99+ YouTube Challenges to Go Viral & Boost Subscribers in 2024

YouTube challenges are easy and effective ways to drive subscribers to your channel – but only if you know how to do them right. 

Everybody loves being kept in their seat feeling all the adrenaline as the player does and keeping your viewers in intense anticipation and excitement will surely earn you that subscribe and like button. 

There are many YouTube challenges out there.

In this article, we will break down some of the most popular ones into categories for individuals, couples, and groups.

YouTube Challenges To Try By Yourself

Here are interesting YouTube challenges almost everyone in the space likes. Some of these put creators on the trend list which led to instant popularity. 

The key to making an individual challenge is to put your unique twist on it.

This way, fans will see a newer and better version of the original piece which would instantly put attention on your channel. 

1. “Letting the Person in Front of Me Decide What I Eat” Challenge

This may be one of the most popular challenges to ever be uploaded on YouTube and even popular celebrities and top YouTubers jumped on the craze.

The excitement lies in whether you will get something good or nasty as you will have zero clue about what the person before you thinks. 

It’s also very easy to do. And while almost everyone hits on popular fast food chains like McDonald’s and In-N-Out for their videos, you can add a variety to it by going to a badly-rated restaurant or doing it in a country known for its exotic food. 

2. 60-second Make-up Challenge 

The rise to fame of YouTube Shorts gave creators the idea to do time-pressured challenges.

Lately, the 60-second make-up challenge is taking the center spot as the results could be quite hilarious. 

Since YouTube Shorts have a maximum 60-second duration, you have to finish applying your make-up in this short duration.

Some turn out like they have done theirs for hours while others are total *disasters* with eyeliners spreading everywhere. 

3. Fasting Challenge

This is another popular YouTube challenge that tests creators’ endurance and mental fortitude.

In the fasting challenge, you will avoid eating for an extended period – the length could go between a couple of hours to days. 

This could be dangerous if done wrong, so make sure to do your proper research before starting. Always listen to your body before doing anything related to fasting. 

YouTube Challenges for Couples 

There are many YouTube challenges to try with a partner, particularly a boyfriend or a girlfriend.

This niche is attracting huge attention lately and anyone who wants to capitalize on this opportunity should check out as follows:

4. Ignoring Him/Her for 24 Hours Challenge

Almost every couple channel has done this dare at one point in their YouTube career. It never gets old somehow. 

Basically, you will plot ways to ignore your partner for 24 hours to see if he or she notices.

In some cases, the target does not even notice what the other person does, so it is better to seek creative ways to make your video remembered by doing it on a special occasion like an anniversary or birthday. 

5. Try Not to Laugh Challenge

Even with a sibling or a friend, try not to laugh challenge never loses its appeal. It is also pretty ironic as the thought of trying not to laugh is what makes you laugh. 

Some creators stuff their mouth with water to make it more challenging while others hit the other with an inflatable hammer every time he or she breaks the rules.

It can be quite fun to watch, especially when one of the players spills the water.

6. Guess the Word Challenge

One of the couples will be on noise-canceling headphones while the other is in charge of articulating a word or phrase for the other to guess. 

It is an easy-to-do activity that everybody can do anywhere and can be fun as well.

Some guesses are too far-fetched from the original word, making the challenge funnier than it really is. 

7. Whisper Challenge

See if you can spend 24 hours only whispering with your partner.

If you think that this challenge sounds easy, think again – and if you try it and it is easy, try to order food for example by whispering, and eating whatever it is that you get.

8. Tent Challenge

It’s not that bad going camping and spending the night in a tent, but what if you had to do it with your partner for 24 hours without getting out?

Whether you like camping or not, we think that this is going to be a hard challenge to get through.

9. Bathroom Challenge

How much time do you normally spend in your bathroom at home?

If you are someone who likes the tranquillity of the bathroom, but your partner doesn’t, then it might be interesting to do the bathroom challenge and see if you can last 24 hours with your partner in just one room in the house.

10. Only Eat Gas Station Food for 24 Hours

How often do you stop at the gas station for a snack? How often does your partner?

If you are someone who loves to eat gas station food, then this might not be much of a challenge for you.

All we know is that gas station food isn’t exactly healthy, so you’re not going to feel all that great at the end of this.

11. Switch Diet with Your Grandmother for 24 Hours

This is a good couples challenge to do if you team up with your grandma and have her eat your diet for 24 hours, while you try her diet.

Let’s hope that she has good taste, otherwise this is going to be a pretty unpleasant 24 hours!

12. Same Location for 24 Hours

How much time do you usually spend with your partner? Do you think that you can both stand in the same location together for 24 hours and not drive each other crazy?

13. Swap Diet With Your Kids for 24 Hours

If your kids are picky eaters, then this might be a somewhat interesting challenge. It’s hard to know who’s going to have the harder time – you or the kids.

14. Handcuff Challenge

If you are someone who has a busy work schedule and only sees your partner at the end of the day normally, then this is going to be an interesting challenge to do with them.

They are going to probably drive you crazy, and you are going to want to spend an entire week away from them after this!

15. Say No for 24 Hours

If you said no to your partner for 24 hours, do you think that they would get annoyed at you?

16. Say Yes for 24 Hours

Or, would it be more annoying for your partner if you said yes to everything they said for 24 hours? Try it and see.

