Which YouTuber still creates high-quality videos to this day?
Which YouTuber still creates high-quality videos to this day?
Seeing the other post here about YouTuber that went downhill and seeing content creators I am familiar with makes me sad. But how about those that still makes great, high quality content?
Technology Connections
One of the most informative channels I've ever watched. I recommend his dishwasher video, because everybody is doing it wrong.
Always knew those pods sucked for more money. He did convert me to the powder tho
He's a big Fediverse guy, too. Very active on Mastodon.
Hi @[email protected] o/
Absolutely love him.
Was going to comment this
Ze best
Overrated and borderline insufferable.
But… dishwasher episode!!
No, it isn’t informative if you’ve ever read the manual to your dishwasher. Dude bought a car then a house and goes around explaining things about them that are clearly explained in owners manuals. He does some interesting videos like the pinball machine or jukebox tear down, but the rest mostly non-substantial filler. Dude needs to stick to electromechanical tear downs.
hbomberguy
SELL THEIR HOUSES TO WHO BEN? FUCKING AQUAMAN?
IT WAS THEM'LL
And Dan Olson (Folding Ideas)
Dan's videos have gotten better over time.
I JUST recently found out about his Donkey Kong 64 Nightmare stream and just how much fucking money he raised for charity by torturing himself for 58 hours.
He’s an angel.
CGP Grey
I can't get enough flag videos
Tom Scott is a beacon of YouTube quality.
He never had a phase where all of his videos were 10:00 for the algorithm, he never jumps on topical shit for clicks, he just talks about genuinely interesting shit, and has gotten to do so on a higher and higher budget.
He has diversified, and has other channels that interface with other YouTubers in gameshow and stuff. But it's all still legit content.
And a deep cut from 9 years ago. Same kind of content. Slightly lower quality but... Guys been doing this kind of "hey I think this is neat let me tell you about it" for a decade, without becoming a dingbat.
You get the idea.
Unfortunately not for much longer, though
I fell in love with him after the execution of the Dasani video. Walking backward ten minute single take, amazing: https://youtu.be/wD79NZroV88
Video icon has giant red text saying "NOBODY SURVIVES". Open with Tom Scott standing at a gate to the Chernobyl exclusion zone
"Today I'm here to talk to you about something dark, something that has produced so much pain, something that decays life itself. Me standing in Chernobyl actually has nothing to do with it, because pulls up a laptop showing a game I'm referring to League of Legends"
Primitive Technology
He's mastered the bronze age and is making progress on the iron age, all by himself.
Kind of skipped bronze, since there aren't ready sources of copper and tin on his property. But yes his experiments with iron processing have been interesting. Pretty incredible what can be managed with such simple tools.
Poor access to iron, too. He's putting in a ton of effort to get like 5 grams of actual metal from the iron bacteria.
Gaming
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EthosLab - most authentic Minecraft YouTuber around. No trash clickbait, cringeworthy attempts to appeal to children, ad spam, etc. Just a dude chilling out and playing Minecraft.
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Battle(non)sense - Tests various input lag reduction tech + strategies. Input Lag: Low DPI vs High DPI - turns out increasing your DPI can significantly reduce input lag! AMD AntiLag+ vs Nvidia Reflex - turns out not only does AMD's solution trigger anti-cheat, but it also offen increases system latency.
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Marblr - High quality analysis of weird game behavior. Mostly Overwatch for now. Overwatch: The Effectiveness of Shield Spinning
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People Make Games - Videos about games and the gaming industry. Highly accessible to folks not familiar with the industry. Making Sense of VR Chat, the Metaverse People Actually Like
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NoClip - Crowd funded feature length video game documentaries. Making of Horizon Zero Dawn
Makers
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ColinFurze - builds crazy stuff and does an amazing job of it! Currently building an underground garage at his house that connects to his underground tunnel system.
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I Did a Thing - Australian man with a great sense of humor. Makes ridiculous stuff. Giant Beyblade destroys stuff
...more in Honytawk's comment below
Science + Technology
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Applied Science - In depth videos about random science-y things this dude finds interesting. No clickbait, just an excited dude talking about a project he tried.
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Atomic Frontier - A lot like Tom Scott. He's also a rare case where the video is more interesting than the title/thumbnail. Generally focused on science-y topics + has shockingly high production value considering the dude seems to be an overworked college student.
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NileRed/NileBlue - Crazy in depth chemistry videos. Personally find NileBlue more entertaining as he tends to explore things he's not that great at.
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Practical Engineering - Explanations of various civil engineering concepts.
Other
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Krazam - Legendary comedy channel focused on software engineering related topics. Most famous video - microservices.
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You Suck At Cooking - Short videos presenting recipes in an entertaining way.
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Studio Binder ; High quality videos about all things movie/video production. Owned by a movie production software company so you're gonna see ads for it in every video but SponsorBlock gets rid of that with no issues. Ultimate Guide to Camera Movement - Every Technique Explained
Your makers can be padded out a bit more.
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I did a thing - dry humor Australian who walks barefoot and wears an apron.
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Michael Reeves - chaotic coding goblin that makes robots
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TheBackyardScientist - Floridaman using his backyard to explode stuff
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Mark Rober - Nasa engineer explaining science to kids with great editing
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William Osman - Collaboration expert, you will see him in all the other channels mentioned above.
1 more dude I skipped but I'll put here - Stuff Made Here - Insanely skilled engineer who seems to be able to make just about anything. Skipped because his thumbnails are horribly clickbaity.
Thanks for the list, I'm sure others will appreciate it!
I'm actually subscribed to almost all of those channels lmao. I skipped several because I'm being picky, and I mean picky. You probably won't agree with a lot of my decisions. Here's what I mean...
- I did a thing - forgot about him I'll add him to the list
- Micheal Reeves - Last real video was a year ago
- Backyard scientist - Unsubscribed a while ago due to clickbait. From a quick glance his videos seem fine now though.
- Mark Rober - Video quality has been going downhill. More and more clickbait, and videos seem to spend a lot more time than necessary on "look at our happy family fun time we're having."
- William Osman - I like him just not enough to put him on the list
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Second on Etho, he's remarkably constant all the way from when Minecraft was in alpha.
My homie (don’t actually know him) Road guy Rob makes some of the BEST videos on roads and the engineering of traffic systems and infrastructure. His content is insanely good and wayyyyy better than any small YouTuber should be.
+1. I love this guy because he's not just another one of those new urbanism YouTubers complaining that every American doesn't have 10 trains showing up at their house every minute and anyone that disagrees is mentally compromised (see: "car brain"). He instead focuses on feasible, practical, incremental solutions to our problems over shouting about the "kill all cars with fire immediately" solutions.
I didn't post him because I figured the audience on Lemmy would eat me alive for saying all that.
Been watching etho for at least a decade if not more, one of my all time favorites
I think all of the Hermits are still really good.
Oh shit a Marblr shoutout! I love his stuff, his propensity for finding and diagnosing bugs is out of this world. He used to stream on twitch and it was really fun because it would essentially be a behind the scenes look at all the custom workshop stuff he's built in order to reproduce bugs and get footage for his videos.
You win. Nice effort.
Veritasium is one of the oldest and consistently greatest science channels
He’s also a rare case where the video is more interesting than the title/thumbnail
It's insane but it's true. Great guy.
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Seems like he’s been doing his thing for the entire existence of the internet. Silly little flash animations and games in the early 2000’s and now his ‘true facts’ of animals videos. Seems to keep true to his own style, ever evolving as it may be, but always similar- and maybe thats what I find comforting- he’s been there for most of the 20+ years I’ve been ‘surfin the web’, as the kids like to say.
I was hoping someone would post ZeFrank! His True Facts series is exactly what education content should be - entertaining, interesting, funny, and most importantly, rigorously sourced and credited to the real life scientists and researchers he bases his info on.
For more animal facts, check out Isabella Rossellini “Green Porno”. A little more risqué, and a different kind of humor, though interesting and educational as well. It was a Sundance thing from about 10 years ago that was semi ‘viral’ at the time.
