Methodology

Kurve records public numbers for Korean YouTube channels once a day. Every number comes from YouTube's official API (YouTube API Services). We never scrape web pages.

When is data updated?

Every tracked channel is refreshed once a day between 00:10 and 01:00 Korea time (KST). The "as of" time on a channel page is when we last fetched that channel. We learn about new videos from YouTube's upload notifications. Video views are refreshed every 3 hours for the first two days, then once a day.

Why are subscriber counts so round?

YouTube shows only the first three digits of a subscriber count. A channel with 31,284 subscribers is shown as 31,200. All subscriber numbers and rankings on Kurve use this public value, so bigger channels move in bigger steps. Channels above 1 million only change in steps of 10,000. For finer detail, look at views, which YouTube reports exactly.

Which channels do you track?

We automatically track channels with at least 1,000 subscribers whose country is set to South Korea, or whose name and description are mostly Korean. Channels submitted by visitors need at least 100 subscribers; if they are not Korean, they get a channel page but stay out of the rankings. Channels that hide their subscriber count are left out of rankings too. We find channels through YouTube's Korea trending chart, YouTube search, featured channels, YouTube channel IDs listed on Wikidata, and visitor submissions. Every channel is checked again through the YouTube API before tracking starts.

Who decides the topics?

A channel's topics are the topic categories YouTube assigns (topicCategories), translated as is. Kurve doesn't classify channels itself. Some channels have no topic, and one channel can have several.

How long is data kept?

Under YouTube API policy we keep daily records for the last 28 days only and delete anything older every day. That is why channel pages show up to four weeks of history. If YouTube allows longer retention, we will extend it.

What we don't show

• Channel earnings or ad revenue estimates
• Guesses about whether a channel is monetized
• Rankings that pit channels against each other on growth speed
• Donations (Super Chat)

These either need separate approval under YouTube API policy or can't be known accurately from public data.

What if a channel disappears?

When a channel is deleted or made private on YouTube, Kurve deletes all of its records at the next refresh. Channel owners can also file a removal request to delete the records and block the channel from being added again.

What about CHZZK and SOOP?

Stats for Korean live-streaming platforms are in the works. They will be shown separately and never merged with YouTube numbers.

Last updated September 26, 2026