YouTube Diamond Play Button

The Diamond Play Button came on the scene with a bang in 2015. It was well set up for success by its siblings, the Silver and Gold Play Buttons – one hundred thousand and one million subscriber milestones, respectively. 

Fanfare around these awards was already well established. Creators commonly share these milestones with their audiences in “unboxing” videos. The Silver and Gold awards are brushed metal plaques. As many larger channels were hitting two, five and even ten million subscribers, the question loomed: “what comes next?” Content creators and watchers alike speculated what the next honor could look like and how many subscribers it would take to receive.

As YouTube’s highest honor, the Diamond Play Button enjoys a healthy following despite being so rare. The award is made from pure, solid aluminum, which is formed into the shape of YouTube’s logo but with a unique faceted face. The surfaces are polished to a mirror-chrome finish, which along with a central crystal play button give the award an impressive luster. The custom trophy was designed and crafted by luxury award brand, Society Awards.

The Diamond Play button was revealed at VidCon 2015 as the award in recognition of 10 million subscribers. At that time, 35 channels had already surpassed this milestone. As more channels began receiving this illustrious award, each found a unique new way to broadcast the achievement to their wide audiences. A particularly notable example is Jimmy Fallon, who announced this win on The Tonight Show.