He is also able to fart bees!
This was my answer! I watched a couple old videos last night actually and then watched some new ones. He’s gotten better in my opinion. What you said is right. It’s in the same style but now it’s more polished.
He left for a while to do buzzfeed content. But now he is back Those were the dark years lol
I was wondering where he went, very happy when he come back.
LGR.
As a DOS gamer, he's pretty much me in a more American and charismatic package.
Primative Technology. A dude out in the bush building houses and tools out of mud, sticks, and rocks without speaking a word.
I'm a fan of him.
Do you watch How To Make Everything?
I know there are several similar channels so maybe I'm mixed up, but wasn't this the one where they found out the guy was using machinery to create his projects off camera and claiming it was all done by hand?
Nope. This guy is the real deal. Nothing he does is large scale or unbelievable. If you turn on captions he walks you through what his thought process is/what he is doing. Very enjoyable.
Nah, this is the guy that basically spawned the entire “genre”. He’s legit as can get.
He is legit.
The most popular fake primitive building channels are obviously fake if you have even a little bit of critical thinking. They usually pretend to build some preposterously sized waterparks and other complex structures that are obviously above the scale of two guys with hand tools.
- Some More News (Last Week Tonight-like political commentary)
- AngryTurtle (fallout 76 content)
- videogamedunkey (gaming/humor)
- Yahtzee Croshaw (game reviews/rants)
- Wendover Productions (random interesting education and air travel gameshows)
- Practical Engineering (how the world around you is built)
- Technology Connections (deep dives into engineering everyday gizmos)
- Tom Scott (interesting tech/education)
- RealLifeLore (explains geopolitics)
- Internet Historian (amusing yarns, discussions, and stories)
- LegalEagle (law)
- Kurzgesagt (explains scientific concepts, lots of what if scenarios, animated birds)
- Tasting History with Max Millar (historical cooking in a modern kitchen)
- Let's Game it Out (dude who breaks games in the most amusing way possible)
- My Name Is Andong (cooking)
- Chef Jean-Pierre (cooking)
- Economics Explained (economics)
- Matthew Berman (explores the latest AI/LLM tech)
- The Bread Circus
- They go through the Star Wars movies from a book lore perspective, point out flaws in the writing and lore-breaking, and offer suggestions on how the sequels could have been handled differently. They did The Last Jedi, and I really enjoyed it. They also have some cool videos on podracing, ships, and guns.
- Defunctland
- History of Disney rides, takes the culture of the time into consideration, the video on queues is a must-watch, imo.
- Draw Like a Sir
- Really solid drawing tutorials that aren't very complicated, takes the time to break down high-level concepts into simple exercises. Overall a really fun channel to watch, even if you're not into drawing.
- Fredrik Knudson
- Long, deep-dive videos into internet history/culture. Rare uploads, but a banger every time.
- James Lee
- Newgrounds-era animator with amazing compositing techniques and a very unique animation style where he inserts himself into his videos as a very animated caricature of himself.
- Lemmino
- Like the History Channel but without the fluff. Cool topics, very nice animations, high production, high-quality content.
- MattKC
- Known for a Lego Island decompilation project. Also does retro console repair from time to time — very fun watch.
- Paper Will
- Rare uploads. but interesting video essay topics. High quality and a nice watch during lunch.
- Pecos Hank
- A storm chaser who is Reed Timmer's ying to his yang. Very chill, documentary-quality footage featuring himself playing guitar and talking about the beauty and power of nature. You've probably seen his footage on the Weather Channel!
- Technology Connections
- Great deep dives into random technology, old and new. The video on the popcorn button on microwaves is really good (I think that may be on his second channel?)
Technology Connections
"It's november, so that means no effort videos all month." proceeds to make high effort video
- The Bread Circus
Primitive Technology
Low volume (not even 1 video a month), high quality, highly entertaining.
Beware of the copycats, though.
I cannot believe I had to scroll so far down here to find this. It's a channel so good he created a freaking genre! And plus, almost no one else does what he does legit. At least a lot of the bushcraft ones show when they use tools, but I've seen videos with 8 million views showing hand tools and harvesting wood, then boom, suddenly there's dimensional lumber in the shot. Drives me wild when people fake it, but the OG never does, since he started the whole project for fun and fell backwards into money.
Lemmino creates amazing documentaries about a wide variety of topics (DB Cooper, JFK Assassination, Jack the Ripper). He uploads very infrequently, but it's totally worth it when he does.
Barely Sociable is similar in style and uploads high quality pieces about various mysterious occurrences.
Drachinifel uploads frequent, well researched content about naval history from the age of sail to the 1950s.
Our Own Devices is a very small channel that feels similar to Technology Connections (another excellent channel). He uploads content about the history and inner workings of old devices of all sorts.
Throttle House is the best car channel on YouTube.
Jason Cammisa's Revelations series on the Hagerty channel has really good deep dives into the histories of some important cars.
Aging Wheels/Under Dunn are excellent car and/or wood project channels. Chickens make frequent appearances too.
Mentour Pilot has excellent analysis of airline crashes.
Jay Foreman uploads funny and informative content about maps (Map Men) and tidbits about the history of London.
Cathode Ray Dude uploads deep dives into weird computers, computer peripherals, and old cameras. I've watched his half hour video about modems at least 5 times.
Mustard uploads excellent content about crazy ideas in transportation (like the Soviet love affair with the ekranoplan).
I don't understand how Drach has the time to make so much video when I don't even have the time to watch all of it.
For real. When he releases the 5 hour Drydock episode every month, I usually spend the next week watching it at 2 times speed while I make dinner. Crazy amount of content.
Practical Engineering - in depth presentations of civil engineering feats, concepts, problems, solutions
Joe Scott - just simple, entertaining discussions of interesting topics
Philosophy Tube - longer format, intensely well-cited presentations on philosophy related to current events (with theatrical costumes!)
Ryan Hall - who knew that a weather forecast could be so fun? Regularly updated weather forecasts for the entire United States with detailed coverage and livestreams of events like tornado outbreaks, hurricanes, and large snowstorms. With charity drives to provide supplies to people on the ground
PBS Spacetime, PBS Eons, all the PBS channels really
Plainly Difficult - consistent quality, often hilarious presentations of various disasters. I particularly like his entire series on radiological accidents, often involving lost radioactive sources that random members of the public stumble onto, which is terrifying.
How to Cook That (Ann Reardon)
Her debunking videos and 200 year-old recipes are very entertaining.
Also Adam Ragusea (my husband, but he doesn't know that)
My wife watches her. I thought her debunking videos were great and forcing her husband to eat the putrid concoctions is always hilarious.
Tom Scott
Curious Droid - lots of sci fi, technology content.
WaterlineStories - all sorts of nautical/diving disasters narrated by a South African chap with a lot of experience.
Qxir - Irish guy with a lot of weird stories told in stick figure form.
Plainly Difficult - a lot of disasters frequently nuclear.
Nile Red is still fun - and a nice dude. Chemistry
Vince Vintage is hilarious, great editing (like internet historian but not a jerk)
Also my homeboy Video Game Dunkey.
Dreading is good(sort of successor to JCS), very sober and tasteful host discussing true crime.
Haven't seen Summoning Salt mentioned yet. He does great videos on the history of speed running a video game.
An example video would be Super Mario Bros: The Human Limit where the difference between a tool assisted speed run and what a human is capable is discussed. And how Super Mario Bros has an interesting mechanic allowing humans to be imperfect but still able to tie a perfectly executed speed run done using essentially a script of commands.
I love Salt, and I'm always excited for a new vid, but I think he could freshen it up by changing up the music (I know blasphemy) or using a different type of graph to show the timeline.
I also got tired of the music. I know it's kinda his thing, but after 10 or 12 videos i started wishing the music would change every once in a while
Love Salt's videos. Though the length of his videos are damn near becoming marvel movie length. Good thing he makes quality content.
