WhatsApp channels continue to establish themselves as a major channel for content distribution worldwide. As of September 2026, the largest channels now have tens of millions of subscribers.
The new ranking compiled by Messaging Me and Channels Me confirms soccer's dominance, but above all reveals a particularly interesting trend: the very strong growth of BBC News.
The Top 10 WhatsApp Channels Worldwide – September 2026
- Real Madrid — 62.2 M
- FC Barcelona — 50.5 M
- Netflix — 30.5 million
- Manchester City — 23.3 M
- BBC News — 22.6 million
- Duolingo India — 20.2 million
- FIFA World Cup — 18.2 million
- Premier League — 17.6 million
- Liverpool FC — 17 M
- Manchester United — 16.4 M
BBC News: What to Watch for
The biggest change in this ranking comes from BBC News, which has reached 22.6 million subscribers and has entered the global Top 5.
The growth has been particularly strong. In our June 2026 ranking, BBC News still had 18.5 million subscribers. In three months, the British news outlet has thus gained more than 4 million subscribers, representing growth of about 22 percent.
This trend is part of the BBC’s broader digital transformation. The organization recently announced that, for the first time, it had surpassed 500 million people reached each week worldwide, while the BBC World Service’s digital audience grew by more than 40 percent.
Consistency as the Key to a WhatsApp Strategy
One of the particularly interesting aspects of BBC News's strategy on WhatsApp is the consistency of its posts.
The BBC no longer seems to view WhatsApp as merely a channel for occasionally redirecting traffic. The frequency and consistency of its posts are helping to establish the channel as part of its audience's daily routine.
It is precisely this strategy that we will analyze shortly in a dedicated article: How many times a day does BBC News publish content? What types of content are used? Which formats work best? And what lessons can media outlets and brands learn from this?
Above all, this growth confirms a trend we’ve been observing for several months at Messaging Me: WhatsApp Channels is gradually becoming a media platform in its own right, with its own audience, editorial line, reach, and performance metrics.
At Messaging Me and Channels Me, we help brands, media outlets, and organizations create, manage, and measure their content strategies on WhatsApp.
Would you like to grow your audience on WhatsApp? Contact us.
