100 Popular YouTube Challenges (And Ideas) to Help You Go Viral
YouTube Challenges are a great way to increase your subscriber count and attract new followers. You can use them for viral marketing campaigns to get hundreds, thousands, or even millions of views for your channel. YouTube challenges can help your channel and brand with:
- Engaging your audience
- Keeping up with the hottest trends
- Creating high-quality content
- Setting your brand and channel apart
Look no further if you’re stumped on which YouTube video challenges to try out for your YouTube channel! We’ve compiled 100 of the best YouTube challenges you can do with friends or yourself.
Different YouTube challenge video ideas
YouTube challenge videos have been around since the dawn of time (around 2005). These videos are a great way to have fun, engage your target audience, and reach YouTube influencer status. So, let’s jump in!
Food Challenges
Food challenges are among the most popular challenge videos. We’ve all tried swallowing a spoonful of cinnamon at some point in our lives, right? Maybe eating a ghost pepper? No? Well, neither one of them is very pleasant. Thankfully, not all food Youtube challenges are as uncomfortable as those two.
Ghost Pepper Challenge
If you decide to take on the ghost pepper challenge, here’s what you need to know about the ghost pepper and why it might just be worth the pain.
The ghost pepper is an extremely hot pepper from South America. As one of the hottest peppers out there, it has a heat rating of over 1 million Scoville units. That means it’s hotter than a habanero pepper. Be sure to have a glass of milk handy!
Guess-the-Flavor Challenge
Put your tastebuds to the test with the Guess-the-Flavor Challenge! In this challenge, you put on a blindfold and eat some flavored food (i.e., candy, Fanta, chips, etc.). You can make it more fun by creating a prize for guessing correctly!
Pizza Challenge
The pizza challenge involves putting different ingredients into opaque containers.
Participants then randomly select containers and create their pizza from the ingredients in the bag.
The real challenge is having to eat your creation.
Gummy Food vs. Real Food
The gummy vs. real food challenge requires two people, each with two versions of some type of food: one real and one gummy. Each puts a covered tray in front of them – one tray has real food, and the other has gummy food. Whichever tray they’ve chosen is the one they have to eat!
This challenge may seem easy, but remember that there are FULL-SCALE gummy pizzas out there. It makes your jaw hurt just thinking about it.
Chubby Bunny
The Chubby Bunny challenge is one of those classic YouTube challenges that just isn’t going away. Don’t let the name fool you, it’s a pretty hard challenge! It involves putting marshmallows in your mouth, and after each marshmallow, you say the words “Chubby Bunny.” Warning: your cheeks may hurt from all the laughter!
Cinnamon Challenge
This is one for the history books. The Cinnamon Challenge has been around for at least a decade, and as far as we’re concerned, it’s still getting views! All you’ve got to do is swallow a spoonful of cinnamon, and may the odds be in your favor.
As a tip: don’t take any breaths while doing this challenge.
Eat it or Wear it
The Eat it or Wear it Challenge gets pretty messy. You put a variety of different types of foods in opaque bags, so you cannot tell what they are. Then, you give each bag a number.
Participants then choose bags (or go numerically) one at a time. You have to eat whatever food is in the bag. If you don’t want to eat it, then be prepared to wear it.
The winner is the person that is wearing the least food.
Exploding Watermelon
Not only is this challenge viral on YouTube. You’ll still see it on TikTok and Instagram. The Exploding Watermelon Challenge involves putting elastic bands around a watermelon. You keep adding elastic bands until the watermelon explodes. The suspense for this challenge is intense. We recommend doing this outdoors.
McDonald’s Roulette Challenge
McDonald’s Roulette is a fun way for you to mix up your next visit to McDonald’s.
You just need to go to the drive-through and order the same thing as the car in front.
You may get an order for a family of seven, or you may just get a black coffee. It’s all a part of the fun!
Pancake Art Challenge
Collins Key popularized this challenge, but you don’t need to go to the extreme levels he goes to on his channel.