I wish Summoning Salt would do some more recent or different games, but he really seems to love the NES/SNES era. Just saw he released his second multiple-hours-long video about Mike Tyson's Punch Out and I am just not the audience for that I guess.
He could do good things with Hollow Knight or Halo 2 for example, but maybe that's just not his passion.
Consumer Tech: mkbhd, LTT, MrMobile, Dave2D, JerryRigEverything, UrAvgConsumer, GamersNexus
Geeky Tech: TechnoTim, ServeTheHome, Explaining Computers, Level1Techs, Jeff Geerling, , Low Spec Gamer, Modern Vintage Gamer, Wolfgangs Channel, Network Chuck, Project Farm, Tech Rules
Smart Home: Everything Smart Home, The Hook Up, Smart Home Solver, Paul Hibbert, Reed's Smart Home, NotEnoughTech
Popular science: Veritasium, Kurzgesagt, Smarter Every Day, Hank Green
Science: Cleo Abram, Physics Girl, Nile Red/Blue, Computerphile, NumberPhile, Minutephysics, The SciShow, PeriodicVideos, Sixty Symbols, Scott Manley, The Action Lab, 3blue1brown, Kyle Hill, Steve Mould, Fermilab, PBS Space Time
Engineering: Practical Engineering, B1M, Coby Explanes, engineerguy, Technical Connections, Simone Giertz
Entertainment with some science/engineering sparkled in: Colin furze, Mark Robert, Slow Mo Guys, Johnny Harris, TheBackyardScientist
Entertainment: CGP Grey, Tom Scott, Max Fosh, Lockpicking Lawyer, Legal Eagle, Kitboga, Not Just Bikes, Cheddar
Docutainment: Cold Fusion, Wendover Productions/Half as Interesting, Anything with Simon Whistler (Megaprojects, etc)
Programming: Fireship, The Primeagen, Tech world with Nana, freCodeCamp, Ben Eater, Jake Wright, Dreams of Code, mCoding
Electronics: Andreas Spiess, GreatScott!, Tall Paul Tech, EEV
Chess: Anna Cramling, Gotham Chess, Hikaru
Cars: Carwow, Out of Spec Reviews, TeslaBjorn, Throttle House, Engineering Explained, autoTrader, Donut, Hagerty, RSEV
Travel: HONEST GUIDE (the Prague guy), Pack Hacker, SV Delos, Tim Traveller, Trek Trendy
History: the fat electrician, historigraph, history matters,
Woodworking: Shaun Boyd, Blacktail Studio, Foureyes furniture
Late Night: Colbert, Meyers, Kimmel, Daily Show, Last Week Tonight
Russia/Ukraine: LazerPig, 1420 (Daniil Orain), Perun (edited to add)
If you speak German: HausbauHelden, FelixBa, Lohnt sich das, Finanzfluss, Next Move, Autogefühl, Smarthome yourself, Jonas Winkler, Held der Steine
There's plenty more, but here's a few of mine:
RedLetterMedia - Got pretty big on YouTube about 15 years back for their review of Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, where they made an actual, honest critique of why the film (and later the other prequel films) didn't really work on their own merits and hid it inside a 1.5-hour skit about an elderly serial killer. They're, uh... they're not for everyone, but I like them. Also, Macaulay Caulkin as a recurring guest star. Worth your time.
Technology Connections - Did you ever want to know why ceiling fans start at max power when you turn them on? Because I already knew before I clicked on the video and I still watched the whole damn thing. I swear this person could make ANYTHING sound interesting, no matter how dry.
They've been mentioned already but Second Wind - I mean, Yahtzee Croshaw pretty much picked up his fanbase and moved it here when his bosses at The Escapist made the boneheaded move to fire, uh.. his boss? I think? I don't watch a whole lot of the other stuff, but I haven't had any complaints about anything of theirs I've watched.
Project Farm - This dude legit goes out with his own money, buys like 8 different items in the same category (mainly tools, though his most recent video is on space heaters) and subjects them all to fairly rigorous testing to see which one is the best for the money. If I'm looking to buy something, I'll check and see if Project Farm has a video on it first.
LGR (Lazy Game Reviews) - I think someone already mentioned this as well, but I thought I'd bring it up too. The channel covers more than just games now and just covers all kinds of (mainly 80s/90s) computer tech. Plus, Clint's a good dude.
Colin Furze - He's a bit extra but he started making Wolverine claws in his little garage workshop and now he's building a "secret" tunnel under his house. Following this man's videos are wild. He basically says "what if (crazy idea)" and then just... does it.edit: omg how did I forget DankPods? Of course he has like five channels now. He's got a masters in music, he made a living playing jazz drums, he started a dumb YouTube channel about fixing iPods, and now he has a warehouse where he plays drums and games and fixes cars and all kinds of shit. Wade is great.
Scrolling through my subscribes, here are some of the ones mostly widely interesting I figure. In no particular order:
Civvie11- Retro gaming enthusiast.
Beware The Qu- Lots of speculative evolution content.
Big red 40TECH- Battletech lore guy.
BobbyBroccoli- Long videos about science scandals.
Mandaloregaming- Long form game reviews.
Seth Skorkowsky- Videos about TTRPG reviews and how to run TTRPGs.
Warlockracy- Russian video game reviewer with a bent to older games and weird Russian obscure mods.
Forgotten Weapons- Man on a life's quest to collect French ammunition.
Red Letter Media- Movie reviews and such.
Wargamer Fritz- Battletech tabletop tactics.
ReligionForBreakfast- Scholar who talks about religious history topics.
The Tank Museum- Tanks.
The Chieftain- Tanks.
Paper Skies- Channel on strange aviation stories, focus on Soviet military aviation.
Quinn's Ideas- Scifi review channel. Huge Dune nerd.
Olden Demon- Oldhammer channel. Talks about 2e and retells old 2e official battle reports.
oboeshoesgames- Like Dunkey but still funny.
Minisodes- Plays Oldhammer 2e in modern day and paints retro minis.
Grim Beard- Goth that reviews usually more obscure games.
Billiam- Watches and reviews a lot of trash TV.
Ancient Americas- History channel about ancient American (north, central, and south) history.
I'm subscribed to a lot of painting, DIY, instructional, and such channels which I find good but are very niche.
Kinda late to the party here but I'll share a couple of my favorites:
Melodysheep - video essays about science and science fiction with absurdly high quality animations and production value
Mustard - same as above, except about interesting and/or unusual real vehicles
Casually Explained - just a dude with a great sense of humor and crude artwork explaining random things to you
Sam O'Nella Academy - same as above, except covering very specific and much weirder topics
Biblaridion - his usual content is about conlangs (don't ask, I don't know either) but his ongoing Alien Biospheres series about speculative evolution is simply amazing
TierZoo - highly entertaining videos about animals and zoology, except it's all a videogame
LowSpecGamer - as the name implies, he used to make videos about making AAA games run on potato systems but has since pivoted into making (great) mini docs about the history of videogames and technology
Cyriak - he doesn't post often but the dude has been making the same kind of technically impressive and often disturbing animations for over 15 years now
Summoning Salt.
Not many people can make a 2 hr video about the world record progression of a game I've never heard of and have me absolutely invested in it all the way through.
Dude makes a video every 3-6months but god I love them. If anything they've improved over the years as his style has been refined and the videos got longer.
My favorite YouTuber for sure - no thumbnails, no clickbait, no asking for subscriptions or money (he used to accept donations way back but stopped since he felt like he could make do without them), minimal intro and outro, he reads comments (he reads at least one comment from the previous episode on every episode of his main let's play) and he's been making the same kind of content for over a decade (main let's play has over 500 episodes, each usually around 30 minutes long, sometimes much longer).
I haven't played Minecraft in years at this point but I still watch every video he puts out.
he used to accept donations way back but stopped since he felt like he could make do without them
He actually has channel memberships now but with absolutely no perks lol. There's no expectation to become a member which is nice. I've been subbed to the $2/mo tier for about a year or two now. Been watching etho for like 10 so it's nice to support a little more directly than blocking ads lol.
