How Ryan Trahan Really Became So Famous On YouTube

If the name Ryan Trahan rings a bell, it probably is because of his penny challenges or his fun racing content. Whatever the case may be, Trahan sure has amassed a big YouTube following: with 11.4 million followers, he's about 8 million away from Gordon Ramsay as of this writing. According to Social Blade, Trahan currently ranks 174th in the US, 163rd in the entertainment rank, and 281st in the subscribers rank. And his star is only continuing to rise: In 2022, he won Breakout Creator at the Streamys. 

The vlogger is, of course, known for his creative challenges, but there's no doubt he's got a major philanthropic side; Trahan uses YouTube to raise money for various organizations. During an interview with Anthony Padilla, Trahan said it is his Christianity that has inspired him to go out into the world and do good. "Now it's all about everyone else. It's really hard to feel stressed whenever that's the case," he said. "It's not to say that things won't be hard, I understand that. It's just crazy how shifting your heart to others instead of 'what can they do for me,' has been wild." 

So, how did he become a force to be reckoned with on YouTube? Here's how Ryan Trahan became so famous. 

In 2015, Ryan Trahan got his start on YouTube with his "PSA: Drink Water" video. After that, he started vlogging about track meets, training, and how to run faster. At the beginning of these early vlogs, Trahan would ask people to subscribe — and clearly, people listened to his requests.

His old videos racked up between 100K and 150K views, whereas nowadays he has videos with over 16 million views. His channel has grown, but Trahan — unlike some YouTubers who may want to scrub their old content from the internet — has kept his old videos up. It's safe to assume he hasn't forgotten where he started or the support of fans who have been there since day one.

His YouTube content became a bit of a problem when he was running for Texas A&M, however. Evidently, the NCAA had an issue with him using his YouTube channel to promote his water bottle company and his running career. After meeting with the compliance team, he told Sports Illustrated, "I am allowed to have a collegiate running alias (with no promotion) and a personal business alias (with no collegiate running), but they must be separate accounts on all platforms. It blows my mind that I have to put up a wall between my two personas. We are working on filing a formal waiver request." In the end, Trahan left Texas A&M to run his business.

After growing up without grandfathers, Ryan Trahan decided he wanted Dr. Phil to legally become his grandpa. And through YouTube, he tried to make that dream a reality. In 2021, he asked Dr. Phil's agent if she could connect him with the TV host. In classic Ryan Trahan style, he presented Dr. Phil's agent with a challenge: "If I pass him in YouTube subscribers would you allow me to contact him?" The agent agreed and Trahan went for it. In February 2022, he explained in a video that he was still working toward the goal of exceeding Dr. Phil's follower account. 

A few months later, Trahan achieved his goal, and Dr. Phil's team arranged a meeting. In April 2022, the YouTuber traveled to Los Angeles to finally interview Dr. Phil. It should come as no surprise that Trahan vlogged everything from the moment he got on the plane to the moment the two got together and Dr. Phil drove him around the studio lot in a golf cart.

On an episode of "Colin and Samir," Trahan reflected on the important meeting. "We set out on this pretty dumb idea and the audience rallied behind it and it was fun. It wasn't really that groundbreaking or world-changing, but it was just like, 'that was awesome.'" And as for Trahan's dream of becoming Dr. Phil's grandson? "He didn't agree to be my grandpa, but that would've been weird for me to ask that," he said. Fair enough.

Emma Chamberlain started her YouTube journey in 2017 and, like Ryan Trahan, has over 11 million subscribers. She is known for her candid vlogs, her honesty about her acne journey, her unique and outgoing personality, and, of course, her fashion. With her fame and her passion for coffee, she launched her own coffee brand.

