The 10 Best Prepper YouTube Channels

This is an updated ranking of the current best prepper YouTube channels. Our first rankings were in 2016, and we will continue to update these rankings as creators keep producing content and as new channels emerge on the scene.

There are all sorts of prepping resources on the web, and YouTube is a treasure trove of great prepping videos. Over the past year, a few of the top channels finally eclipsed 1 million subscribers- a testament to the growing interest in modern prepping. Here are the 10 best YouTube prepper channels that are worth checking out (plus several honorable mentions and some more in the comments).

Prepping, as a topic, is very broad so you’ll find that many of these channels are very different in terms of the content the creators make. This is why it makes sense to subscribe to more than just one- get out there and explore all of the free prepping knowledge YouTube has to offer.

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Contents (Jump to a Section)

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What is a Prepper?

A prepper is a regular person who prepares for emergencies or disasters by stockpiling supplies and developing skills to be self-sufficient. They want to be ready for the worst-case scenario and protect themselves and their family. You can learn all bout what preppers are and what prepping is in our introduction: What is Prepping and What is a Prepper?

On YouTube, preppers share various survival skills, review prepping gear, and give advice on self-reliance. The best prepper YouTube creators do all of this but make it entertaining as well!

Prepper YouTube Channels

YouTube slowly became the preferred video format for prepping information over the years. There are thousands of Prepper YouTube channels out there- and most of them have less than 1,000 subscribers. Anyone with a phone camera and an opinion can start a channel these days, but the top channels all started in the mid-2010s. A few have eclipsed one million subscribers, galvanizing their spot in the preparedness community.

Occasionally, you’ll see a channel shift focus, so channels will jump between our other lists when they focus less on broad general preparedness:

• The 10 Best Off-Grid Homesteading YouTube Channels
• The 10 Best Wilderness Survival YouTube Channels

How We Ranked

We’re still keeping it simple for YouTube rankings in our top 10 lists: subscriber count. While this doesn’t mean we suggest the top rank over others, it does suggest which channels are having the most influence and effect over the prepping community.

We encourage you to check out the honorable mention channels as well to round you your YouTube feed. You’ll find some up and comers down there and a large variety of formats that are still worthwhile- even if they are out of the top-10 subscriber count.

Anyways, here are the top 10 prepper YouTube channels:

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Rudy has been steadily building a following all the way up in Alaska, and it’s easy to see why. He’s a likable guy but he can get into a little bit of prepper prophesizing, which we discourage around here. Still, he gives sound advice for real issues and situations like inflation when it’s not predictive.

He’s also big into philanthropy, donating thousands of pounds of food to food banks. If this list was based on the biggest heart rather than subscriber count- Rudy would be at the top.

Some of his best videos involve pantry preps and reviewing the cheapest survival items for those on a budget:

PASTA WILL LAST UP TO 25 YEARS IF STORED THIS WAY. - Learn How To Put Food Away For Hard Times.

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Chris Tanner gives us a slew of survival topics but his love of knives is apparent. He has designed several of his own that you can buy: Jess-X, Jessmuk, Jessmuk-C, JX3, JX4, JX5, MK2 Leviathan, JX6, and JX Omega.

He covers a wide range of topics well, but his knife videos really excel just because you can tell he loves the art. With over 1,400 videos under his belt his posting frequency has dropped over the past year with about one video up per month. Still, he’s got a trove of preparedness info and knife reviews in his library worth checking out.

(2014) How To Build A Survival Kit With A Condor VA7 Pack Insert - Preparedmind101

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Kylene and Jonathan Jones have been sharing prepping tips for a long time- as proven by the age of their YouTube channel and the involvement with their kids, who have grown up with it at this point. The inclusion of their kids isn’t something I would personally do, but it does make the channel family-oriented, improves the variety, and makes it feel a bit like a down-to-earth homesteading YouTube channel.

