United States
Donut — originally Donut Media — is a Los Angeles-based automotive YouTube channel that built its reputation by making car culture genuinely accessible to…
Total Followers +0.0%
9.3M
Across YouTube
Primary Platform
YouTube
9.3M followers · 100% of audience
Engagement
4.2%
vs. 1.5% category median
Sponsorship Tier
Mega
Est. — / IG post
The HiLow series, which has amassed over 200 million views on YouTube, will stream exclusively on Tubi as part of Donut's broader push into live events, podcasts, gaming, and long-form content. The deal coincides with the channel surpassing 3 billion total YouTube views.
CAA signed Donut Media to represent the brand across its YouTube operations, live events, and consumer products — part of the agency's ongoing push to expand its creator client roster.
| Platform | Followers | 30d Growth | Engagement | Posts / wk | Last upload |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| YouTube | 9,270,000 | +0 | 4.2% | 3 | 1 day ago |
| Window | YouTube | Combined | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Last 7 days | +0 +0.0% | +0 +0.0% | +0 +0.0% | +0 |
| Last 30 days | +0 +0.0% | +0 +0.0% | +0 +0.0% | +0 |
| Last 90 days | +10K +0.1% | +0 +0.0% | +0 +0.0% | +10K |
| Last 365 days | +10K +0.1% | +0 +0.0% | +0 +0.0% | +10K |
Daily follower snapshots from CreatorDB's longitudinal index.
| Brand | Type | Platform | Date | Performance vs. baseline |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 Hour Energy Sponsorship | Sponsored content | YouTube | Apr 2026 | — |
| Allstate Sponsorship | Sponsored content | YouTube | Apr 2026 | — |
| Hankook Tire Sponsorship | Sponsored content | YouTube | Apr 2026 | — |
| DraftKings Sponsorship | Sponsored content | YouTube | Jan 2026 | — |
| Thrustmaster Sponsorship | Sponsored content | YouTube | Nov 2025 | — |
| Ruffles Food & Beverage | Sponsored content | YouTube | 2026 | — |
| Red Bull Food & Beverage / Events | Sponsored content | YouTube | 2026 | — |
Donut — originally Donut Media — is a Los Angeles-based automotive YouTube channel that built its reputation by making car culture genuinely accessible to people who didn't grow up wrenching in a garage. Founded in the mid-2010s, the channel expanded from a scrappy production into a full media operation with rotating hosts, recurring series, and a distinctive tone that blends enthusiast depth with internet-native humor. Shows like "Up to Speed" (rapid-fire car history) and "Money Pit" (budget build diaries) defined the format: dense with mechanical detail but paced and edited for an audience raised on YouTube rather than Top Gear. The channel has since consolidated under the simplified handle @donut, signaling a move toward a broader brand identity beyond any single host or series.
The content mix today spans challenge-style builds — making a slow car fast on a tight budget, chasing unusual efficiency targets, or competing in events like the Red Bull Soapbox Derby — alongside longer narrative pieces such as their Cannonball Run documentary-style coverage. That editorial range helps explain an engagement rate that runs well above category norms for a channel of this size. The audience skews heavily male and concentrates in the 18-to-34 band, a demographic that makes Donut attractive to both automotive-native sponsors like Hankook Tire and Thrustmaster (whose sim-racing hardware fits the channel's overlap between real cars and gaming culture) and mainstream brands like Allstate seeking reach into young male drivers. As the broader automotive media landscape consolidates, Donut's positioning as an entertainment-first, brand-agnostic car channel — rather than a dealership-adjacent or OEM-funded property — gives it durable appeal across both enthusiast and casual audiences.
Donut's content—centered on vehicle rebuilds, performance modifications, budget builds, and motorsport stunts—positions it squarely in the automotive aftermarket and enthusiast space, making it a natural fit for tire brands, auto parts retailers, tools, insurance, and energy or lifestyle products. The audience skews overwhelmingly male and concentrated in the 18–34 cohort, with the majority based in English-speaking markets led by the United States. Posting cadence is near-daily on YouTube, and engagement runs nearly three times the category median, signaling an actively invested rather than passive viewership. Demonstrated brand relationships include Hankook Tire and Allstate on the automotive and insurance side, alongside Thrustmaster—a sim-racing peripheral brand—confirming the channel's credibility with both direct-category and adjacent sponsors.