Smarter Every Day
Mark Rober
I love Rober but his most recent video kinda irked me with the double science camp commercial, hopeful that's an accident and not intentional.
Veritasium is in the same vein.
I’m late but a couple I didn’t see mentioned:
BeardMeetsFood - funny guy doing eating challenges, never thought I could like this kind of content, and the only one I watch in this category
Itchy Boots - Amazing travel videos from a Dutch girl riding her motorcycle through remote places on all continents. Very positive meetings with people all over the earth to give you back hope for humanity.
Nikolai Schirmer - Ridiculously high quality alpine skiing videos, mostly from Norway. Fantastic story telling and nature combined with too steep skiing. Shouldn’t be possible to get this quality for free.
Expedition Evans - very enjoyable videos of sailboat life for a couple and their two dogs.
Beau Miles - best story teller I know of. Adventurer that mostly make videos about local projects where he’s doing something that involves running very long while philosophizing about interesting topics.
Harry Mack - the most insane freestyle rapper ever, usually makes content on the spot for people on the street or online.
Sheena Melwani - Whenever I need a laugh. Her husband Trid is hilarious. Short videos of them laughing and joking basically.
Iron Chef Dad - wholesome videos with his son, for example making gourmet out of fast food.
Galdoc’s Tutorials - great DevBlog content from making a Factorio mod. Development, debugging, designing, Blender. Fairly technical. Great voice.
Stuff Made Here - great engineering channel, makes crazy contraptions like a moving basket hoop you’ll always hit, a hair cutting robot, auto-aiming bow etc.
Tested with Adam Savage
Atomic Frontier
Captain Disillusion
Answers with Joe
CD has been making videos of quality for 16 years and the only thing that's really changed is the YouTube resolution limit.
ashens is still making that quality brown sofa content 17 years later.
Things I haven't seen.
' Steve mould - does cool little kiddie explanations of physical phenomenons.
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Foureyes furniture - a bit asmr, but a woodworking channel. Guy makes neat stuff and talks about life while doing it.
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Wristwatch revival - alsp kinda ASMR, but guy takes apart and repairs mechanical watches. Very repetitive after the first few watches, but I keep watching anyway.
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Summoningsalt
word of warning, two hours will fly by
...but then, disaster struck for xXDICKxxLICKERXx14, when his record was beaten by a staggering 57 milliseconds
Game Makers Toolkit (GMTK)
RedLetterMedia.
Considering the amount of nerds on this site how is this so hard to find?! Their last video is literally a Star Trek quiz show lol. I love these guys and like many Rich is my spirit animal.
Mike is such a big baby 😂. I lost it when Rich threatened to record his "public freakout"
- Cathode Ray Dude - goes over tech from the 80's, 90's and early 00's
- CloudCuckooCountry - Infrequent book reviewer
- Distant Signal - Like trains? You'll like Danny Harmon
- Great Art Explained - Does exactly what it says on the tin
- Jacob Geller - I'm not sure how to describe him to be honest
- Jay Foreman - MAP MEN MAP MEN MAP MAP MAP MEN MEN MEN
- Josh Strife Hayes - Reviews of terrible MMOs
- Mr Samuel Streamer - High quality Rimworld videos (has also played Terraria, Stardew Valley, Fallout NV and other games), has a bit of a motor mouth however
- PatricianTV - Extremely long video game reviews; his Skyrim review is 20 hours spread across two videos
- Technology Connections - Through the power of buying two of them!
- The Unlucky Tug - Mainly talks about Thomas the Tank Engine
NeverKnowsBest For very in depth game essays. He has a 2:44:46 in depth look into the history of MMO's. 2:03:15 Elder Scrolls analysis. And he has an absolutely comforting voice that sweeps you along so easily that you don't even feel the time pass.
Mortismal He reviews games after he 100% them, makes guides, game lore, builds. His favorite genre is tactical rpg's but he'll to do others of people ask him to. The man is a consummate professional, and work horse. Puts out a video 5 days a week. He went from foster care, to being homeless to making a living doing what he loves. Used to put up posters offering to make game guides for money when he was a kid.
Lex Fridman He did long form interviews of really brilliant people. Novel prize winning scientists, mathematicians, biologists, philosophers, politicians, tech moguls, artists. The list goes on. He's not funny, but he is refreshingly sincere in his wanting to try and understand the topics, people, and life. He's a Russian-American computer scientist and research scientist at the MIT Laboratory for Information and Decision Systems.I don't always agree with him, but I love getting to listen to the people he interviews.
Quinn's Ideas A wonderful fan of sci-fi that reviews and explore the worlds of great sci-fi novels, turning over the abstract concepts inside those universes. He has an extensive playlist on the world of Dune, Lovecraft, authors I've never heard of, and he also covers other nerdy things too. He has a wonderful voice that brings you down into the world he's describing. You can tell her really gets into the books he reads, the more mysterious or awe inducing the better.
Wes Roth I recently found this guy. He reports on current news on AI. He does a great job at explaining things you would be too afraid to ask about for fear of sounding stupid. He's not an AI expert he's just discovering AI advancements with you, for you. Calm, nothing flashy, and curious to see where this is headed. If you wish you had time to look up and read about what's new in AI, this is your guy.
The Big Lez Show An all knowing multidimensional immortal Aussie Sasquatch doing a bunch of drugs, also some humans and some aliens.
The Royal Institute Like TED talks but in Great Britain, much longer, more in depth and very scientific. The intended audience are scientists, but some talks are just too fascinating to miss out on.
Luetin09 Warhammer 40k everything. Really great lore videos that are darkly beautiful to watch. He is a veritable font of WH40K knowledge.
dslyecxi It's like watching a team of military professionals conduct missions in ARMA 3, and with all of the hilarious fuckery that ensues. ARMA 3 is a realistic military sim, nothing like the arcadey Call of Duty or Modern Warfare. Really great footage.
Edit: Mr Sunday Movies Movies, comic, and TV shows, shooting up your butthole. They're Australian, but they make up for it.
Looks like there's some I can add:
We're In Hell Funny videos about reality shows that devolve into leftist madness, they're amazing
Blue Jay If Sam o Nella was a bird
Mr. Beat Ex history teacher and amazingly awkward dude, quite good at explaining US political stuff.
Second Wind Yahtzee Croshaw (ZP) and Cold Take, as well as a bunch of other ex escapist people and it rules.
The Vile Eye The series "analysing evil" is a pretty good dive into fictions baddies
The Stupendium Performs and writes songs based on pop culture, and is great at what he does
munecat
cute British girl pours Beer really badlyfunny music lady debunks/discusses political shitknowing better long form history content from an ex history teacher. Most recently had been doing the insane religious movements behind Kellogg's and whatnot
b2 studios videos about AI being trained in Unreal Engine, like teaching an ai to bowl or play ping pong. Also funny AF
your movie sucks movie reviews. Dude knows his shit and is pretty funny
Oh god why is my subs list so long and there are still so many to list and I'm too tired and high after work rn maybe I'll edit this later
Here's some of my own, in no particular order:
Gotham Chess - also known for his catchphrase: "Sacrifices... THE ROOK!!!". Yeah, that guy.
Kyle Hill is a science communicator and makes awesome educational content; he also debunks conspiracy theories.
Jeff Geerling is a RasPi aficionado who's made tons of projects.
Louis Rossmann specializes in consumer tech (mostly computers); he's a great critic of corporations and DRM.
Jenna Moreci is a published fantasy writer and has great videos on what to do and not to do when writing fiction.
One Topic at a Time - shares LGBTQ memes found on reddit. His voice may sound annoying. (What can I say? It's an acquired taste)
Bits inside by René Rebe specializes in Linux and Open Source stuff.
Noralities is a girl who makes video essays about anime, and they're not trivial opinions They involve writing, stereotypes, romance, society, and stuff. She's done her homework.
EDIT: Added details.
Kyle Hill. He's a science YouTuber and he has a series about nuclear energy that is very good.
Cut price physics Thor, he never gets boring!