It’s a fairly self-explanatory task. It’s a battle between who can make the best pancake by just using pancake mix and frying them.
You can make this activity more fun and your artwork more colorful if you use food coloring in different squeeze bottles with batter, so you start painting in the frying pan.
Sour vs. Sweet
For this challenge, in each turn, you will have to randomly pick between eating sweet or spicy food. This challenge works better in couples.
SQUID GAME Honeycomb Candy Challenge
One of the most famous scenes of the “Squid Game” show on Netflix is the Honeycomb Candy Challenge.
The most challenging part is making the candy! Also called Dalgona candy (recipe here), the goal is to use a needle or toothpick to separate the inside shape from the outside of the candy.
Oh, and you have a time limit of 10 minutes.
At least you don’t have the same penalty as the contestants had in “Squid Game.”
Spicy vs. Extreme Spicy Food Challenge
For this food challenge, there are two plates with food. One is extra spicy, and the other is just your average-joe spicy. For each turn, one person has to choose one of the foods, and the other will eat the other.
Don’t Wipe your Mouth challenge
The Don’t Wipe Your Mouth Challenge only needs one person to make it, and it’s pretty simple. You just have to eat messy food without wiping your mouth. This works better with finger food with a lot of sauce — chicken wings or ribs, for example.
Candy Challenge
This game aims to guess the type (or flavor) of candy you’re eating while blindfolded! Whoever gets the answer right most often wins.
Mystery Drink Challenge
The mystery drink challenge requires contestants to conceal various drinks with them not knowing what they’re drinking.
You can either choose a variety of flavors and see if contestants can guess what they are.
Or you can go with a much more entertaining version that involves a yummy drink and then others of varying disgustingness.
Healthy vs. Junk Food Challenge
Depending on what type(s) of food you like to consume, this challenge could be easy or difficult for you.
The healthy vs. junk foods challenge pairs two or more individuals against each other for a given time period where they can either only eat healthy foods or junk foods.
Healthy food isn’t necessarily tastier than junk food, but you’re going to feel a whole lot better after eating it than if you’d eaten junk food.
Only Using One Color To Cook Challenge
This challenge is pretty self-explanatory, but the execution is more difficult than you think.
Can you cook up a tasty meal with only one color?
What’s in My Mouth?
You’ll want to grab a partner for this challenge to make it more exciting!
A blindfolded person is given an assortment of food, but sometimes also objects, that are put into their mouths.
It’s quite easy to get started as all you really need is a blindfold, and you can easily produce some funny, spontaneous moments on YouTube.
Let The Person in Front of you Decide What to Eat
You can either use a drive-through or go behind the person in front of you to see what they order and then order the same thing. Who knows? You might end up liking their taste better.
Smoothie Challenge
Whether you succeed or fail at the smoothie challenge is up to you. If you don’t get a delicious treat, then you may need to run to a trash can.
Here, you take some ingredients; half should taste good, while the other half shouldn’t taste too good. You then write down each ingredient on a piece of paper and then mix them together in a bowl or hat.
Players then choose ingredients randomly from the bowl to blend into their smoothies.
To complete the challenge, you just need to drink the smoothie. Sounds pretty good, right? That is until you start mixing salsa with ice cream.
Ye be warned, those with easily upset tummies.
Bean Boozled Challenge
The Bean Boozled Challenge is a fun YouTube challenge that is probably even more fun for Harry Potter fans. You’ll be challenged to eat different jelly beans based on the flavors of Harry Potter books/films.
To complete this challenge, you will need the Bean Boozled jelly bean box, where you will encounter ten tasty beans and ten look-alike beans with strange and unusual flavors.
Ice Cream Taste Test
With the Ice Cream Taste Challenge, all you need to get a bunch of different flavors of ice cream and then blind-test each one.
By guessing the right flavors, you win!
Challenge yourself and get someone else to purchase the different flavors, or mix up your own ice cream with unique flavors.
Tin Can Challenge
The Tin Can Challenge is a different kind of blind-tasting challenge.
This is an easy one to set up. For this challenge, just grab some canned food and remove the labels from each one.
