How Much Is A YouTube Play Button Worth

As the YouTube awards hit their 10th anniversary this year, it is essential to discuss their worth in monetary terms and how it elevates the image of a channel.

After Google, YouTube is the most visited site in the US; according to a survey, a person spends about 19 minutes of the day on YouTube. With the constant audience on this platform, this has become a business platform for many people.

People from all over the world, may it be the people residing in villages of Africa, showing their architectural skills, or the people from the other end of the world vlogging about their culture, are getting rewarded and paid for their hard work.

The term ‘content creation’ on social platforms as an authentic source of income or an official occupation is hard to swallow for many parents whose kids find YouTube more important than school or college. Nevertheless, a large part of the upcoming generation of US, also known as the Gen-Z, have placed an unsurmountable faith in careers on YouTube.

As the hopes of popularity and showcasing talents meet the profit for a channel, it becomes harder to leave YouTube and go back to a 9-to-5 job. One reason for attraction to YouTube is its policy of giving rewards to content creators. This trend started a decade ago and has become one of the well-esteemed honors for YouTubers.

Table of Contents

What Is The History Of The Play Buttons?

When they achieve a specific milestone in terms of subscribers, YouTube awards the channels a YouTube Play Button. People might imagine that this means having a different play button to play videos for that channel, but no, this is a plaque, a physical model resembling a play button.

Society Awards, an American company responsible for making high-profile awards like the Emmys or the Golden Globe Awards, was also tasked with manufacturing the YouTube Creator Awards.

YouTube introduced the first YouTube Creator Award, a Gold Play Button, in VidCon 2012. Then, in the subsequent year, the silver play button got introduced. In comparison, the diamond button made its appearance in 2015.

However, it isn’t at the top in recent years since the custom creator play buttons like Ruby Play Button and then a Red Diamond rank above the diamond.

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How Much Is the Silver YouTube Play Button Worth

The first YouTube Play Button awarded to YouTubers is the Silver Play Button, a silver plaque that says, “Presented to (the name of the channel) For Passing 100, 000 subscribers.” In addition to the button, there is a letter addressed by the CEO of YouTube.

This Play Button is one of the hardest ones to achieve because going from nothing to something requires a lot of patience, hard work, and creative work to engage the audience and let your presence be known as a creator on YouTube.

There are at least 300,000 channels that have received this award to this date.

Monetary Worth of Silver Play Button

The Silver Play Button is a plaque mostly made of nickel and some percentages of carbon and zinc. Unlike the popular misconception that the button is made of pure silver, the award has little to no traces of the element.

So, the monetary worth of the silver play button can be a few hundred dollars. Usually, the first button is for free, but if you want another copy of the award, you have to appeal for it. After deeming the reason worthy, the play button is sold.

Now, if you compare this to the fake ones selling like hotcakes online, the values show a significant difference. You might also find people selling their actual buttons for prices between $400-800. Even the fake ones have a sale value of thousands of dollars.

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How Much Is the Gold YouTube Play Button Worth

The Gold YouTube Play Button is a year older than the silver one, and YouTube awards this to the channel with 1000,000 subscribers. The gold plaque with a shiny play sign in the top middle of it says, “Presented to (the name of the channel) For Passing 1000 000 subscribers.”

After claiming the silver button, content creators are a bit relaxed, and it takes more time to reach the goal of one million subscribers. Today only 29,000 channels have the gold play button.

The more prominent and stylish plaque represents more appreciation and gratitude for staying active on the platform.

Monetary Worth of Gold YouTube Play Button

The Gold Play Button is a gold-plated brass plaque. Its resale value is currently at around 1000 dollars on eBay. However, the manufacturing cost by YouTube is not officially disclosed. At the same time, people can buy fake buttons and replicas of good quality for around $50-100.

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How Much Is the Diamond YouTube Play Button Worth

The Diamond Play Button was initially a plaque as well, but in 2017 the plaque was discontinued. Now a new stylish button body is awarded to 1000,000 subscribers. The road from 1 million to 10 million subscribers is a long road, and it takes years to achieve one.

The ratio of the channels receiving is very low. About 1000 channels are only granted the diamond play button.

Monetary Worth of Diamond YouTube Play Button

The silver-plated three-dimensional play button looks like a giant paperweight. It has a play-shaped crystal in the middle of the button. When Brownlee received the diamond award, he explained that the button was made of aluminum and then plated with silver.

The Youtubers hardly sell the diamond YouTube play buttons, but the replicas are available online for $10,000.

How to Achieve the Red Diamond Play Button

At first, YouTube would award a custom creator award to 50 million subscribers; however, only after three channels got it did YouTube remove the option. Now only the Red Diamond Play Button is the next option after Diamond, which is at 100 million subscribers.

