead of Patrick Bet-David (Valuetainment). Mel Robbins climbs to 6th. Here is the dated ranking of business creators, what changed since the end of 2024 and what their Shorts teach a consultant or coach.
How we ranked them
One criterion for all four years of the series: subscribers of the creator’s YouTube channel, where they also publish their Shorts. The figure is read on the web.archive.org capture of the channel closest to 31 December 2025. Every figure in the table links to its capture and gives its date: they do not all fall on 31 December, some a little before, others a little after.
Three limits, stated upfront. First, YouTube only shows rounded numbers, so read every figure as “about”. Second, these are the subscribers of the whole channel (long videos, podcasts and Shorts), not of Shorts alone: YouTube does not publish that. Third, the ranking covers the 18 business creators whose channel we could read on at least one usable capture; other well-known names, such as Tony Robbins, Codie Sanchez or Sahil Bloom, have no readable capture of their channel and are therefore not ranked.
We kept creators who teach business, sales, marketing, leadership, money or productivity. We left out creators a platform has expelled, and we included no creator we knew to face criminal proceedings. The criterion is the number of subscribers, not the quality of the advice.
The top 10 business creators in vertical video, end of 2025
| Rank | Creator (channel) | Platform | What they teach | Channel subscribers (capture) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Steven Bartlett (The Diary Of A CEO) | YouTube | entrepreneurship, through an interview podcast | about 14.2M (29 Dec 2025) |
| 2 | Patrick Bet-David (Valuetainment) | YouTube | entrepreneurship and capitalism, for entrepreneurs, founders and leaders | about 7.09M (30 Dec 2025) |
| 3 | Ali Abdaal | YouTube | productivity, personal development and building an independent business | about 6.51M (4 Jan 2026) |
| 4 | Iman Gadzhi | YouTube | building an online advertising agency, told from the inside | about 5.84M (29 Jan 2026) |
| 5 | Graham Stephan | YouTube | real estate, personal finance and investing | about 5.14M (30 Dec 2025) |
| 6 | Mel Robbins | YouTube | confidence and taking action, as author and host of The Mel Robbins Podcast | about 4.96M (14 Dec 2025) |
| 7 (ex æquo) | Jay Shetty | YouTube | purpose, as author and host of the On Purpose podcast | about 4.86M (9 Dec 2025) |
| 7 (ex æquo) | Lewis Howes | YouTube | success, through interviews with business leaders and athletes | about 4.86M (1 Jan 2026) |
| 9 | Gary Vaynerchuk (GaryVee) | YouTube | marketing, social media and life as a CEO | about 4.76M (27 Jan 2026) |
| 10 | Tom Bilyeu (Impact Theory) | YouTube | finance, technology and mindset, through interviews | about 4.61M (28 Jan 2026) |
Jay Shetty and Lewis Howes show the same rounded subscriber count (about 4.86M), so we rank them tied. Three captures are further from year-end than the others: Gary Vaynerchuk (27 days after), Tom Bilyeu (28 days after) and Iman Gadzhi (29 days after). The 11th, Alex Hormozi, had about 3.82M subscribers (15 Dec 2025).
What moved since 2024?
They are the same ten creators as a year earlier: no entry, no exit. Only the ranks change.
- Steven Bartlett: 1st → 1st (+5.36M subscribers in a year)
- Patrick Bet-David: 2nd → 2nd (+0.65M subscribers in a year)
- Ali Abdaal: 3rd → 3rd (+0.43M subscribers in a year)
- Iman Gadzhi: 4th → 4th (+0.48M subscribers in a year)
- Graham Stephan: 5th → 5th (+0.24M subscribers in a year)
- Mel Robbins: 10th → 6th (+1.73M subscribers in a year)
- Jay Shetty: 6th → 7th (tied) (+0.13M subscribers in a year)
- Lewis Howes: 9th → 7th (tied) (+0.67M subscribers in a year)
- Gary Vaynerchuk: 7th → 9th (+0.22M subscribers in a year)
- Tom Bilyeu: 8th → 10th (+0.18M subscribers in a year)
Who are they, and what do their Shorts teach?
The channel descriptions and Shorts titles quoted come from 2026 captures: they describe recent habits, not necessarily those of the ranking’s year.
Steven Bartlett (1st). The Diary of a CEO channel passes 14M subscribers. Forbes says he turned the interview show he started at his kitchen table into a holding company. His Shorts range from 61,000 to 259,000 views in the examples we read (“THE BIG VAPING LIE!”). Takeaway: a strong title is enough to carry a clip beyond the channel.
Mel Robbins (6th). She gains 1.73M in a year, the biggest rise in the top 10 after The Diary of a CEO. Hers is a podcast channel and her Shorts pick out key sentences (“You Have The Right To Change Your Mind”). Takeaway: a sentence people can quote makes a clip.
Jay Shetty and Lewis Howes (tied 7th). Same level, two models of interview podcast. Lewis Howes’s Shorts are numbered or pose a question (“Self Esteem is A Disease??”). Takeaway: a question mark at the end of a title invites a view.
Gary Vaynerchuk (9th) and Tom Bilyeu (10th). Their channels grow little (about 0.22M and 0.18M in a year). Gary Vaynerchuk’s Shorts remain answers to an audience question. Takeaway: consistency alone does not always make an older channel grow.
Alex Hormozi (11th). His channel goes from 3.02M to 3.82M, without entering the top 10. His Shorts quote a client’s question (““Why Do My Employees Leave?””) before the answer. Takeaway: it is the format closest to a consultant’s exchange.
Worth watching. Dan Martell (about 2.2M, against 0.85M a year earlier) and Leila Hormozi (about 1.41M, against 0.46M) grow, proportionally, faster than the rest of the list, without nearing the top 10. Dan Martell’s Shorts revolve around leaders’ questions (“Tell me how you’d handle these sales objections”).
Long conversations, short clips
In this top 10, Mel Robbins, Steven Bartlett, Jay Shetty, Lewis Howes, Tom Bilyeu and Patrick Bet-David host podcasts or interview shows according to their descriptions. We did not re-read each clip to know which conversation it comes from. The observation is about titles: key sentences and questions that make sense on their own.
What it means for you
The rise of Mel Robbins and The Diary of a CEO rests on clips that are sentences people quote. That is what your call already holds: a client’s question, your answer, one clear sentence.
What next?
Most of these channels rest on long conversations from which they cut short clips: your calls are the same raw material. For the length and framing of those clips, see how long a short should be and the 9:16 vertical video format. Dailies Studio turns your calls into vertical shorts and publishes them on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, Threads, LinkedIn and TikTok: see what it is.
Sources
Pages read on 15 October 2026.
- web.archive.org captures of the channels, one per creator: Steven Bartlett (29 Dec 2025), Patrick Bet-David (30 Dec 2025), Ali Abdaal (4 Jan 2026), Iman Gadzhi (29 Jan 2026), Graham Stephan (30 Dec 2025), Mel Robbins (14 Dec 2025), Jay Shetty (9 Dec 2025), Lewis Howes (1 Jan 2026), Gary Vaynerchuk (27 Jan 2026), Tom Bilyeu (28 Jan 2026).
- Channel descriptions: the 2026 captures linked in the text; Shorts tabs: captures from 9 June to 22 September 2026 linked in the text.
- Forbes, Top Creators lists 2025 and 2026: Steven Bartlett and his interview show.
- Wikipedia, Patrick Bet-David: his podcast and guests.