Make no mistake though- they are 100% preparedness. They do an excellent job of covering a huge spectrum of prepping topics. They have also written a book and run a website that all work together to share their family-forward prepping style.

6 Lifesaving Tips to Keep Warm During a Winter Power Outage

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Bryan isn’t afraid of any topic and delves into every corner of preparedness. He is upfront and seeks out experts if he doesn’t have all of the information, which is very refreshing.

His channel has steadily grown over the last ten years by sharing common sense preparedness tips that can make your life and prepping projects easier.

3 Concealed Carry Mistakes That Could Get You Killed

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Brad Harris’ brand of prepping is based on a news scraping algorithm he coded to try to stay ahead of the news. It results in one of the most fearmongering titled and thumbnailed channels on the list- but Brad isn’t about panic. When you watch the channel he does keep up with current events but calmly shares information and skills/resources related to the events.

The urgency of the current event ‘predictions’ can be off-putting for some, but it’s a successful formula that most of the top prepping channels put to use to draw attention to their channels. It might not be a viable long-term strategy though- this is the only prepping channel we’re tracking that lost subscribers over the past year.

GO BUY 30 DAYS WORTH OF FOOD TODAY BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE - CONTROL MEASURES COMING

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Survival Dispatch can be a little all over the place due to all of the contributors, but every video has one thing in common: it shares useful survival information. Some of the contributors, like Alan Kay (the winner of Alone’s season 1) are well-known heavy-hitters of the preparedness and survival circles.

Don’t miss out when a Survival Dispatch video drops- it’s a channel worth subscribing to.

15 Items Every Prepper Should Hoard

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Jack started off reviewing wilderness survival gear and showing off some tactical survival skills but has grown significantly over the last decade. It pops up on our prepper list this year due to the direction he’s taken the channel. Tune in for current events, preparedness advice, and a lot less time in the woods than he used to show.

He still has a huge video catalog chock full of cool skills and quick survival tips, like paperclip lockpicking:

BLACK SCOUT SURVIVAL Pick Locks with Paperclips-

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Don Porter reviews a lot of great prepping and survival gear on this channel under the handle Sootch00. Tons of survival hacks can be found here too, which is great to expand your resourcefulness if SHTF.

He has been a big presence for prepping on YouTube for a while now and is somewhat of a stalwart among the large channels. You’ll often see him doing partnerships with survival gear suppliers with name-branded gear, like Olight.

Survival Lessons from The Great Depression

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Kris’ editing skills really bring prepping info to the next level in his videos. He doesn’t just share prepping information, he makes it interesting to watch. This separates him from the many others that emulate his style to lesser effect. He recently moved his studio and has a whole new setup that is very professional.

All of his work seems to be paying off since he is climbing the subscriber count faster than any other prepper YouTube channel on here. He is definitely one to watch to see if he can take the top spot in future roundups- which is possible next year at the pace he is currently climbing.

The 3 Rules to Become a Gray Man

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Survival situations and survival gear are what this channel is all about. The boys from America’s hat know how to prepare for anything, and are generous enough to let us take a look at their resourcefulness on YouTube. Physical fitness is a big deal for them, which cannot be stressed enough for prepping.

Nate Polson pairs his YouTube channel with his store, which gives him access to all sorts of awesome equipment and gear. The one downside to the Canadian Prepper channel is the constant fearmongering and prophesizing. When a prepper tells you a situation is ‘imminent’, they’ve gone too far- nobody can predict the future and they’re either delusional themselves or just trying to sell you stuff.

Nonetheless, Canadian Prepper is the largest prepping YouTube channel and he does put out some great content. When cruising his library, it is pretty easy to distinguish which videos are informational and which are current event hot takes, so you can pick and choose your content. While people rightfully complain about his fearmongering, it’s easily avoidable if you’d rather stick to his reviews, how-tos, and preparedness-first content.