Now mix everything up, so you don’t know which one is which, and each participant takes turns trying out random cans.
Baby Food Challenge
Another quick and easy challenge for you is the Baby Food Challenge.
If you want to buy baby food, you can go to the store to pick some up or order a mixed pack online.
This can be done on your own or with other people.
Hungry Hippo Challenge
To participate in the Hungry Hippo Challenge, you must eat as much candy as possible in a certain period.
You keep putting the candies you can get with your mouth into a bowl or cup, and then at the end, the person who has the most candies in their bowl or cup wins.
Brand Name vs. Generic Brand
Can you tell the difference between brand-name foods and generic ones? This challenge tests your sense of taste and adds an interesting twist when the generic brand is chosen over the name brand.
Whipped Cream Challenge
The whipped cream challenge requires you to place a dollop of whipped cream on the top of your hand with your arm extended. With your other hand, you smack your arm, causing the whipped cream to fly into the air, and hopefully, you then catch it in your mouth.
I say hopefully because it’s not as easy as you may think, and it can be quite funny where it ends up falling.
Haribo Sugarless Gummy Bear Challenge
While Haribo Gummy Bears are typically sweet and delicious candies, many reviews call out the sugarless gummy bears for causing an upset stomach. Nothing major, but enough to spark a YouTube challenge trend.
This challenge involves eating a 5-pound bag of the German confectionery company sugar-free bears.
Family-Fun
The YouTube challenges listed below are great for the family! Whether you want to do a video with the siblings, the parents, your spouse, or maybe even the kids (if they’re old enough), these challenges are sure to be a bonding experience.
Who Wore it Better
This is a fun challenge to do with your siblings! Get outfit inspiration from a celebrity or a movie, and you each throw together a similar outfit based on the original inspiration. Then, you let the viewers decide who wore it better!
Coin Flip Challenge – Crazy Dares Challenge
This can be a really fun way to take on a dare. It works best when you have a group size of 2-5 people so you can rotate the tasks. Decide on a dare between two or more people, for example, “eat a can of cat food.” Each must then decide whether they want to be heads or tails and flip a coin. Whoever loses has to do the challenge.
Making my Friend Ugly
This challenge is pretty self-explanatory. Do you know when you’re playing Sims and selecting “Randomize” in the character creation? It’s pretty much like that.
Just pick out the outfit and makeup to make the other participant look their worst.
Mute Challenge
One person holds a remote while the other participants must do things like singing, eating noisy food (like chips), or any other activity that usually makes you make noise. Each time the person holding the remote control presses the mute button, the others must go dead quiet. You will lose points if you make any sound when the mute button is pressed.
Doing Each Other’s Makeup
This challenge can be done with a friend, sibling, or partner – it requires doing one another’s makeup. To make it funnier, pair up with someone who is particularly bad at doing makeup.
Mom vs. Dad Outfit Challenge
Ask both your parents to purchase you an outfit with a limited budget — $30, for example. See who gets you an outfit that matches your style and personality the best.
Useful Resource: 100+ Youtube Video Ideas
Last to Use WIFI Challenge
Are you addicted to the internet? See how long you and your selected challenge partner can go without using WiFi.
Say No to Everything People Ask you in 24 Hours
For your sake, I hope no one asks you to go on an amazing adventure or offers you a thousand dollars. But hey, it’s a part of the challenge. How far are you willing to go?
24 Hours Handcuffed to your Sibling
How many hours of sibling bonding can you cope with? This challenge can get pretty heated within a couple of hours.
Drive-Thru Swap Challenge
This is a two-person challenge. One person must drive and the other in the backseat while ordering food. Then you must swap places before you get to the window. Not only can you confuse the workers, but it’s a challenge just trying to maneuver around the car in time!
Truth or Dare Challenge
Write down a list that includes questions that could be embarrassing or personal. For every turn, a person will have to choose a question randomly. If they don’t respond, they’ll have to face the consequences of not answering and do a dare.