Benchmark estimates for a creator at Donut's tier (Mega, 9.3M combined followers, United States). Pulled from CreatorDB's category benchmarks.
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Yes — Donut documented the team's victory in the Red Bull Soapbox Derby in a YouTube video titled "How We Won the Red Bull Soapbox Derby." The competition involves gravity-powered, engine-free vehicles racing downhill, so the win highlights the team's engineering creativity as much as their driving. It's one of the more unique motorsport challenges on the channel.
"The Illegal Speedrun Across America" documents Donut's attempt at the Cannonball Run, an unofficial coast-to-coast drive across the United States. The run is called "illegal" because it uses public roads at extreme speeds, making it one of the most daring automotive challenges in car culture. The video generated major attention among enthusiasts who follow long-distance speed record attempts.
Donut has been documenting the rebuild of a Porsche, swapping in a new core motor and extensively modifying it as an ongoing build series on his channel. The project is a flagship example of his hands-on DIY approach, taking a sports car and pushing it well beyond its factory performance. It sits alongside his other build projects as one of his more ambitious undertakings.
The @donut channel uses the Donut Media hashtag consistently, signaling a direct connection to the Donut Media brand — a well-known automotive entertainment brand built around the philosophy that car culture should be accessible to everyone. The channel's own tagline, "cars are for everyone," mirrors exactly that founding mission. Whether following the main brand or a creator within it, viewers get the same inclusive, enthusiast-focused content.
In one of his popular challenge videos, Donut attempted to squeeze maximum fuel efficiency out of a notoriously thirsty vehicle, testing various fuel-saving strategies along the way. The video blends automotive science with entertainment in a format that's become a signature for the channel — taking an extreme premise and seeing how far real-world technique can push the result. It's a fan favorite for viewers who love both the data side and the absurdity of car challenges.
Donut's "Making a Slow Car Fast (for under $3000)" video walks through a budget performance build, identifying which affordable modifications deliver the biggest gains without breaking the bank. It's one of the channel's most practical and widely shared videos, directly living out the "cars are for everyone" philosophy by showing that performance upgrades aren't only for deep pockets. The format has become a staple of accessible automotive content on YouTube.
Donut's recent sponsors include Hankook Tire, Allstate, 5 Hour Energy, DraftKings, and Thrustmaster. The Hankook Tire deal is a natural fit given his hands-on build and motorsport content, while Thrustmaster — a brand known for sim racing peripherals — points to driving simulation featuring alongside his real-world car projects. The Allstate partnership suggests his audience skews toward car owners actively thinking about their vehicles.
Donut's sponsorship deal with Thrustmaster, which makes racing wheels and sim cockpit hardware, strongly suggests that sim racing appears in his content in addition to his real-world builds and challenges. His YouTube topics also include automotive technology, which often overlaps with simulation and performance data content. It's consistent with a channel that covers the full spectrum of car enthusiasm.
Donut's audience is overwhelmingly male — well above 90% — and concentrated in the 18-to-34 age bracket, which is the core car-enthusiast demographic that automotive brands most want to reach. Viewers are primarily based in the United States, with Canada and the United Kingdom making up the next largest groups. The channel's engagement runs well above the category average, meaning the audience is unusually active and invested for a channel of its scale.
Donut has surpassed 9 million subscribers on YouTube, placing him firmly in the Mega tier of automotive creators. His engagement rate runs significantly higher than the category baseline, which is rare at that subscriber level and reflects a genuinely loyal fanbase rather than passive growth. He uploads consistently, with new content appearing as recently as a day ago.
Stats (followers, engagement, audience demographics, growth) are pulled live from the CreatorDB API covering YouTube, Instagram and TikTok. Bio and FAQ content is AI-assisted; news items are sourced from cited public press at generation time. Read the full methodology →
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