The Economist YouTube Stats

@theeconomist · News & Politics · Updated Nov 7, 2026

The Economist channel overview

The Economist (@theeconomist) is a YouTube channel in the News & Politics niche created in 2009. It has 4.2M subscribers and 603M total views across 1.7K videos, an average of 362K views per video over its lifetime.

Its last 30 uploads averaged 307K views, and a typical video (the median) gets 148K views. Over the last 12 months, The Economist published 43 videos (28% Shorts), and 8 of them (19%) reached at least 3× the channel's typical views.

How much does The Economist make?

Returbe estimates The Economist's YouTube ad revenue at $13K – $54K per month. The estimate uses an RPM (revenue per 1,000 views, after YouTube's share) of $1.6 to $6.38, typically $3.19, based on the channel's niche, audience language and the share of its views coming from Shorts. At that rate, 1 million long-form views earn about $3.2K.

Ad revenue is only part of the picture: sponsorships, affiliate links, memberships and merch often pay more than ads. Learn how RPM varies by niche in how much YouTubers make per 1,000 views, or check any channel with the free monetization checker.

Upload schedule

The Economist publishes about 23.9 videos a month. Based on its last 43 uploads, its most common upload day is Tuesday (26% of uploads), usually around 06:00 UTC. The last video went out on Nov 7, 2026.

The Economist's best outlier videos

An outlier is a video that beats the channel's own typical views. These are The Economist's biggest hits relative to its normal, the ideas its audience responded to most. What is an outlier video?

• The full-length interview with Yuval Noah Harari | The Economist2.1M views · Sep 8, 202614.2× typical views
• Republicans are losing their grip on Texas | The Economist1.4M views · Oct 28, 202610.9× typical views
• AfD co-leader Alice Weidel on Ukraine, migration and Germany’s future | The Economist1.4M views · Oct 24, 20269.5× typical views
• Germany is “wrong” to finance Ukraine war: Alice Weidel interview | The Economist1.3M views · Oct 17, 20268.8× typical views
• Will Japan bring down the world economy? | The Economist880K views · Sep 8, 20265.9× typical views
• “Very high risk” Trump will escalate Iran war after midterms | The Economist805K views · Oct 31, 20265.4× typical views
• “Russia and Ukraine are inventing the future of war”: former Google CEO Eric Schmidt | The Economist538K views · Oct 8, 20263.6× typical views
• Nvidia is funding an AI boom. Will it trigger a financial crash? | The Economist503K views · Oct 8, 20263.4× typical views

Latest videos

13 of The Economist's last 30 uploads did at least 1.5× the channel's typical views.

• Trump economist: tariffs are “a success” | The Economist1.5K views · Nov 7, 20260× typical views
• How will the Democrats wield their power? | The Economist23K views · Nov 7, 20260.2× typical views
• Midterms 2026: is Trump over?253K views · Nov 6, 20261.7× typical views
• Has Donald Trump caused a manufacturing revival? | The Economist26K views · Nov 6, 20260.2× typical views
• Is this the end of the Trump era? | The Economist60K views · Nov 5, 20260.5× typical views
• Which voters swung the most towards the Democrats? | The Economist130K views · Nov 4, 20261× typical views
• Are the midterm polls overestimating Democrats' support? | The Economist30K views · Nov 3, 20260.2× typical views
• The Kremlin has killed Russia’s last free newspaper110K views · Nov 2, 20260.8× typical views
• Has Donald Trump made Americans richer? | The Economist277K views · Oct 31, 20262.1× typical views
• “Very high risk” Trump will escalate Iran war after midterms | The Economist805K views · Oct 31, 20265.4× typical views

The News & Politics niche on YouTube

In the last 30 days, Returbe tracked 59K videos from 997 channels in this niche. 17% of them reached 3× their channel's typical views, and a typical long video got 16K views. Estimated RPM for the niche: $2 to $8.

Smaller channels breaking out in this niche right now: ESdiario TV (117K subs, best video 64.4×), BNN Bloomberg (188K subs, best video 224.3×), CP24 (383K subs, best video 36.3×), France 3 Grand Est (241K subs, best video 99.5×), NBC Montana (107K subs, best video 1375.8×), Onda Cero (421K subs, best video 140.7×).

Channels similar to The Economist

• Channel 4 News4.3M subscribers · 98K typical views
• Piers Morgan Uncensored4.5M subscribers · 760K typical views
• Tom Bilyeu4.6M subscribers · 195K typical views
• Associated Press4.7M subscribers · 17K typical views
• Channel 5 with Andrew Callaghan3.8M subscribers · 2.1M typical views
• FRONTLINE PBS | Official4.8M subscribers · 140K typical views
• ARTE5.1M subscribers · 65K typical views
• Bloomberg Originals5.2M subscribers · 353K typical views
• Democracy Now!3.4M subscribers · 177K typical views
• Investigation5.4M subscribers · 194K typical views
• Omar Agamy3.1M subscribers · 682K typical views
• ARTEde2.8M subscribers · 99K typical views

Frequently asked questions

Data from Returbe's index of YouTube channels, collected from public YouTube data. Earnings are estimates from views and RPM benchmarks, not figures from the channel. Returbe is not affiliated with The Economist or YouTube.