The Diary Of A CEO becomes the most-subscribed podcast on YouTube's podcast charts

The Diary Of A CEO, the podcast hosted by British entrepreneur and investor Steven Bartlett, is the most-subscribed podcast on YouTube’s podcast charts, with 21.3 million YouTube subscribers on 1 November 2026, according to YouTube’s public subscriber counts.

The channel published 87 full-length video episodes between 1 January and 31 October 2026, in more than 20 languages, and recorded more than 1 billion YouTube views between 1 January and 30 October 2026, compared with about 399 million in the first ten months of 2025, according to FlightStory’s YouTube Studio data.

The milestone comes nine years after Bartlett began recording a personal audio diary in his bedroom in Manchester, using an inexpensive microphone and a sock as a makeshift pop shield. His early episodes attracted around 40 listeners, many of them friends.

The Diary Of A CEO began in 2017 as a show about Bartlett’s own experience of building a business, expanded into interviews. The podcast finally became consistent and began publishing full video episodes weekly on YouTube in 2020 as a pandemic passion project. Its conversations now span business, psychology, health, relationships, science, technology and global affairs.

Over the years, Bartlett has interviewed some of the world’s most recognisable figures, including Michelle Obama, former US Vice President Kamala Harris, Jada Pinkett Smith, Mel Robbins, Matthew McConaughey, MrBeast and US Vice President JD Vance.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy appeared on The Diary Of A CEO in an episode released on 22 October 2026. The conversation was recorded in Ukrainian with two human interpreters, and the interview has since been made available in more than 20 languages using AI voice technology, according to FlightStory. That conversation has now reached more than 7 million views, in just 10 days.

International audiences have become a significant part of the show’s growth. Nearly a quarter of The Diary Of A CEO’s YouTube views in 2026, about 261 million, were on audio tracks in languages other than English, led by Spanish, Russian, German, Portuguese and French, according to YouTube Studio data from FlightStory, which produces the podcast.

Independent rankings and awards for The Diary Of A CEO include:

• No.1 by average audience per episode in Podscribe’s podcast rankings for March 2026 (about 3.3 million estimated downloads and views per episode) and July 2026 (about 4.4 million).

• No.2 in Spotify’s global Top Podcasts list for 2025 (Spotify Wrapped, published 3 December 2025).

• The 2026 Webby Award for Individual Creator: Podcast, won by Steven Bartlett (April 2026).

• Best Business & Finance Podcast at the 2026 iHeartPodcast Awards (March 2026).

What began as Bartlett recording alone has grown into a production supported by a team of researchers, producers, guest bookers, editors and strategists, who keep developing and testing new ways to bring the conversations to audiences around the world.

Steven Bartlett said: "When I started The Diary Of A CEO, I was sitting in my bedroom in Manchester, recording into a microphone. About 40 people listened to those first episodes. It’s quite difficult to comprehend where it’s got to today.

"I’m incredibly proud of the people who make this show and grateful to everyone who chooses to spend their time with us. The moments that stay with me most are when somebody tells me that something they heard on the podcast has made a difference to their life.

"The show has changed so much over the years because my interests and curiosity have changed and it will continue to evolve as I move into different phases of my life. I also joke to my friends that they need to prepare for the parenting episodes if I’m fortunate enough to become a dad! Our focus has always been on what we call the “one percents” - how we can make the next conversation better, ask better questions and give people something genuinely valuable. That’s what we’re going to keep focusing on and we do feel like we’re just getting started.

“We owe an awful lot to our team, our guests our partners, and strategically, translating every episode of the show into more than 20+ languages has been an incredible unlock and allows us to reach the rest of the world.”

The Diary Of A CEO is produced by FlightStory, part of Steven.com, and is available on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts and all other major podcast platforms.

Ranking covers shows in YouTube’s Top 100 podcast chart, compared by YouTube’s public subscriber counts, which YouTube rounds, checked at 13:40 GMT on 1 November 2026.

Subscriber ranking. Source: YouTube’s public subscriber counts, checked at 13:40 GMT on 1 November 2026, for shows in YouTube’s Top 100 podcast chart (charts.youtube.com/podcasts/us). YouTube rounds public counts to three significant figures.

The Diary Of A CEO (youtube.com/@TheDiaryOfACEO): 21.3 million The Joe Rogan Experience (youtube.com/@joerogan): 21.2 million Source for both figures: YouTube public subscriber counts, 13:40 GMT, 1 November 2026.

Subscriber growth in 2026: About 14.2 million on 29 December 2025 (Internet Archive capture of youtube.com/@TheDiaryOfACEO) to 21.3 million on 1 November 2026 (YouTube public count, 13:40 GMT), an increase of about 7.1 million, or roughly 50%. Both figures are rounded by YouTube.

Episodes and views: 87 full-length video episodes published from 1 January to 31 October 2026. Channel views of 1,030,987,725 from 1 January to 30 October 2026 (all formats, including Shorts), against 399,059,197 from 1 January to 31 October 2025. Source: FlightStory’s YouTube Studio data, extracted 1 November 2026.

Languages: 260,775,120 of 1,118,418,002 YouTube views from 1 January to 31 October 2026 (23.3%) were on audio tracks other than English, according to YouTube Studio’s audio-track breakdown. The number of language versions of the Zelenskyy episode comes from FlightStory.

Podscribe: Podscribe ranked The Diary Of A CEO No.1 by estimated average downloads and views per episode in March 2026 (3,349,230) and July 2026 (4,442,708). These are Podscribe estimates.

Spotify Wrapped 2025: The Diary Of A CEO ranked No.2 in Spotify’s global Top Podcasts list for 2025, published 3 December 2025.

Awards: Steven Bartlett won the 2026 Webby Award for Individual Creator: Podcast (winners announced 21 April 2026). The Diary Of A CEO won Best Business & Finance Podcast at the 2026 iHeartPodcast Awards (16 March 2026).

Zelenskyy episode: Released on YouTube and podcast platforms on 22 October 2026, recorded in Ukrainian with two human interpreters.