I'm surprised he hasn't been mentioned yet. Haven't seen another channel that presents medical cases in such a good pacing and storytelling while being able to eloquently explain complicated medical stuff such that everyone can understand.
StyroPyro
Cody's Lab
NakeyJakey
InfernoPlus
Kruggsmash
Your Movie Sucks
juliaplaysgroove
The 8-bit Guy
Code Parade
Adam Savage (via Tested)
Climate Town
Captain Disillusion
Naomi Wu
FortNine. It's a motorcycle channel, but even if you don't care about motorcycles it's a great watch. Top production values and great storytelling.
Example: why Harley Davidson is dying: https://youtu.be/EOwxxsPaogY?si=XHHZc_P1hAiRIhp2
I haven't seen him mentioned here:
Fact Fiend
I watch him a lot less than I did before, but it has nothing to do with the quality of his content (which has always been great) and more to do with me not watching YouTube that much nowadays (I used to have a very boring job, so had lots of downtime for watching videos)
EthosLab - the OG Minecraft Youtuber that other Minecraft Youtubers watch; somehow still innovating on redstone and technical builds to this day despite Minecraft redstone already pushed to its limits long ago, and his multiplayer shenanigans on Hermitcraft and Life Series is top notch.
Adam Ragusea - cooking videos made for actual home cooks who just want no-flair no-fuss recipes, as well as food science videos exploring and explaining different cooking methods and food chemistry. I'm particularly a fan of how he encourages you to measure and cook by feel rather than by strictly following recipes.
Here are a few that I find have consistent high quality content:
The B1M... His videos seem to really get into the nitty gritty logistics of various large construction projects.
Caitlin Doughty (Ask a Mortician)... I feel like each video is better than the previous. The historical death documentaries are incredible.
Climate Town... Videos about climate change & has a really fun sense of humor.
Neo... Lots of really cool explanatory videos. The editing is really good as well! The recent video on the presidential motorcade was very cool.
And one more... Reckless Ben... IDK if it really fits within the prompt of this thread.. The channel is tough to watch with all the annoying humor & there is a lot of hit-or-miss videos, but at least lately, it seems to really be doing some very interesting things. I enjoyed his series on mckamey manor.
Mighty Car Mods --> https://www.youtube.com/mightycarmods
Dudes have been making awesome automotive content since 2007. And Moogs sound tracks that he creates for the episodes (and especially the feature length stuff) is incredible.
Don't think they've had a single moment of boring content in 16 odd years, let alone anything objectively bad. Absolute units the pair of them.
Dunkey. Mind you, he just had a kid so I think he's put out some lower (but not phoned in) effort videos in the last couple of months, but his comedic voice and the banal way he mocks games and gamers has always been consistent.
His mockery is entertaining but I live for his occasional honest and positive reviews.
Food Wishes
Yes that's rightt, you're reading this in Chef John's voice now. Not only do I cook, which is my life's passion, and probably my second favorite thing to do, but I also tell jokes, because let's face it, it's a perfect opportunity to perfect my comedy routine.
A few of his recipes are in my regular rotation. He's the best
I just did his parchment wrapped pork shoulder/butt roast and it was as foolproof as I expect from Chef John.
Joe Scott (Answers With Joe)
Tim Dodd (Everyday Astronaut)
Scott Manley (Scott Manley)
Red letter media
Sovietwomble has been consistently obsessed with the quality of his videos. He also consistently makes me laugh.
Kurzgesagt - Love their production and content
bigclivedotcom has been my favourite channel for almost a decade. Specalized on electronics and his soothing voice is pleasant to listen to.
Usagi Electric (Old mini-computers and terminals)
Adrian's Digital Basement (Old micro-computers restoration)
bigclivedotcom (electronics reverse engineering)
Nerdforge (Arts and crafts)
A bunch of my other subs have already been mentioned, so I want to add Caitlin from Ask a Mortician. She has demonstrated integrity and consistently high effort for her channel despite growing to over 2mil subscribers.
Jenny Nicholson is another that's been around and gotten big but her videos have only gotten more weird and interesting.
Climate Town has rapidly become one of my favorite channels and consistently puts out well-researched, informative and entertaining vids
If you like guns, (I know, this is lemmy, but there must be a few of you) Demolition Ranch, Kentucky Ballistics, Edwin Sarkisian.
InRangeTV might be more inline with the sliver of cross section on here
I would add Forgotten Weapons to this list. He does excellent teardowns and tests, plus a lot of great history and trivia.
The Kentucky Ballistics guy (I forget his name) damn near died when his 50 cal exploded, then he came back and was like "so that sucked. Anyways, I found this even bigger gun that I'm going to shoot now"
Scott
Forgotten weapons
InrangeTV
C&Arsenal
To add to the list. These guys are more longer videos about history and mechanics.
Karl Jobst for sure.
In no particular order:
- Mind of Watercolor - Steve Mitchell
- Paul Clark
- Escape to Rural France
- Mark Rober
- SloMo Guys
- Bear Essentials
- Primitive Technology
- Adventure Archives
There’s also a fair amount of surprisingly good fan films in various franchises.
Ahoy is still great, probably because it's just 2 videos per year; Scott the Woz is still funny, Silvagunner too.
Oh also Brick Experiment Channel for fun stuff with Lego.
Ian McCollum from Forgotten Weapons. https://youtu.be/THsDpGJcpk8?si=
Tom Scott, Sorted Foods, Mr. Barry Lewis, Freakin' Reviews, GeoWizard, Backyard Scientists, I Did A Thing, Stuff Made Here, Scott Stro-Solves.
Brian David Gilbert has always made cool stuff, but as he spun off from polygon he's created some wild existential videos.
I haven't seen Forgotten Weapons mentioned, yet. If you couldn't tell by the channel name, it covers rare and historical weapons, mostly firearms, but does so in a straightforward, informational, and apolitical way. It's basically the kind of show the history channel should make. I think he's been putting out episodes since around 2011.
Ethan Chlebowski does phenomenal cooking videos and deep dives into the science of food, specifically if some expensive ingredients are objectively worth the cost.
Fascinating Horror does unique videos in that they are discussions on all man-made or natural disasters. Great audio and video as well.
H0ser does fantastic videos on countries and economics with some humor, and cute animals to represent countires.
Horses does brilliant essays on a variety of topics, all of which are interesting and researched very well.
Nick Crowley does creepy, scary, and true crime like a lot of others, but puts a lot of effort into his editing and aesthetic.
Nexpo is largely the same as Nick Crowley, but with deeper dives and longer videos.
Professor Leonard has the best calculus series on YouTube.
I would give a shout out to two makers, Frank Howarth and This Old Tony both do some amazing works in general. Tony does a good amount of metal work, while Frank is almost all about woodworking.
For some AI (sorta) stuff: Primer engaging way to learn about statistics I guess, I don't know the right way to describe them but I always leave with something new.
For car stuff: Rob Dahm who is known for a wild RX7. Also publishes a lot of public data for the rotary community.
Junkyard Digs who does lots of classic car "restorations" or repairs. Generally tries to do the most accessible methods or tools.
Tofu Auto Works does mostly custom body kits and so on, shown in step by step processes with tips and reasons/preferences for doing things a certain way.
For gaming I'll just throw City Planner Plays out there. He mainly plays Cities Skylines, and talks about how and why certain infrastructure is designed or used.
Editting to add: sorta (mostly) does gaming, also does other topics as well. Arch fantastic visuals and historical breakdowns of topics. Doesn't have many videos, but they are quite good.
And purely because I've met him IRL and think his channel is very under viewed, About Here discusses city planning, accessibility and so on. A lot of it has to do with housing and it's current issues, but has other city/civic related topics as well.
Steve1989MRE, chill and informative seeing how MREs have evolved. He eats all the MREs and only got botulism twice so he’s doing good.
For funny content badlandschugs is pretty entertaining and the videos are generally quick.
Colin Furze (inventor with crazy ideas)
Anna Cramling (chess streamer)
Colin Furze takes oil money.