The Best Invention You Don't Know Exists: Toilet Paper Tablets

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Honorable Mention Channels

These channels were reviewed and have good content, but did not have the subscriber count or active uploads to stack up against our top 10. Still, they may be a good option for you if you are looking for even more prepping YouTube channels:

• Bear Independent – 226,000 subscribers – Also running a prepper podcast, Mr. Bear stays busy.
• Goshen Prepping – 197,000 subscribers – Situational prepping with current event analysis mixed in.
• Survival Know How – 195,000 subscribers – A well-done series on beginning preparedness with some survival hacks sprinkled in.
• Living Survival – 183,000 subscribers – Mostly gear reviews, but good ones at that.
• VikingPreparedness – 181,000 subscribers – He has hit his stride as a YouTube contributor after blogging for many years and is constantly uploading informational, entertaining videos with an awesome beard.
• Magic Prepper – 180,000 subscribers – Best known for information videos, like explaining MVEs or current events.
• DIY Prepper TV – 172,000 subscribers – With a huge uptick in subscribers (+37%!), JR has the channel to watch that will pop into the top 10 soon at the rate it’s climbing.
• Step One Survival – 157,000 subscribers – Tactical survival videos with plenty of great bug out bag videos as well.
• funkyprepper – 138,000 subscribers – A former British Infantry soldier shares his knowledge on mostly Bug Out preps. There are several good survival gear reviews as well. This a great YouTube prepper resource if you are looking for something different.
• The Angry Prepper – 133,000 subscribers – Jason Charles is gung-ho about urban preparedness and survival. He’s a NYC firefighter with unparalleled perseverance and persistence.
• Practical Preparedness – 131,000 subscribers – Posting frequency has slowed down, but he’s still gaining subscribers at a good rate based on his modest library of less than 100 videos.
• DEMCAD – 83,300 subscribers – A lot of politics, but this guy was ahead of the curve on the Flint, MI water crisis. He speaks his mind and posts a couple of times a week- worth checking.

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Retired Prepping Channels

Just because a channel doesn’t put up new content doesn’t mean it’s not worth viewing. There are a few YouTube prepping channels that have retired over the years that still have a trove of great preparedness info in their library:

• The Urban Prepper – Once a mainstay in the prepping community, Cliff brought us great practical prepping advice. With his channel steadily growing since 2011, he was once known as one of the ‘Big 3’ prepper channels, collaborating with Canadian Prepper and City Prepping occasionally. He’s moved on to other priorities in his life, but we appreciate the content he created over the years.
• Drop Forged Survival – Chris Thorn ran a wildly popular prepping/survival channel, but then disappeared from the limelight in 2022 after getting sick. While he hasn’t returned to his channel, Instagram still shows him alive and well. He was baptized a little over a year ago and welcomed a son into the world this past year, so we assume his priorities have changed in a positive way.
• Commsprepper – No politics, no weapons – just amateur radio as it applies to prepping. Straightforward and informational, this channel is great to check out if you are into Ham radio.

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TruePrepper YouTube

While we don’t have the subscriber counts that the top 10 channels have, we have our hat in the ring over on YouTube. Go check us out and subscribe for how-tos, prepping info, and survival gear reviews.

Just like this site, we don’t get into current events or politics so that we can avoid fearmongering or other extreme tactics to gain viewers.

How to Get Free Maps for Survival Kits

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The Final Word

Prepper YouTube channels are out there in droves, but these channels are the biggest and best you can find. If you are looking to try something new, give our editor’s pick a go. If you are looking for other mediums to explore prepping and survival topics, check out these rankings and roundups:

• The 10 Best Preppers on Instagram
• The 10 Best Wilderness Survival YouTube Channels
• Bug Out Bag List | 44 Essentials

If you have any favorite channels that we may have missed or chose not to rank, weigh in below in the comment section. We’ll always take the time to review it before our next roundup and see where it stacks up.

Keep exploring, stay prepared, and be safe.

See more of our expert-written guides, resources, and reviews in your search results – add TruePrepper as a preferred source.

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