I tried watching the DisneyCollectorBR channel, and I find it unwatchable.

I was surprised by how many views the top channels are getting weekly.

Chart Toppers

DisneyCollectorBR is in first place on the U.S. charts for its unprecedented 14th week in a row. The premiere YouTube destination for videos of of adults unboxing and playing with children's toys received a 6% bump in views to end the week with more than 94 million of them. Taylor Swift refuses to shake off her second place position. The international pop star's channel is still getting consistent plays and dipped an almost negligible 1% in views on the week to end just shy of 80.1 million.

Ariana Grande is next up in the #3 spot. The second international pop star in the Top 5 is bangin' into the top of the charts with no problem and more than 51.3 million views. BuzzFeed Video is up next in fourth place. The flagship YouTube channel for BuzzFeed's prolific viral video output received nearly 48.9 million views during the week.

And rounding out the Top 5 is PopularMMOs. The sole gaming channel at the top of the U.S. chart ended the week with nearly 46.1 million views.

Top Gainers

The honor of one of our Top Gainers in the U.S. this week goes to Ellen.

The YouTube home of Ellen DeGeneres' eponymous syndicated daytime talk show saw a 63% week-over-week in crease in views. Regularly scheduled dancing, celebrity interviews, and typical DeGeneres hijinks contributed to the uptick, but a scary prank on Nicki Minaj gave the channel its biggest boost. The screams from the hip hop star helped DeGeneres' channel end the week with more than 33 million views and in the #17 spot on the U.S. chart.

Channel Distribution

The top 50 most viewed U.S. YouTube channels this week amassed a total of 1,585,212,924 views. Here's the distribution of a few of those channels by multi-channel network:

• VEVO: 19 channels in the U.S. Top 50, with Taylor Swift topping out at #2.
• Maker Studios: 6 channels in the Top 50, with DisneyCarToys at #10.
• BuzzFeed, Fullscreen, NBCU: 2 channels each the Top 50, with BuzzFeed's BuzzFeed Video at #4, Fullscreen's PopularMMOs at #5, and NBCU's The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon at #11.

The YouTube Top 50 channels: 

http://tubefilter.com/2014/12/29/top-50-most-viewed-us-youtube-channels-12-16-14/

Some comments from my friend Todd who works at YouTube:

https://facebook.com/beaupre/posts/10152667481992992

Hawthorne Effect: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawthorne_effect