MauLer - great film and tv critiques.
Defunctland - incredible documentaries about theme parks.
Adam Ragusea ftw and Kenji Lopez-Alt
Many A True Nerd has always made consistently great Fallout content, and he's only gotten better over the years. Been watching him since 2014.
Surprised no one mentioned LGR/Lazy Game Reviews
Thoughty2
Joe Scott
SomeOrdinaryGamers
Josh Strife Hayes / Josh Strife Plays
TheReportOfTheWeek
Whang!
CaptainSparklez
+1 for reviewbrah. His content has only gotten better over the years
Simon Whistler
I have no idea how he maintains so many channels and have a young family at the same time
Maybe it's one of those things where two or more jobs are synergetic together, like how a cleaning person might also use what they find to become an artist, or how a taxi driver might make a good game show host, because CashCab said so. Or he might be doing the videos on his work breaks.
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Lemmino. Quality only got better over the years. Started as a top 10 memes channel. Then became top 10 cool subjects presented like documentaries. Now it's actual documentaries.
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Gameranx. Watched them when they were still just two or three dudes just talking about games. All those years, they made it pretty big on YouTube, and they still didn't lose that vibe.
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I'm honestly surprised to have not seen Super Eyepatch Wolf show up yet. Because of him, I'll never look at Garfield the same way again. He might not put out content often, but as far as I've seen, it's all top notch quality.
Tokyo Lens is another I enjoy. Fun explorations of Japan, lots of cool informational stuff, stuff like that. A little bit Abroad in Japan, but somewhat less bombastically edited, and a bit more positive.
Clemps is another one that doesn't put out content very often, but does some great deep dives into older JRPGs, and some fantastic looks at Yoko Taro's games.
Then there's the ones that have been posted again and again: RedLetterMedia, Technology Connections, Tom Scott, Jacob Geller, Food Wishes, You Suck At Cooking. I'm sure there's more out there, and there will always be more new ones popping up, too.
Forrest Valkai. He's a biologist who makes a mixture of educational content, videos debunking creationist claims (in an educational way rather than the "look at this fucking idiot" approach that much of atheist youtube seems to take), and just some silly fun in-between.
He doesn't have the insanely high production value of other channels named here, but he's the most wholesome person I've ever seen. His love for life and science radiates off of him and watching him passionately explain how cool something is genuinely makes me happy in such a depressing and pessimistic world.
Ethoslab
Knowing Better Dude does amazing deep dives into topics that's we should know more about that explain things that are a bit controversial.
Because it hasn't been mentioned yet,
I'll add GeoWizard to all the good answers already. He has some great adventure videos. He composes all of the music as well.
Oh, and anything by Brady Haran: Objectivity, Numberphile, Sixty Symbols, Periodic Videos, etc.
Yogscast still going strong.
Whether you like their gaming content or not, their editing is always on point.
Currently churning out content because of their Jingle Jam Charity.
Marques Brownlee for tech.
He's also known as MKBHD, and he's amazing with his camera work.
Alpha Pheonix is a great channel with some really good electricity videos recently.
my fav youtubers are probably
- I did a thing
- Dank Pods
- Bringus Studios
- StyroPyro
- Posy
- fern
- A few others I cant remember rn
+1 for Dank Pods. Been watching him since the beginning
Modern Vintage Gamer
I actually unsubscribed from him about a year ago because his content became unwatchable. I was subscribed for a long time, I really like the dude and he does great stuff. Where he went wrong for me is pursuing a more aggressive release schedule, pushing out a lot of videos. This lead to the content being a bit lacking at times. Still good topics and perfectly produced, but really not very much info or depth.
He seemed to also be pushed to a certain video length, which led to a lot of filler. And by a lot I mean more than half of the video was filler. Maybe great for people with short attention spans, but repeating the same thing in slightly different wording 3+ times becomes annoying really fast. He was also not good at filler, using pretty much the same script and wording in each video. There is something to be said for style, but if I can predict 80% of the video word for word in advance, it loses incentive to watch.
Now I don't blame him, he is just following the algorithm which is his job as a content creator. And some of the videos are really cool, especially on the rare occasion he does a bit of a deeper dive. And the dude knows his stuff, you just know he wants to tell more about some subjects, but doesn't because it doesn't fit in his video format and the audience he is targeting.
For me, I would put MVG in the used to be great, now is mediocre category.
FutureCanoe: A cooking channel that doesnt take itself serious and is super funny.
Kara and Nate: The only Travel bloggers i can watch, from biking across America to visiting 9 Christmas Markets in Europe in 9 different countries in 9 days. Their content is always unique and engaging
Alex Novell: A great documentarian channel that has tricked Alan Dershowitz and Alex Jones into interviews and confronted them for the harm they have done to society
FD Signifier: One of the best video essayists on the Platform, making great socially concious content.
Fall of Civilizations, though those are podcasts first. All of them are amazing.
Lockpicking Lawyer makes the best short videos. Not "yt shorts", it's just that it takes him 2-5 seconds to pick open the vast majority of locks, the rest of the video is his comment on the lock quality.
JoshStrifeHayes has 3 separate channels now, but that main channel that deals with MMOs still makes quality content in my opinion, but not as often. I also enjoy him playing the old games on JoshStrifePlays.
IME the more focussed/narrow/niche the subject is, the longer the channel will remain quality.
More importantly I think is if the channel owner is someone who truly enjoys their content, or someone who’s just enjoying celebrity and found a way to do it.
This is like Green brothers vs Fein Brothers.
8 bit guy, Nostalgia Nerd, Modern Vintage Gamers…great channels by people who are passionate about their content, still giving out great videos year after year.
AVGN? Ass. Shit. Ass covered in diarrhea shit. He made his fame off being an edgelord and that only works so long. Still check in every now and then but when he had guest appearances by Gilbert Gottfried and Macaulay Cullen he really jumped the shark.
Transport Evolved (they are also on Peertube), RM Transit, Gamers Nexus, Climate Town, Not Just Bikes, JayzTwoCents, Techtesters, The Linux Experiment (also on Peertube), LowSpecGamer
RM Transit can only make better videos as he can't go lower. I never saw so many assumptions that aren't facts, and by the way wrong.
It's crazy scrolling so long and seeing no one say Markiplier.
Viva La Dirt League, their skits are still good as a decade ago
Andrew Camarata and Foresty Forest are one of the few no-bullshit YouTubers that I know of who simply focus on making good content and nothing else.
EDIT: Steve Wallis and post10 aswell
Andrew has had some low level videos, destroying cars or lawnmowers that go against his normal content that I recall weren't well received. Otherwise, his stuff is very good and whenever a new video pops up I'll reach for some cold beers and enjoy.
Yeah he has "Unlisted B videos" playlist also with a ton of lower grade content. He just loves filming stuff.
Steve Wallis. He is an all around great down to earth guy. He does stealth camping and regular camping.
GoodTimesWithScar ... if you enjoy Minecraft content the dude is a beast, so talented ! and also funny and entertaining
Perun is making great videos about military economics and light geopolitics. High quality, powerpoint presentations that are 1 hour long. He is knowledgeable and tries to be as factual as possible(though because of the nature of his videos, it is often difficult to find hard data). And more importantly, while he is pro West/Ukraine, he is pretty objective in his analysis.
I did a thing is fun.
I still get excited when I see a notification for Applied Science after several years. Breaking Taps doesn't miss, either. They both do really interesting stuff.
MrMobile(Michael Fisher) - His video presentation skills 10/10, I specially love his series named when phones were fun, where he fondly talks about yesteryear phones and gadgets.
Harald Baldr - I may not go to all the places he goes, but the way he interacts with different people irrespective of the barrier of communication is commendable. The way he presents himself in his videos, I believe that's him in real life as well. No fakery.
acollierastro — Angela Collier
Astrophysics, science communication and random rants
Her videos are great
I feel like Markiplier keeps improving, over time his videos have cut out a lot if padding and fluff that was the standard in old school let's plays, but it's not a smash cut fest like some newer youtubers are.