In April 2018 Trahan had an idea: he would recreate some of Chamberlain's Instagram posts, share some of the photos on IG, and share the behind-the-scenes content on YouTube. "I copied @_emmachamberlain's Instagram for a week LMAO watch my new vid on YT to see the other remakes! they're kinda s*** but the video makes up for it. (edit: she saw it)," he wrote on Instagram. After that, his subscribers and views increased, probably bringing in Chamberlain fans who wanted to see how he imitated their favorite YouTuber.

"She's pretty funny. And, not trying to flex on you guys right now, but one time she DMed me back so I'd say things are moving kinda fast," he joked in his video. Trahan went out to buy the clothes Chamberlain was wearing in every photo and he admitted it had been a tough challenge and was happy to have his friends with him.

Ryan Trahan's YouTube career became entangled with his personal life when he married Haley Pham, a fellow YouTuber. And as he told Anthony Padilla, they connected at — where else? — a convention for content creators. "Tell me why I met her at VidCon, c'mon," he laughed." That's such a Gen Z love story."

Pham became part of several of Trahan's videos as soon as they began dating, and her appearances became more common as the two started sharing a roof and a dog. In May 2020, in true Trahan nature, he vlogged his proposal with the help of common friends. "I'm gonna propose to the love of my life. Okay, let's do this," he said before sharing footage of the proposal. Their wedding took place on November 8, 2020.

The lovebirds sure seem to work well together, and their cute content has brought in the views. Pham has been a part of several of Trahan's videos, including "I Hid Fake Pictures In My Fiancee's Camera Roll," "Surprising Fiancée With Dream Car... Sort Of," and "I made a vlog in 1990s." The combination of these videos has racked up over 2 million views, allowing Trahan to continue growing his YouTube empire. He has also appeared in many of Pham's videos doing book challenges with her, training her for a marathon, and surprising him during his penny challenge series.

Ryan Trahan has been very savvy about the content he chooses to post, and as chill as he may be, he takes audience numbers seriously. "I would be a lunatic to say they don't [affect me] because I have people that depend on me financially," he admitted to Anthony Padilla. "You realize, I would be a bad friend even if I steered the channel in a way that isn't strategic." One strategy that's clearly worked out for him? His challenge videos. And as one of his challenge videos proved, a 30-second clip can do major numbers. 

In January 2022, he posted his "Racing strangers in the airport" video in which he explains he is afraid of autowalks in airports. So, he decided to turn that fear lemon into content lemonade and race strangers on foot. While these strangers don't know it, Trahan is competing against them; they use the moving walkway and he matches or goes over their speed. In this particular clip, he goes head-to-head with an unsuspecting gentleman, and just when it seems like Trahan is going to be defeated, he pulls ahead and wins. Trahan also won a boatload of views — 74 million, to be exact. Even the smallest of challenges bring the largest audiences.

Ryan Trahan has always been smart about his YouTube channel, but has also been able to use this platform to grow his career as an entrepreneur by founding two businesses. The first one was the Neptune Project, which his LinkedIn shows he is the owner of. The brand's goal is to protect the oceans and that is why they have created a reusable bottle. Five years ago, Trahan posted a video "How To Use A Neptune Bottle," showcasing the bottle could be used to make coffee and carry ice water.

The second business was Hydra Collective. In 2018, Trahan announced a new clothing collection on his Instagram. In 2019, he worked together with Vanguard Design Co to create a logo that would be less intricate and would allow for a better print on their apparel. "The new design still gets the message across of the double heads, the fact that it's a serpent, and I think it looks really good," he wrote.

After he posted about the line on Instagram, his subscribers began purchasing the clothing line — particularly the hoodies as the one on his photo — and it became the Trahan merch for fans.

With the amount of YouTubers out there, creating fresh content can be a challenge, and influencers must be smart about the kind of videos they shoot. Ryan Trahan seems to always be one step ahead of everyone, knowing the exact formula that works for him. Taking a look at some of his most popular videos, it feels like the number 100 is a lucky charm and has brought in millions of views.

