Which YouTuber swears the most?

Generating $29 billion in 2022, YouTube is one of the largest content platforms in the world – on average creators upload 2,500 videos per minute onto the site. The open-access nature of the platform allows for any creator to rise to popularity and have their videos seen by millions of people across the globe, especially by younger, more tech-savvy generations.

In traditional media, regulating bodies like Ofcom limit the amount of violence or bad language a show contains depending on the audience. Whilst YouTube does the same for certain topics, the majority of content is open for anyone to view. This can mean children are exposed to language that is inappropriate for their age, potentially hearing foul language that they wouldn’t hear in conventional media. It begs the question: which YouTubers swear the most?

To find out, Distinctly analysed the videos of over 150 of the largest YouTube channels, by subscriber count. By examining the transcript of each video, amounting to over 1,000,000 words, it was possible to determine the frequency with which they swear in their videos. This gave us the YouTubers that swear the most.

VanossGaming swears more than any other YouTube Star

With 25.9 million subscribers, Canadian YouTuber VanossGaming is one of the platform’s biggest gaming personalities. Real name Evan Fong, his career has since branched out to music production and DJing under the pseudonym ‘Rynx’, and has amassed a huge audience of predominantly younger viewers. Most of the 31-year-old’s videos take the format of a montage or compilation, and feature 76 swear words for every 1,000 words spoken on his channel — over double the rate observed for other content creators beyond the top four.

Popular live-streamer IShowSpeed ranks a close second among the most-swearing YouTubers, cursing 73 times for every 1,000 words spoken on his channel. The YouTuber, whose real name is Darren Watkins Jr, boasts over 22.5 million subscribers tuning in to witness his erratic outbursts. As a live-streamer, uploads are unable to be edited, and the result often produces an unfiltered profanity-fest.

Another YouTube megastar with no shortage of controversy, Jake Paul swears 69 times every 1,000 words, earning him third place on the list. Recently enjoying unprecedented success as one of the first ‘YouTube Boxing’ stars, the American social media personality found fame through Vine alongside brother Logan Paul. As a regular podcast guest and host of his own vlog-style channel, Paul has garnered a reputation as one of the platform’s more inflammatory proponents, and is regularly found stoking ‘beef’ with YouTube adversaries or boxing opponents.

Taking fourth place on the list, Wiz Khalifa might be a surprising addition. But, with an abundance of drug references featured in his ‘DayToday’ vlog series and Shorts, Wiz makes the top 5 most-sworn-in YouTube channels, with 57 swear words per 1,000 words. Videos document the rock star life of the rapper, and with YouTube likely to demonetise any video with controversial content, Wiz seems to be doing just fine without the extra income.

Coming in at 5th place, Gordon Ramsay’s colourful vocabulary needs no introduction. With 34 swear words per 1,000 words spoken, the celebrity chef’s R-rated tirades have become legend. With his channel showcasing some of the fieriest moments of his career, clips display Ramsay red-faced and berating hapless chefs, with a variety of insults you won’t find in a dictionary.

YouTube has come a long way since its release in 2005.  The platform’s shift to the longer-form videos popular on the platform has made it a genuine contender in the mainstream media landscape and comparable to more traditional media such as TV and film. With some creators spending up to a million US dollars per video, the sums of money involved are far from YouTube’s humble, amateur beginnings. 

Are there any consequences to swearing on YouTube?

A media network the size of YouTube does have established guidelines to warn creators of the potential consequences of their videos. Persistent swearing as well as politically charged topics or the use of language of a sexual nature can potentially lead to the demonetisation of videos all of which will affect a YouTuber’s revenue stream. YouTube does have a vulgar language policy, but this does not bar users from swearing, it only limits their potential to earn money from video ads.

YouTube’s content base continues to grow, with the projected amount of users rising each year. Since YouTube’s profanity rules have been relaxed, content creators can use profanity with little consequence, leading us to see a strong prevalence of this type of language among the platforms’ biggest stars, who swear as many as 76 times per 1,000 words spoken.

Given the largely unregulated access to the platform’s thousands of hours of content, is there an argument that the world’s largest and most viral creators should be held accountable for the language they use, in the same way a TV show or film would be? 

Methodology 

Distinctly took a list of 75 of the largest YouTube channels, by subscriber number, and scraped YouTube for a selection of their videos. The transcript of each video was then analysed using the computer processing language Python to determine the frequency with which they censor swearing in their videos. Channels aimed at young children, such as online kids’ TV shows or channels displaying highlights or clips from films or TV shows were discounted from the rankings.

Data correct as of November 2023.