Korean YouTuber Kimpro had a breakout 2025, emerging as the most-viewed channel globally by beating out even the likes of MrBeast. But who or what exactly is Kimpro?
The channel is operated by two cousins and since joining YouTube in 2017, they’ve amassed over 117B views from their 3,752 videos, primarily made up of Shorts. Their most-watched Short has 830M views.
Kimpro was founded by former performance planner Kim Dong-jun. Teaming up with his cousin, influencer Yu Baek-hap, the channel quickly gained traction through a steady run of viral mukbangs and skits.
In March 2023, Yu Ha-young and Jeong Hee-rim joined the project, expanding operations under the banner ‘OK TEAM’. The group works within a structured team system, splitting planning, filming, on-camera roles, and editing, with most content produced collaboratively for the ‘Kimpro’ channel.
While the channel ranks ninth globally in terms of subscribers with 128M, 2025 saw Kimpro surge as the platform’s most-viewed, beating out second-place, Australian channel Double Date, by over 15M.
According to stat-tracking website Playboard, Kimpro amassed 77,533,148,491 views in 2025.
To put those numbers in perspective, MrBeast, the world’s most-subscribed YouTuber, had 38,131,172,923 channel views last year.
Kimpro makes bank off YouTube Shorts
Celebrating the news, Kimpro posted to YouTube thanking viewers for helping the channel reach the massive achievement.
“We owe this entirely to you,” he said. “In 2026, we’ll keep improving and continue to deliver consistently good content. Thank you for being with us.”
The success is also resulting in a fortune for the Koreans.
According to online marketing analytics site NoxInfluencer, Kimpro is estimated to bring in around 470 million Korean won (around $323,000 USD) per day, totaling more than 170 billion won ($117M USD) annually. These figures are only projections and can fluctuate based on ad formats, audience location, and other factors.