Who Knows Me Better? My Partner vs. Best Friend
Make a list of questions that only someone who really knows you can answer. Test out your best friend and your significant other and see who comes out on top. What was your first pet’s name? What middle school nickname did you have? What’s your favorite ice cream flavor? Etc.
Two Truths, One Lie
The rules are pretty simple for this challenge. You simply tell two truths and one convincing lie about yourself and see if the other participant(s) can tell which one is the lie.
Blindfolded Drawing Challenge
It’s a pretty straightforward challenge. Two people have to draw the same picture while wearing a blindfold. Whoever creates the better drawing wins the challenge.
Hard Yoga Position Challenge
Put your yoga and flexibility skills to the test! Pair up with someone and see who can pull off a more complicated yoga position.
Extreme Couple vs. Couple Challenge
This is a couple vs. couple competition. Choose 2-4 YouTube challenges that require two people. See which one is the best couple. Some ideas include extreme couples yoga poses, blowing up balloons using each other’s bodies, etc.
Copying What The Other Does For 24 Hours
You can play this challenge with siblings, significant others, or best friends. Spend 24 hours in the other person’s shoes and have fun (or not) doing things you are not used to doing.
Youtube Challenges You Can Do By Yourself
Sometimes you don’t have a partner available, or maybe you just don’t want one, and that’s okay! There are many challenges that you can do yourself. We’ve listed some of the best ones below.
Good Thing Challenge
This is one of the more wholesome challenges, as all it requires is for you to do a random act of kindness. From paying for someone’s lunch to helping someone across the street, just do one or more random act(s) of kindness, film yourself doing it, and then post it on YouTube with the hashtag #goodthingchallenge.
Drive-Through Trick-Or-Treat Challenge
Instead of going trick-or-treating around your neighborhood, why don’t you go through a few drive-throughs with your scary costume on? You can get a lot of laughs from recording reactions.
100 Layers Challenge
You can use this challenge for a wide variety of categories, usually beauty related. For example, you could create a makeup challenge where you need to create a look using 100 layers of eye shadow, lipstick, mascara, foundation, and so on. It’s fun to watch the ridiculous results of your efforts.
Speed Dance Challenge
See how fast you can dance to your favorite songs with famous choreography, Beyonce’s Single Ladies, for example.
Don’t Look Away Challenge
Watch gross videos; don’t look away or skip anything. You might want to keep a bucket close by.
Guess the Movie/Videogame from a Song
Pretty straightforward. Challenge your movie, game, or anime knowledge. Guess which movie it is just by listening to its soundtrack. This challenge will be perfect for your channel if you’re a geek.
30 Drawings for 30 Days
If you have artistic talent, this is a good challenge for you. Draw a different picture every day for a month. Push your talent to the next level!
Going to a Place Dressed as Celebrities Challenge
Take an iconic outfit of your favorite celebrity and wear it for school, church, or the mall. See how other people react to it.
Recreate Famous Influencers’ Instagram Pictures
This is a fairly easy challenge where you must create your own version of an Instagram influencer. Enjoy being an influencer for one day!
Thrift Flip Challenge
This is a great way to save money on clothes and test your creative fashion sense. Go to your local thrift store and find an ugly but cheap piece of clothing. Transform it into something wearable. You don’t need a sewing machine to create an outfit from different pieces of clothing. Combining them together can be enough.
Let Strangers Buy Your Outfit
Go to a mall, and randomly choose people to ask them to pick the kind of clothes they think you might like. See if they get the look you’re going for. The result might be a little crazy.
Try not to Get Uncomfortable Challenge
React to videos that may make you cringe or get uncomfortable. Try to keep your reaction as cool as possible.
Try to Not Get Scared Challenge
Watch the most terrifying and shocking videos on the Internet and see if you can hold back from screaming. Can you overcome your fear?
5-minute DIY challenge
This is a common challenge. Test out a few tutorials and see if you can make them in 5 minutes. Try to achieve the same Pinterest-worthy results.
