KIMPRO: The Korean Cousins Behind the World's Most-Watched Wordless Shorts Channel
Key Takeaways
- · 플레이보드 집계 기준 김프로는 2025년 연간 약 775억 회로 전 세계 유튜브 조회수 1위였다고 여러 매체가 보도했습니다.
- · 대사 없는 논버벌 쇼츠라 언어 장벽이 사라져 세계 조회수는 높지만 국내 인지도는 낮은 역설이 생겼습니다.
- · Dhesy 수집 4,171편 중 약 99%(4,145편)가 쇼츠이고, 최근 90일 200편은 전부 쇼츠로 편당 평균 약 1,815만 회였습니다.
- · 운영 주체는 공연 기획자 출신 사촌 남매 김동준(김프로)과 유백합으로, 인천 부평 스튜디오에서 작업합니다.
- · 협찬 표시 영상은 전 기간 4편뿐이라 광고가 아닌 콘텐츠 재생량이 성장 동력이었습니다.
In an age where a single wordless clip routinely clears 100 million views, one detail still surprises: the channel that stacked hundreds of such clips into the most-watched YouTube account on Earth is run by Koreans whom most Koreans have never heard of.
The world's No.1, yet barely known at home
In 2025, the most-watched YouTube channel worldwide was not BTS or BLACKPINK, but KIMPRO, run by a pair of Korean cousins.
According to analytics site Playboard and multiple outlets, KIMPRO logged roughly 77.5 billion annual views in 2025, ranking first among all YouTube channels and surpassing K-pop's two flagship channels. Yet most Koreans would not recognize the name.
That mismatch is the channel's most interesting trait. It is run by cousins Kim Dong-jun (known as Kimpro) and Yu Baek-hap, both former performance planners who studied acting and performing arts, per SBS interviews. The channel has 133 million subscribers, the first in Korea to pass 100 million, yet domestic recognition lags far behind that scale.
What kind of number is 77.5 billion?
Playboard counted roughly 77.53 billion annual views for 2025. Against a world population of 8 billion, that is more than nine views per person. Outlets framed the record, which topped BTS and BLACKPINK, as proof of Korean content's global reach.
These figures, including "first in Korea to 100 million subscribers," are external records from Playboard and press reports, not a Dhesy-verified universe of truth.
김프로 상위 쇼츠 조회수 (Dhesy 수집, 단위: 억 회)
* Source: Dhesy
Every one of these videos is wordless: a car toy at play, drinks shared fairly. That leads to the next question.
Not a single line of dialogue
The core of KIMPRO is nonverbal performance. Per Joynews24 and others, the clips are dialogue-free physical-art shorts that any viewer worldwide can grasp instantly, the key to global spread.
Here lies the answer to the recognition paradox. A video with no captions or narration leaves almost no "Korean content" impression on Korean-speaking viewers, so it rarely registers at home. Yet it is understood instantly everywhere, so it replays endlessly across languages. Low domestic recognition and high global views are two faces of the same cause.
By erasing Korean, KIMPRO traded one market for the rest of the world.
The cousins of a Bupyeong studio, Kim Dong-jun and Yu Baek-hap
Two people run the channel. Per SBS interviews, Kim Dong-jun (Kimpro) and his younger cousin Yu Baek-hap (26) operate it together, both trained in acting and performing arts. In a Sijang Gyeongje and Meconomy News exclusive, Yu, posing with a Diamond Play Button at the Bupyeong studio in Incheon, said "AI is a tool; the essence of creation is human." Per Venture Square, at the 2026 National Medal arts festival Kim received a National Medal certificate and Yu took the social-service grand prize.
10 million in 9 months, 100 million in 2 years and 8 months
Per SBS interviews, KIMPRO posted its first video in August 2022, passed 10 million subscribers in about 9 months, and reached 100 million in about 2 years and 8 months, on April 17, 2025, reported as a Korean first and the world's 14th at the time. The pace was possible because shorts were the main format from day one, with the nonverbal style scaling that loop globally.
KIMPRO through Dhesy data
KIMPRO is a shorts-native channel, not one that slices long videos. Of 4,171 videos Dhesy collected, about 99% (4,145) are shorts. The last 90 days produced 200 videos, all shorts, averaging about 18.15 million views each. Sponsored videos number just 4 across the channel's history in Dhesy data, so reach, not ads, drove the growth.
What remains
Being No.1 in views is not the same as being No.1 in influence. Short nonverbal shorts inflate easily through replays, and loyalty or brand power may favor better-known channels. Revenue estimates swing wildly across outlets. Still, the lesson holds: recognition and views are separate axes, and erasing language turns borders into a playing field. Having lowered the global barrier this much, the next quarter may well see another Korean nonverbal shorts channel following the KIMPRO model climb the world charts.
Methodology: Built from Dhesy's collected data on 4,171 KIMPRO videos (including 4,145 shorts) combined with external press. View, subscriber, and ranking figures are per Playboard and press reports, not Dhesy-verified universe values. Period: 2022-08-01 to 2026-06-04. Data source: Dhesy External sources: Hankook Ilbo, Economist, Joynews24, Sijang Gyeongje (Meconomy News), Venture Square, SBS Entertainment News Last updated: 2026-06-05