The YouTube Creator Awards, commonly known as the YouTube Play Buttons, are a gift from YouTube used to recognize its most popular channels.

These awards are based on the number of subscribers to a channel, but are offered at the sole discretion of YouTube. Each channel is reviewed before a prize is awarded to ensure that it follows the guidelines of the YouTube community. YouTube reserves the right to refuse to hand out a Creator Reward, which it had not previously awarded to certain horror or political channels, as well as to various critics.

Benefit Level

These levels do not include physical and announcement awards, but rather offer alternative benefits:

Graphite, for channels that reach or exceed 100 subscribers.
Opal, for channels that reach or exceed 1,000 subscribers. It is also one of the three requirements for applying to the YouTube monetization partner program, the other two being a minimum of 4,000 total viewing hours in the past 12 months and a review of channel content to determine eligibility. Monetized channels can also activate Super Chat, while game channels can also activate channel membership.
Bronze, for channels that reach or exceed 10,000 subscribers.

Awards

When a verified YouTube channel reaches a specific milestone and is considered eligible for a YouTube creator award, it receives a relatively flat trophy in a metal case with a YouTube play button symbol. The trophies are of different sizes: each button and plaque gets progressively with the number of subscribers of the chain.

There are currently three different tiers of rewards, plus a fourth and fifth that have been awarded a few times:

• Silver Creator Award
• Gold Creator Award
• Diamond Creator Award
• Custom Creator Award
• Red Diamond Creator Award

Download Play Button PNG images transparent gallery.