Sing Anything Challenge
For those who can play ukuleles or guitars, this is a challenge for you. You must set four chords (for example, G, C, E minor, and D). You must fit multiple songs, even if the melody doesn’t match. You’ll get better results if you play the songs with a second person and take turns.
Do a Tough Challenge in a Videogame
We all know at least one game with a high level of difficultity — Yes, we’re looking at you, Dark Souls. But, in this task, you must pick the hardest mode to play your favorite game. Example: put a blindfold on while guiding Link through a difficult dungeon.
Going to The Worst Rated Place
This challenge can be applied to a wide range of places, including gyms, hair salons, nail salons, and sushi restaurants. Check out the reviews and see if their right or not.
Dollar Store DIY Challenge
Try making something cute out of items found at the dollar store. Put your DIY abilities to the test!
Speaking in a Different Language for an Entire Day
If you can speak another language, this is a challenge for you. Practice your bilingual skills and have fun communicating with people who speak different languages.
Funny YouTube Challenges
Funny videos are obviously a go-to when gaining views and subscribers. And these hilarious challenges are sure to give your viewers the laughs that they’re looking for!
Try Not to Laugh
This one is better with a pal but can also be done by yourself. Watch some hilarious content and see if you can contain your laughter!
Best Friend Challenge
Ask personal questions to a close friend — favorite color, favorite movie, first pet’s names, etc. — and if they don’t answer correctly, they lose one point. You can use a point system or some kind of “punishment.” Covering faces with whipped cream, etc. Be careful not to ruin your friendship.
Truth or Drink
One player asks the “truth or drink” question in this game. And the player who is getting asked the question has to answer the question truthfully. If they don’t answer, they have to take a drink of their alcoholic beverage.
Never Have I Ever
One of the most common party games around, “Never Have I Ever,” is a game where one player says, “never have I ever…” and then something they’ve never done before. All the other players who have done what the player said must take a drink!
Innuendo Bingo
For this challenge, two people sit over a bucket, each with a cup of water. Then, they both take a big mouthful of water, and other players take turns to try and make them laugh by telling jokes, pulling faces, doing funny things, or you can simply make them stare at each other.
The winner is the last person to still have a mouthful of water in the end. Anyone can challenge the winner of the two.
YES to Everything Your Bestfriend Says for 24 Hours
Do you trust your friends? You will be at the mercy of your friends, and you will have no choice but to say yes to everything they ask. Things can go crazy really fast!
Not My Arms Challenge
You have to make something that you’re used to doing—like decorating a cake or painting — and then someone else will be your hands while you have your hands behind your back. This way, the person who has to do the task won’t be able to see what you’re doing, but he’ll have to follow your instructions.
Extreme Waxing Challenge
Put your pain tolerance to the test! The extreme waxing challenge is exactly what it sounds like. Either head over to a salon or buy a home waxing kit, and see how much you can tolerate.
Yoga Challenge
Are you a yoga enthusiast or just intrigued by some of the more wacky positions? Try some of them out yourself! Do the yoga challenge and see which crazy yoga positions you can do – maybe grab a partner and try out some couple’s poses!
Whisper Challenge
This one is for couples. The whisper challenge involves one person having headphones on and not hearing while the other tries to tell them a sentence or phrase. It’s like a word-recognition challenge.
Bottle Flip
We’ve ALL seen the water bottle flip challenge. And they happen everywhere. If there’s a bottle available at home, in classrooms, or at the office, it’s getting flipped. Simply toss a plastic bottle (usually with some liquid left in it) in the air, and see if it lands right side up. It’s more entertaining than it sounds!
Speed Drawing
If you’re an experienced artist, this will be a fun one! The speed drawing challenge gives you a short amount of time, around 10 minutes, to draw the most detailed picture that you can. Think 10 minutes is a long time? Think again!
The Floor is Lava Challenge
Every time someone says “the floor is lava,” you must not touch the ground because… it’s Lava! It’s way funnier if you try this challenge in a public place.