Only PewDiePie, T-Series, Cocomelon, MrBeast, and SET India are awarded the Red Diamond Play Button. The YouTube Channels PewDiePie (Ruby fist), T-series (Crystal Play Button), and Canal Kondzilla (multicolored Play Button) were the only ones to receive custom creator awards; however, YouTube discontinued these custom creator awards for 50 million subscribers.

The channels which got custom awards had some of the content themes of the channel integrated into it to personalize them.

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Criteria for Achieving a Play Button

YouTube doesn’t grant the awards easily; although it doesn’t ban the channels unless reports are registered against it, the channels featuring the horror genre or showcasing extremist political agendas are not eligible for the Play Buttons.

The Creator Awards are now worth millions if their monetary value of manufacturing cost is set aside and the physiological value is under consideration alone. People are paying hundreds of dollars to get fake ones and fame by placing them in their videos.

Although one might think, what is the reason behind buying fake ones or from other creators? The reason is the demanding criteria a channel must follow even after reaching the subscriber milestone.

After a creator has passed the milestone, YouTube emails them about claiming the Play Button. After the creator requests it, the panel that judges the creator’s content decides whether to award the creator or not. If the creator passes this stage, they are eligible for the award, and then YouTube parcels the Play Button to the creator.

Below are the criteria that a channel must follow:

No copyright strikes on the channel; it means a channel must not steal the other creator’s content. A proper procedure for using another person’s content is to ask permission from the original creator. If they allow the use, one must ensure it by giving credits in the video or its description. However, this must not be a regular thing because an award is only provided for the original content of a channel.
Following the community guidelines when creating content is essential. A creator must not spread hate toward any community or sexually inappropriate content. There are many other guidelines as well that must be taken into consideration to avoid the ban or removal of the content.
Automation Engagement, better known as fake audience and likes/dislikes using the bots, is officially banned by every court in the US. Using bots to create a phony illusion of popularity and fame to get subscribers is unethical, and YouTube takes strict action against it. Not only is the channel removed, but the creator is also banned, so the idea of getting a YouTube Play Button is a far cry.

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How To Improve Your YouTube Channel Content

These are some guidelines that you can follow to keep your channel alive and increase viewership without using any other expensive marketing method or hiring professionals.

how much is a YouTube diamond play button worth

1. Search for Trending Content on YouTube

You can increase internet traffic towards your content by using the trending keywords in your title and alluring the audience toward yourself. However, always make content about the topic that you have chosen.

Don’t use clickbait because it may boost your viewership but will have a negative impact in terms of the number of subscribers.

2. Make A Connection

The second thing most successful YouTubers have done to reach their milestones is communicate with their commentators. We do not suggest you reply to every comment, but to ensure that those viewers see the next video, the YouTuber has to answer some comments and like them.

The witty, quirky, humorous ones always get the attention and steadily build up their audience.

3. Give The Channel A Vibe

After deciding which niche you are sticking to, for the time being, change the aesthetics of the channel. This would include the music at the start or end of the video, graphics according to that content, and maybe if you are bringing yourself onto the camera every day, you can opt for a new wardrobe and the welcome address.

The more exclusive is your brand image, the more popularity and loyalty you will gain from your followers.

4. Video Quality

Most creators do not have the right equipment to shoot the videos, a nice set, or an aesthetically pleasing house corner. Well, viewers can forget every other aspect except for the right lens.

The viewers really struggle to look past this. When the world is so polished to see the 1080 quality, then a 240p will have tough competition unless the content is so out of the world.

5. Learn How To Tell A Story

Using a well-woven story is the only way to motivate a viewer to view your video. The art of storytelling is an important lesson which is a skill that schools brush upon a little in elementary school.

However, this skill comes in handy when you need to grab someone’s attention and let them get lost in your story; that is when the viewers start to look forward to the upcoming content.

6. Stick To The Upload Schedule

If there were a rule book for content creators, this rule would be on the first page. Never dilly dally with your schedule, especially when you have announced it.

One of the reasons YouTuber Liza Koshy became the fastest YouTuber to reach the 10 million club in 2017 was that she had a norm to post a new video each Wednesday. This created anticipation in the audience about what she would come up with next week.

Many other ways are yet to be discovered because the attention span of this generation is so minute that it has become unpredictable. However, these are some guaranteed techniques that can boost your viewership.

Conclusion

Making authentic and innovative content increases the subscribers and the pay for a YouTuber this also makes them eligible for the YouTube Play Button Award. The resale values of these Play Buttons may vary depending upon the seller’s demand. There can be no market price attached to the worth of these awards since the award itself is worthless for those who did not earn it from the original panel of judges.