2025 Top Five Mathematics YouTubers

We have now come to the final article in 2025’s best-of series. The top mathematics YouTube channels. This one is rank-ordered. I’ll also admit that between places four and three and three and two there are sizable gaps. In this list we have a Fields medalist and a high schooler. As well as a channel with 20 million subscribers and one with only 193. There were no bonus points given out base on factors other than the quality of the videos.

Every video mentioned in this post can be found in this playlist.

4/5. Richard Borcherds and Overwhelmed Mathematician

We have two channels of a similar kind tied for 4/5th place: the personal channel of Fields medalist Richard Borcherds and “Overwhelmed Mathematician”—a channel with just four videos from five years ago. These two channels seem to be catered to me specifically. They give overviews of advanced undergraduate/graduate level pure math in an approachable way. I was so inspired by these videos that on my own YouTube channel I make videos referred to as “RB-type” videos in my notes. Who knows what the “RB” stands for… If you are still studying pure math as I am, you will find these two channels valuable.

Three Videos:

3.Veritasium

At 20 million subscribers, this channel hardly needs my endorsement. If you are familiar with Veritasium, you might be wondering how this channel even qualifies for this list. Veritasium is a science YouTube channel. In fact, it is one of the original science YouTube channels. One can find Veritasium videos from 15 years ago. Well, to qualify you need only make great math content and Veritasium certainly does that.

While the latter two videos I have listed are more obviously math videos, I think the first one best encapsulates how Veritasium does math well. It discusses the various incarnations of Braess’s paradox: the fact that in some traffic configurations, closing a street speeds up traffic flow. Oftentimes for everyone involved. The same phenomenon is presented in examples ranging from mechanics to food chains. Thus displaying one of the central concepts of mathematical beauty: universality.

When we see the same phenomenon in many systems without the same physical cause, the connection if often found within the logic of those different systems. That is, it is expressed and understood through mathematics. This universality phenomenon is what drew many mathematicians to the subject in the first place— and Veritasium exhibits it expertly. Other than that, the videos just well-produced, narratively rich, novel mini-documentaries.

Three Videos:

2. webgoatguy

We now come to the most unique channel that comes from an equally unique source. We have found our high schooler. webgoatguy’s videos are less explainers and more explorers. In them, you will find far more questions than answers and as such many of the questions will remain unanswered. In the first video I linked, he plays around with the concept of infinity. He does not adopt one of the existing axiomatic systems for discussing the infinite, he just starts making up rules on the fly. It’s not dissimilar to the way the mathematicians who discovered (invented?) these notions of infinity worked. His notion is like cardinality, nonstandard analysis, or natural density but is not the same as any of them.¹

webgoatguy’s videos embody something too-often missing from the broader mathematical culture: the spirit of open exploration. To paraphrase Vi Hart, arguably the GOAT of math YouTube, “While mathematics does have rules, we often forget that we made up all the rules.” webgoatguy’s videos can serve as a much-needed reminder. Within mathematics, we are often very stilted. It is rules-based with definite correct and incorrect answers. As we learn more, we often become more afraid to ask questions and risk looking stupid. This is terrible for creativity and learning.

Furthermore, webgoatguy is also thoughtful about presentation (see the second video) and about other ways to engage with mathematics (see the last one). Via the last video, he plumbs another depth that remains underexplored: novel ways to engage with mathematics using computers and the internet. Through his graph game, he has gamified a process in which one can explore functions in a way which could only be done with computers.

Even with all this heavy praise, I would not characterize webgoatguy’s videos as a genius-work. This is not something which only a unique talent could do. He has taken hold of something within all of our grasps: the permission to wonder.

Three Videos:

1. Physics for the Birds

Of course the best math YouTube channel of 2025 is called Physics for the birds. Sigh… at least it did earn it. Like our last channel that does not bill itself as a math-channel, this one excels at universality. In all the videos mentioned below, it explores different phenomena whose shared characteristics are explained via mathematics. However, it goes a step further than that.

In Why Möbius Strips Make Better Pianos, Physics for the birds notices that the configuration space of dyads (two note chords) is $S^1\times S^1/S_2$ which is a Möbius band.² Then, he takes the bold step of making an instrument out of a paper Möbius band in which touching sections plays dyads. He physicalizes the mathematical connection. This joins Physics for the birds with our second place entry by doing something that has been missing from the math-exposition culture: physicalizing mathematical analogies.

Oftentimes, when there is a piece of mathematics joining a few concepts, you can actually build a model which joins the mechanisms exhibiting the shared structure. But it’s not surprising that this is seldom done. To do so requires a clear and deep understanding of both examples, the technical capability to make such a model, and the patience and initiative to actually do so. However, it certainly shouldn’t be as rare as it is.

Besides those achievements, the channel also has a unique and engaging presentation and art-style. The cute birds are essential. It also presents novel pieces of mathematics. It is the only channel on this list where I’m more likely to see something I haven’t seen before than something I have seen before.

Thus, it excels in all three of my original criteria for outstanding media: novel presentation, novel information, and thoughtful engagement. If you recall from my first post, doing well in one of these is more than enough. All this is to say that the channel is worth checking out.

Three Videos:

Afterword on our Top three

Truthfully, this could have been a top three math YouTubers of 2025 post. I would not be surprised if the 2026 one is. Although I get a lot of value out of Richard Borcherds’ channel, it isn’t for a wide audience like the other ones are. Similarly, the channels were not rated purely on watchability. Veritasium would rank the highest in watchability. Truthfully, I would call Veritasium the best science-documentary channel out there. It excels in production, narrative, information, and analysis. However, it does not dare to do anything new.

I think that is ok. I don’t know that the Veritasium team is trying to do something new. The new isn’t always for everyone and at 20 million subscribers it is certainly going for wide appeal. They have essentially perfected the science documentary format. So I’m not sure what comes next. That being said, I am also at a loss for what comes next for the top two channels. I don’t know this, but I’m pretty sure webgoatguy is a high school student and Physics for the birds is an undergraduate. As life changes for them, they could both move on to other projects. If that is right for them, I hope they do—even if it would sadden me.

Maybe the takeaway is that many of us could make great educational content if we wanted to. Maybe not everyone, but more of us than are doing it now. Perhaps it should be a fire to make me give it a real go. I did not make this ranking with an underdog story in mind. I made it as a resource for the viewer and with no re-balancing given the background or experience of the YouTubers. If I did, Veritasium at 20 million subscribers and over 15 years of experience probably would not make the list. However, a highly produced channel could certainly top the list next year.

If I were to ask one thing of any reader who gets this far, it would be that if you see anything out there that you think is really special in media, let me know. I already have a file for the 2026 lists open and ready for entries. Let’s see what comes next.

Footnotes

Admittedly, it is not well-defined—but that is not the point. ↩
Inadvertently, he also corrected a strange misconception that I had in my head: That $S^1\times S^1/S_2$ was the orientation cover of the Klein bottle. It isn’t even a $2$-cover, it has obvious branching at the diagonal. Perhaps in my head I remembered that the torus was the orientation cover of the Klein bottle and $X\times X/S_2$ is a simple/obvious way to make something $2$-cover like. If you check the diagram at the top of the top-comment of this stackexchange post the orientation cover is pretty obvious from the standard gluing diagram of the Klein bottle… ↩