He has done different 100 videos including "I Spent 100 Days in Grand Theft Auto," "I Invited 100 Celebrities To My Birthday," and "I Spent 100 Days in Pokémon." These three videos combined have over 30 million views. Each of them has a story connected to it, whether it is from his childhood and his grandma or celebrating his birthday — although the celebrities didn't show up, his real friends were there to celebrate with him thanks to his wife. "It's not about the blue check on your Instagram account. It's about the people that you can really be yourself with."

These sort of 100 videos seem to be what his audience enjoys the most. This becomes very obvious with comments like "I love how he turns every normal seeming video into a heart touching story," "Recently, Ryan's endings have been making me feel like I've watched a movie, they're so good," or "Your videos never fail to make me laugh."

In February 2021, Ryan Trahan posted a video about a new adventure involving Tesla and his pals. He and some friends split into two teams, climbed into one of two Teslas, and raced from Charlotte, North Carolina, to Los Angeles. The kicker: they could only use Tesla's Autopilot feature. The other kicker: the teams would have to stop and complete challenges along the route. Oh, and whoever won would get to keep the losing team's Tesla. 

The series consisted of three videos that showed different moments on the road, the challenges, and even blizzards in Arizona. After having to add a 10-minute setback to the finale for his team, Ryan's friends on the opposite team crowned themselves the winners at the beach. The Tesla autopilot race across the country racked up nearly 3 million views, and Trahan's channel continues to grow. It combined a world-renowned brand with Trahan's winning formula: a challenge and his friends.

Now, this was not the first time Trahan dipped his toe in the Tesla Autopilot content waters. In 2020, he went for a ride in a Tesla from Texas to Illinois and documented the journey (and all the charging station stops). And he once made good use of the Tesla Autopilot feature and had it drive through a drive-thru all by itself. Trahan once told CNN that he splurged on a Tesla because he had a feeling it would be good for the content, and that feeling sure seemed to work out for him.

In a 2022 interview with Creator Economics, Ryan Trahan acknowledged that the penny challenge series is the one that put him on the map and really started bringing in subscribers. "This is such a cool interesting format and I just kept doing it every year, some iteration of it. Then next think I know the one form this past year just completely blew up and went on trending," he said.

In March of 2020, at the peak of the pandemic, Trahan posted one "Turning $0.01 Into $1,000 In Isolation." After that video raked in 3 million views, Trahan decided to take the challenge even further and use 24 hours to figure out a series of trades that takes that penny all the way to $1,000. The video got over 18 million views, proving Trahan was onto something and his viewers wanted to see how far he could take one penny. So, in true Trahan nature, he kept it going and in April 2021 he survived for an entire week with only a penny. In order to do it, he gives himself two rules: every profit he makes must come from the penny and he can only buy stuff with the money he made from the penny.

As his channel grew, so did the penny challenge. So, he began the "I Survived On $0.01 For 30 Days" series. He vlogged for 30 days and the goal was to raise money for Feeding America. According to tubefilter, Trahan was able to raise over $1.3 million, providing 13.8 million meals.

After the success of his penny challenge across the country in 30 days and having gained over 190 million views, Ryan Trahan decided to take it a step further and do a speedrun of the penny challenge in New York. He realized during his summer travels he hadn't set foot on the commerce capital of the world, so it was time to give his challenge a try in the city that never sleeps.

In the end, Trahan was able to turn his penny into $20.60 and celebrate New York style after having been running around for an hour: "Enough for a New York hot dog and sensory overload in Times Square. I just gotta say there's nothing like taking a second to slow down in all the hustle and bustle." 

This latest adventure proves Trahan made the right choice by steering away from the content that first started his YouTube channel (his running and his valedictorian role in high school). "For the past year, since I feel like I've just been blessed with my channel having a revival with my penny series from this past summer, I've slowed down ... I'm in a position right now where I wanna create out of love and gift my audience something," he told Creator Economics, and that is exactly what he has been doing.