5-Minute Crafts
Cypriot YouTube channel and content farm
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
5-Minute Crafts is a do it yourself (DIY)-style Russian-owned YouTube channel by TheSoul Group, based in Cyprus. As of May 2026, it is the 31st most subscribed channel on the platform. The channel is also the 5th most-followed Facebook page.
5-Minute Crafts | |
|---|---|
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| YouTube information | |
| Channel | |
| Years active | 2016–present |
| Genres | |
| Subscribers | 80.8 million |
| Views | 28.47 billion |
| Last updated: 12 April 2026 | |
The channel has drawn criticism for its unusual and potentially dangerous life hacks and its reliance on clickbait.
Content
5-Minute Crafts' YouTube videos are compilations of videos previously posted on Instagram or Facebook.[1][2] The channel's content consists largely of videos relating to crafts and life hacks, styled in how-to formats, and occasionally, science experiments. The channel's videos employ a style where a top-down camera displays objects on a solid-color surface while only a person's hands appear in the frame, making content with aid of these objects, usually food and DIY ingredients and tools.[3]
History
TheSoul Group was founded by Russia-based entrepreneurs Pavel Radaev and Marat Mukhametov, a team with backgrounds in social media content creation, who launched AdMe.[4][5] In March 2017, the company founded the YouTube channel, Bright Side.[6][7] On November 15, 2016, 5-Minute Crafts was registered on YouTube by TheSoul Group.[8] The channel's first video, "5 essential DIY hacks that you need to know" was uploaded the following day.[9][better source needed]
In 2017, the channel's subscriber and video view counts started to grow rapidly. In an article published by Mic in June 2017, 5-Minute Crafts was noted to have accumulated over 4 million subscribers.[10]
In April 2018, Tubefilter covered a trend regarding springtime cleaning videos on YouTube, noting 5-Minute Crafts' participation.[11] By November, Vox wrote that 5-Minute Crafts was a "wildly successful" channel, citing its then over 10 billion video views and its ranking as the fifth most-subscribed channel on YouTube, having nearly 40 million subscribers at the time.[4] During one week in December 2018, the channel received over 238 million video views.[12]
In May 2020, 5-Minute Crafts created their first English-language channel on Pinterest.[13] In July 2020, 5-Minute Crafts collaborated with Mattel for a custom brand campaign that included multiple DIY videos focused on family-friendly crafts and at-home activities.[14]
In November, 2021, the channel celebrated its 5th anniversary on YouTube, with more than 1.7 billion hours watched and 21 billion views.[15] That same month on November 18, 2021, Variety commented that the 5-Minute Crafts Family had the highest-performing YouTube Short to date with nearly 433 million views.[16] As of January, 2022, the channel has 75.4 million subscribers, ranking it as the eleventh most-subscribed channel not operated by YouTube.[17]
With a focus on DIY content, 5-Minute Crafts began to adapt its content for distribution on Pinterest. The activity began by establishing 5-Minute Crafts in English, Spanish and Portuguese. This collaboration with Pinterest was recognised by The Drum Awards for the Digital Industries 2021, winning the "Best use of Pinterest" award.[18]
Reception
The channel has drawn criticism for its unusual and potentially dangerous life hacks and its reliance on clickbait.[4][19][20] Vox characterized 5-Minute Crafts as "bizarre", describing its content as "do-it-yourself-how-tos that no person could or should ever replicate", and criticizing the channel's heavy use of clickbait thumbnails.[4] Mashable described the channel's videos as "nonsensical" and possibly a form of trolling, singling out a video which claimed to demonstrate how soaking an egg in vinegar and then maple syrup will make it "bigger than before".[21]
BBC's Click criticized 5-Minute Crafts for its "fake kitchen hacks": when following the instructions of a video in which a fresh corncob produced popcorn when microwaved, the presenter found the cob was only warmed up.[19] Ann Reardon of How to Cook That described clickbait recipe channels including 5-Minute Crafts as the "fake news of the baking world", and fact-checked several of their videos on her channel. In particular, she criticized a clip in which a strawberry was soaked in bleach to produce a "white strawberry", saying it would be dangerous if a child were to replicate it and eat the result.[19]