No Mirror Makeup Challenge
If you’re a makeup lover, you probably know how difficult it is to make a perfect cat eyeliner. Imagine if you had no mirror at all. Catastrophe. This crazy beauty challenge tests your makeup skills. Enjoy the results!
No Thumbs Challenge
You must do tasks like opening a bottle, eating a package of crackers, or making a sandwich while your thumbs are duct-taped and unable to move.
Things Only 1% of People Can Do
Have you ever been scrolling online and seen something like “Only 1% of the population can do this!” and it’s something like rolling their tongue or wiggling their ears? Take a video of yourself trying to do things only 1% of people can do!
Dad Jokes – Try Not to Laugh Challenge
Do you laugh pretty easily? Including dad jokes? This challenge is perfect for you. You and a friend get together and tell each other dad jokes. The first to laugh is the loser!
Try Not to Sing-Along
Put on some of your favorite tunes and try your best not to start singing along to them! For some of you, this challenge might be impossible.
Try Not To Dance Challenge
This is similar to the try not to sing-along challenge, except you can’t dance! Put on some songs with a great beat, and see if you can sit still.
Try Not To Get Mad Challenge
Watch incredibly frustrating videos, for example, where people are performing simple tasks wrong, or you see that one tile that’s out of place, and try to stay calm.
Try To Keep Singing Challenge
Sing along to the music from your favorite movies, even if you don’t know the songs. You need to have subtitles for each clip.
Try to Keep Dancing Challenge
Make a list of songs, chill videos, and tutorials for relaxation; you must dance the whole time.
Say it Backwards Challenge
Can you say “chocolate chip” backward? Well, here’s your chance to show off.
7 Seconds Challenge
You have seven seconds to answer a question, make a task, or complete an action. Think fast!
Roast Yourself Challenge
How acquainted are you with your flaws, and are you secure enough to make jokes about them? Put your confidence to the test in the roast yourself a challenge!
Say Anything
The game consists of one person saying one word, the other person saying another word, and each person having two seconds to respond. If someone says the same word as an opponent or takes longer than two seconds to speak, a piece of tape is on their face.
YouTube Challenges for Kids
According to Statista, roughly 89% of parents with kids between the ages of 5-11 say their children have watched YouTube. So, keeping the kids in mind when creating videos is important. Here are some fun ones that they can be a part of!
Disney Challenge
Play a collection of famous Disney songs and see if you can name all of them!
Try Not To Make a Sound Challenge
Perform a series of tasks without making a single sound. This can be as simple as eating a meal or trying something more challenging, like playing a game while staying completely silent.
Try Not To Say WOW
You have to watch impressive videos without saying the word “wow.” This might sound easy, but you’d be surprised how sneaky our subconscious is.
The No-Look Challenge
You need at least two people to complete this challenge. In each round, one player points in one direction (up/down/right/left), and the other player avoids looking in that direction.
The Lunchbox Switch Up Challenge
For this kid-friendly challenge, you can either switch the contents of their daily lunchbox or make them choose a lunchbox without knowing what they will eat.
Last to Stand Up Challenge
Get together with some friends or family and play a game where the last person standing is the winner. If you’re determined enough, this challenge can go on for hours, even a whole day.
Last to Leave the Room Wins
The challenge is to remain in the same room with more people for as long as possible. The last one to leave wins the challenge!
Last to Leave Circle Wins
Draw a large and wide circle for everyone to sit comfortably (2-5 players). You’re free to bring anything you want into the challenge circle before it starts. Whoever leaves last wins a prize.
What’s in The Box Challenge
You have to guess what is inside a box correctly. You’ll be tested on your sense of touch.
Final Thoughts
The best way I’ve found to come up with unique YouTube videos is to think like a creator. What type of content would you make if no one else made it? What would you do differently if nobody had done a similar thing before? These questions will help you create new challenge ideas and find inspiration from other popular YouTube challenges.
Challenges are great for raising viewers, subscribers, and engagement rates! Take these YouTube challenge ideas and make them your own – you’re sure to create some masterpieces and monetize your YouTube channel in no time.
Check out our other useful YouTube resources
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