After YouTube launched their subscription service ‘YouTube Red’ for the US in late October it has now made it into the top 5 grossing apps for iOS.

The top grossing charts for iOS on App Annie show that YouTube is currently the fourth highest grossing app in the Apple App Store. As a free app we can assume that it’s only paid service YouTube Red is what has propelled it to the top, proving it is so far a success.

iOS App Charts YouTube Red
App Annie’s iOS App Charts

For $9.99 you get access to a YouTube Red subscription which allows you to watch all videos ad-free, save videos to watch offline and play videos in the background on devices. When you first sign up you have a free one-month trial, so YouTube’s chart position shows clearly that users are staying subscribed after the trial period… a lot of them.

There was some speculation over whether enough people would be willing to pay to get rid of ads to make YouTube Red worthwhile. However YouTube have shown that people are willing, with their #4 ranking for ‘Red’ surpassing the likes of Pandora’s massively popular music streaming.

YouTube Red was announced only a couple of months ago and released only one week after being announced. YouTube Red is YouTube’s first attempt at a paid subscription service, having made plans before like ‘Music Key’ that have slowly dissolved into obscurity.

With YouTube Red they seem to be solidifying themselves as a major multimedia business, bringing with the service a new music app and a kids app in addition to their already released gaming app. YouTube also plan to begin releasing original, funded content next year that will be exclusive to YouTube Red users.

YouTube
Left to Right: YouTube Kids, Red, Gaming and Music (Picture: CNET)

YouTube emphasise that YouTube Red also enhances all of their separate apps, especially the YouTube Music app which functions like a music streaming service with autoplay allowing you to select a list of songs or have YouTube recommend for you based on your listening.

Those of you in the US can sign up for a YouTube Red subscription now from: https://www.youtube.com/red.

For everyone outside of the US it has not yet been announced when YouTube Red will be available in other regions though we can probably expect to see more countries added early next year when YouTube start releasing their original programming.