He also is diversifying his mediums, like the movie that he's currently making (not a "youtuber movie", an actual movie adapted off the game Iron Lung).
The only real controversy of his that I can think of was when he stood up for PewDiePie when he said the n-word. Mainly because they were friends. With how many years he's been going I'm surprised there's not more.
The only real controversy of his that I can think of was when he stood up for PewDiePie when he said the n-word.
Interesting. I thought that since that happened they no longer in touch
I don't know if they are in touch or not, but I just remember an impassioned video of Mark shaming the growing hate group on Pewds around that incident. He talked like a stern father.
I don't know what their status was after that, maybe he quietly cut ties after the Nazi suit or the Fiver incident, that would be the wise thing.
Hey all! Scott here
Scott needs to go back to making 12 minute videos. I can't deal with 45 minute - 2 hour long videos of him talking about the Virtual boy.
A lot of the old "Golden Age" League of Legends content creators have moved on to making really good content about other topics and games. Basically Dunkey and everyone who was at one point accused of being a Dunkey clone lol
Dunkey obviously still makes content and it's still good. I've never personally been a huge fan of the short length goofy one off gag style of his but I know people still really like his content.
Skooch does miscellaneous other games now (mostly Mario and sonic lately) but the content is the best it's ever been
Bricky does Warhammer mostly but also makes long form analyses of big AAA titles that are sequels to franchises from the 360 days
Keyori (now Barny/Maddy) rebranded, transitioned, and now makes literally the best World of Warcraft content I've ever seen
FrostPrime streams I know but I think his YouTube is literally exclusively just stream VODs now.
Outside of that group I still get a kick out of Game Grumps 10 years later but I know the old school let's play thing isn't really for everyone. Also Alpharad still makes good content, though lately it's been a lot of mid, sponsored or otherwise kinda forced out stuff.
The Dungeon Dudes are always solid if you want DnD content. Even their episodes where you wouldn't expect great talking points they somehow pull it off.
Bobby Fingers. Drunk Mel Gibson has quickly become a classic amongst my friends.
https://youtube.com/@bobbyfingers
Probably one of the most creative and talented makers I have ever had the pleasure of coming across. Every single thing he's done has been fucking hilarious to boot.
Welp, there goes several dozen hours or more of my free time.
Well, after looking through, I saw that some of my favorites are not on here.
Kraut: makes well thought out video essays on politics, history, culture and everything in between. He also tells you his reading list that went into making a particular video.
Adam Something: bit of politics, bit of urban planning, bit of shitting on Elon Musk, bit of shitting on stupid ideas.
The Great War: started in 2014 doing week by week of the first world War, 100 years after it began. Now is doing a similar series on the second world War.
The Operations Room: breaks down historical military operations minute by minute, incredible level of detail.
Korean Englishman/ Jolly: Josh and Ollie a couple of British guys introduce korean food to people and on Jolly they go get into other foods and hijinks
Townsend: showing what life was like in early colonial America
Nothing to add here, but wanted OP to know I saved this post for all the good info people are giving.
Cooking
https://youtube.com/@foodwishes?si=yI4JtmUn50uBBHTq Chef John is a treasure, every recipe I've followed of his has been a banger! Highly recommend
Guitar related
https://youtube.com/@EricHaugenGuitar?si=Ey2YYsjMmoss8XWE Eric Haugen is a fantastic guitar player/teacher, I love his mellow Bob Ross-esque vibe
https://youtube.com/@PhillipMcKnight?si=oHF6ndW08Z4uP9KU Philip McKnight is the god of the guitar gear heads. Has a ton of great videos showing how to do simple guitar repairs, reviewing gear etc.
Comedy/pop culture
https://youtube.com/@commentiquette?si=_s6NoLnG3oDCNPmz Internet comments etiquette is a hilarious channel that teaches how to leave respectful comments in this increasingly hostile and confusing online world.
https://youtube.com/@RedLetterMedia?si=el68vpczG7nP9JvF Red Letter Media - movie/tv critics with great skits and characters. Maybe the best thing on YouTube IMO
Board Games
https://youtube.com/@shutupandsitdown?si=WBR9bWjHv8-NbyaR Really great board game reviews, I've found a bunch of my favorite games here
Educational
https://youtube.com/@animagraffs?si=Dabm4scpS_pZEFFb Amazing 3d renders and walkthroughs of complex machines/systems. The video on the HMS Victory is inspired.
https://youtube.com/@ProfessorDaveExplains?si=j1_aVPIv7onfSuk4 Professor Dave does science education, great videos on many topics.
Motorcycles
https://youtube.com/@FortNine?si=GXooYCKjCYaMPgPF FortNine puts out the best moto content I've found on the Internet.
Wendigoon, he doesn't post as frequently as a lot of others but his videos are like an hour long and he researches the fuck out of a subject. He did one about the unabomber recently that he had to break into a two partner because one part was just an hour long interview with the lead FBI investigator on the case.
Anton Petrov
Kurzgezagt - In a Nutshell
- 3balsue1brown
- Kathy Loves Physics & History. I like that she stays in her lane and hasn't deviated from electricity and history.
- freecodecamp, each video is a course that's several hours long.
Too many to name. I'm easily on YouTube 2+ hours each day and there's not exactly lack of quality content
He posts infrequently but Sean Hodgins videos keep getting better. Don't let the thumbnails fool you, he puts a ton of work into them. It's hard to describe, it's mostly him showing off his projects but they have an analogue/80s cyberpunk feel in the way he tells his story, the music that's played, and how he edits the videos together.
Would like to throw in Atomic Frontier, he makes on-location video essays about random science and engineering topics that are edited with great supporting infographics
A few I haven't seen show up yet:
- Brick Immortar, bunch of good videos on maritime incidents
- Maritime Horrors, same category as above, great quality stuff
- Pulsar, Lemmino-style documentaries
Posy, I am surprised at que quality of his videos, they are incredibly artistic
XboxAhoy (The channel name is just Ahoy)
A few comes to mind.
Ordinary Things is great and Michael Fisher is good and usually doesn't hype stuff up.
Calum https://youtube.com/@CalumRaasay
Barely Sociable https://youtube.com/@BarelySociable
Bright Sun Films https://youtube.com/@BrightSunFilms
Code Bullet https://youtube.com/@CodeBullet
Jet Lag: The Game https://youtube.com/@jetlagthegame
Half As Interesting https://youtube.com/@halfasinteresting
Mustard https://youtube.com/@MustardChannel
PaperWill https://youtube.com/@PaperWill
Peter Dibble https://youtube.com/@peterdibble
RetroBytes https://youtube.com/@RetroBytesUK
Ringway Manchester https://youtube.com/@RingwayManchester
Ruairidh MacVeigh https://youtube.com/@rorymacve
SideNote https://youtube.com/@SidenoteChannel
TheEpicNate315 https://youtube.com/@TheEpicNate315
Tom Scott https://youtube.com/@TomScottGo
Techmoan https://youtube.com/@Techmoan
Wendover Productions https://youtube.com/@Wendoverproductions
i think AVGN still posts quality, especially since its been almost 20 years of AVGN. but it depends on who you ask
Rctestflight
Cranktown city
This old Tony
And a few more but those are my favorites.
Haven't seen it listed so here I present..
My Mechanics
Swiss guy restores random stuff to better than new. Posts about 4 or 5 times a year, but the quality is up to 11
I make a new one
Stumpt. Despite having 540k subs, they aren't one of the super high energy balls to the walls energy where every 5 seconds they zoom in on a small part of the video. They usually have a much more calm energy about them and one thing I really like is how they aren't telling you to like and subscribe every few minutes, let alone at all in their videos usually.
Robbaz on the rare yearly upload
Crime Pays but Botany Doesn't
A low brow approach to botany and ecology through the ramblings of a crass Chicago Italian. Nowhere else will you find a full frontal milkweed pollination or see a San Francisco portapotty botanized.
I think Addy Valentine is the most underappreciated YouTuber when compared to his production quality.
Less than 4k subscribers, but without a doubt the highest quality videos in the entire Game Developer section of YouTube.
Linus Tech Tips, Good Mythical Morning, Tom Scott, CGP Grey, Moxie2D, The Stupendium, Phillip DeFranco, Trainer Tips, Element Animations
MKBHD makes high quality tech videos in terms of production value. I find him a bit boring but he hasn’t changed much over the years.
Xyla Foxlin, Colin Furze and Simone Giertz are still great maker channels.
Kurzgesagt, Tom Scott, The Action Lab, Steve Mould, Primer, 3Blue1Brown and Cleo Abram (Huge If True) are good science channels.
David Bennett Piano if you want to learn music theory.
MKBHD is mostly an ads channel
David Bennett Piano if you want to learn music theory.
I'll admit, this person made me become a Radiohead fan, haha
Davie504
Beau Miles. He is just so different. His content really challenges my cynicism.
internet shaquille
cooking videos
OMG, you just made my day! I watched Internet Shaquille years ago and really enjoyed him but never subscribed. Then I forgot his name and have tried many times to find him again using the few things I remembered from his videos. Never found him though. And now, you posted that little name and I instantly recognized it, thank you so much :D
Some I haven't seen after scrolling for a while
Maangchi - she made me fall in love with Korean food
Future Canoe - only if you want radioactive chicken
Explanation Point - mostly reviews anime. Good style, recovered incel
Scamboli Reviews - mostly reviews anime also, IDK
Joov (IDK is he high quality)
North of the Border - umm clay art. Just watched reverse centaur, it was a thing indeed
Unresolved Textual Tension - book reviews, I'm here for Will's sass but Maria and Katie are good too
Ordinary Sausage - actually extraordinary
John Maclean - I wish I was as pretty as he is
Steve Mould - my son says he is "Steve Mould the science gold" (to the tune of Bill Nye)
I'm probably missing somebody but this is a good weird list
Jerma985
Allec Joshua Ibay
Air crash reconstruction using flight simulator. No fluff, no unnecessary dramatization, no bullshit. Has been going due years and years with the exact same formula.
Simplicity is best. Thank you!
Not as frequent in posting as he used to be, but Todd in the Shadows is a pop music reviewer who also makes interesting videos talking about the careers and context of one hit wonders and career killing albums.
Worth a Buy
Carefree Wandering
Social critique, critical theory, postmodern theory, theory of media, from a Daoist, Luhmann, and sometimes Marxist perspective.
Potholer54 is still active, he also doesn't almsk for money for him but for charity projects instead
Oboeshoes gaming
Chuggaconroy has been around forever yet he's only gotten better with time, despite only doing let's plays.
There's a lot of great channels though, it depends what you're looking for.
mental outlaw
There's a good number of them, but the only one I haven't seen mentioned in this list is Ordinary Things. Only a monthly video, but they're good.
My favourite series:
timmm has very underrated video game reviews imo
Grimbeard.
He does game reviews mostly. Dude is funny and puts a visible effort into his work quality.
Kruggsmash
Lowko- StarCraft 2 Cows are evil - Stationeers
Isaac Arthur
dankpods
5 mad movie makers - always good slow motion Lego or brio railway stuff.
I'd argue that none can claim to be high quality if they use tons of ads. I just can't stand this sort of thing, and YouTube's own paid system doesn't block them all.
This said, my (free) adblockers currently work, and they block the sponsored stuff as well. When they work, I still really enjoy Kurzgesagt videos. They are excellent.
Ashens has been the most stable and consistent thing in my life since 2008.
Fundie Fridays puts out enjoyable, quality content. They're is a little more "low budget" but good quality and they discuss right-wing extremism and Christian fundamentalism.
I am not really a huge car guy but I really enjoy Savage Geese, they put out high quality content.
My mechanics. ---Et voilà!
Cambrian Chronicles: Welsh history
I'm a big fan of illwillpress foamy forever.
Some More News Quality news show with very not safe for work humor
VlogBrothers John and Hank Green post short videos twice a week and talk about almost anything. Recently they helped make tuberculosis medicine more accessible in poor countries.
Dr Becky Astrophysicist talks Astrophysics
Numberphile Math for the masses
Veritasium Derek shows off science and engineering and psychology and stuff
BriTANick Comedy videos that come out once a year or so.
Arizona Ghostriders Easy fun videos about the old west
The Engineer Guy Bill Hammock exploring the world of engineering
C&Rsenal Very deep dives into old military firearms and their design and production history
Illinois Energy Professor David Ruzic talks about different energy systems, like nuclear, solar, and the real-world considerations involved
Lindybeige Loyd enjoying himself thoroughly
We're certainly spoiled with the amount of wonderful videos people are out there making!
Explosions&Fire and its sister channel ExtractionsAndIre
The person who makes these science videos does it in such an entertaining and funny way that you forget that it's a science channel. He uses homemade tools and chemicals to make explosions and fire and SO much more…
The best part is that he puts his videos up, no matter if he fails or not. In fact, he fails more times than not on ExtractionsAndIre. I've been watching him for years and years, and any day that he posts a new video is a wonderful day.
Undoubtedly, he's been my inspiration to muddle through chemistry experiments without the proper background nor proper safety equipment.
Kitboga’s my touchstone
i've always been a fan of yes theory.
and a similar one called anton is here.
Outdoor Boys
Some big ones have been mentioned here, but to fill in some I think were missed: Gamer's Nexus (best example of ethical tech journalism out there, been the source of some major exposés in the tech industry); Overanalyzing Avatar (Gives honest takes with a unique and humorous perspective on the ATLA and related series); SortedFood (British cooking show with a focus on avoiding food waste by a bunch of friends, a few of whom are Michelin chefs); Spiffing Brit (Exploits and breaks games in a hilarious fashion, genuinely brilliant, loves tea); ZeFrank (Animal TrueFacts channel); Potato McWhiskey (I hope you like Civ VI, one of the best players out there); Viva La Dirt League (Does live skits based on video game and employment tropes); Ididathing (Guy makes wacky but insanely dangerous contraptions); NileRed (Bonkers brain here, has actually turned Paint Thinner into Cherry Soda and other ridiculous chemistry) .
I grew up watching pewdiepie playthroughs. Then when I was in my late teens early 20s he went too edgy and I lost interest.
He has changed dramatically since. He's content is very wholesome again, he's now a father (wth) and he's living in Japan. I looove their Japan vlogs. So much so that it gave me the confidence to visit Japan this year... Twice.
If you are into watches then I would say Watchbox reviews is the best. Tim Mosso there is the best host I've come across in the watch space.
I like longer form videos, and humor of "the old Internet" so here's some channels that still make long videos that aren't filled zoomer click bait. In no particular order. This is from memory, I'm too lazy to make these into links. Also I'm sure there are others I can't think of.
Our own devices
- This channel stands out because it's relatively new but it feels like a channel that should have millions of subs. Long videos about retro tech and tech history
Forgotten weapons
- history of firearms. Longer format videos.
LGR
- retro computers and old PC games
Gman lives
- great gaming channel that reminds me of the era of TotalBiscuit. Good long videos about new and old videos games.
RedletterMedia
- this channel is the Midwestern TopGear of B movie reviews.
GamersNexus
- best source of PC tech news
Level1Techs
- best source of general tech news and has a lot of PC gaming and tinkering content.
RegularCarReviews
- funny car reviews. Format hasn't changed in over 10 years.
Second wind
- new channel. The crew that made all good videos on escapist (zero punctuation) left and made their own channel to keep doing the same thing.
Spanian.
Thuderf00t
VShojo? 😛
None
I see a distinct lack of proper internet comment etiquette in this thread. I am entirely unable to bounce on my boy’s dick to this.
Wow, I apparently also see a distinct lack of people who have heard of https://lemmy.world/comment/6120188
Some people just aren't educated about big money salvia
Lolol everyone bitching about paying for YouTube meanwhile listing the hundreds of hours of content available in content. Good stuff.