17. Living in Your Car for 24 Hours

If you and your partner have a car each, and you each tend to prefer your own cars, then this challenge is going to be fun and interesting.

You will want to make sure that you get dibs on the best seat, so that you can have a comfortable experience.

18. Listen to an Annoying Song

Is there an annoying song that your partner just can’t stand, but you don’t seem to mind it?

If you can think of one off the top of your head, then a fun challenge might be to make them listen to that song with you for 24 hours, and see how they feel about you after.

19. Speak in a Different Language

Are you able to speak in a different language to your partner? If so, you could spend 24 hours speaking to them in that language, and see how much of you they can understand.

20. Last to Leave the Room

This challenge involves you and your partner staying in a room for as long as possible, and the first person to leave the room loses.

How long do you think you can stay in a room with your partner for?

21. Last to Leave the Circle

You can draw a circle with chalk in the middle of your living room, and stay in it with your partner for 24 hours.

Or, you can see who gives up first and wants to leave, and the person that stays is the winner.

22. Last to Stand Up

Do you and your partner like to watch TV at the end of the day together? Maybe you could turn it into a challenge, and see who the last person is to stand up to go to bed.

23. Day in the Life

If you and your partner live pretty different lives when it comes to work, you could try swapping your lives for a day, and seeing what your partner gets up to in their day.

24. Touch My Body Challenge

In this challenge, you take turns with your partner being blindfolded, and touch each other on different parts of the body.

The person who has the blindfold on needs to guess what and where they are touching on the other person.

25. Chapstick Challenge

With this challenge, you have to put chapstick on, then kiss your partner and ask them to guess what flavor of chapstick you are wearing.

26. Girlfriend/Boyfriend Chooses My Outfit

This is a fun challenge to do for an entire day, where you get your partner to pick out your outfit for the day. The challenge is wearing it for the whole day, and not getting sick of it.

27. Girlfriend/Boyfriend Does My Makeup

As you might have been able to guess already, this challenge involves your partner doing your makeup for you.

This is going to be a fun and entertaining challenge if they aren’t used to doing makeup.

28. Yoga Challenge

With the yoga challenge, you have to try different yoga poses that you have found online, and see if you can hold them for a few seconds each.

29. Who Knows me Better

You can put your partner to the test by putting them up against your best friend or sibling, and seeing who knows you better.

30. Couple vs. Couple

Another fun challenge that you can do as a couple is you can find another couple to play with, and you can choose a number of different challenges to compete against one another with, to see who is the better couple.

Try Not To Challenges

Sometimes, a YouTube challenge requires a whole lot of self control. Let’s take a look at challenges which require you to try and not do something.

31. Try Not to Get Mad

With this challenge, you can get a friend to try and make you mad, and your job is to try and stay calm and not let them get to your head.

32. Try Not to Sing

You might think that this challenge sounds easy, but it’s harder than you think.

Put all of your favorite songs on, and try as hard as you can not to sing along to them. You’d be surprised at just how challenging this can be.

33. Try and Keep Singing

You can also try the opposite, which is trying to keep singing even when someone has turned the song off.

See how much of the lyrics you know, and try to hold a note even after the song has been turned off.

34. Try Not to Make a Sound

Are you someone who is quite jumpy, and you struggle at times not to get scared? Then you might want to try and watch scary videos without making a sound and getting frightened.

35. Try Not to be Uncomfortable

With this challenge, you need to try and watch the cringiest videos possible, and try not to feel uncomfortable if you can help it.

36. Try Not to Get Scared

This is pretty self-explanatory, but you’ve got to make sure that you don’t get scared, even when you are watching super scary YouTube videos.

If you are someone who scares easily, then you might find this challenge particularly hard.

YouTube Challenges to Try With Your Group

We have reached the most exciting part of the article: the group challenges. Playing with more participants is not only fun but also competitive – a little competition does not hurt.

Here are some of the recommendations you can try with your family and friends. 

37. Last to Leave Challenge

The last-to-leave challenge is another test of patience and endurance that is ideal to do with your group of friends.

You can do it in an enclosed space, more often a pool and the last to leave the place will get the price.

For some twist, some YouTubers make it a little harder by asking the players to press a button or hold an object to make it more challenging.

The pot money awaiting the winner is usually *HUGE* given the amount of effort required to complete the task. 

38. Cooking Challenge

A la master chef episode, a cooking challenge is an oldie but goodie challenge you should try with your group. 

Although it requires more input such as a spacious kitchen that can accommodate multiple players, it can be a good source of highly-anticipated content.

You may opt to produce an entire series with a number of episodes, with each episode containing exciting twists and updates about the participants. 

Many people are big fans of cooking shows and capitalizing on this market will surely result in a bigger subscriber count.

39. Chubby Bunny Challenge

The chubby bunny challenge aged like fine wine. Even at this time, many YouTubers still do this challenge due to its ease. 

All you need are marshmallows! And these can be found anywhere from grocery stores to candy shops near your place.

Each player will stuff his or her mouth with mallow and end by saying “chubby bunny.”

The more your mouth gets stuffed, the more difficult it gets. The last one to not spill out the content and say “chubby bunny” clearly will win.

Group Challenges

40. Whisper Challenge

With the whisper challenge, you whisper a message around a group of your friends, but each person needs to take a turn wearing headphones with loud music playing.

They need to try and guess the phrase that you have whispered.

41. Heads Up Challenge

It’s kind of like charades, but it’s funnier. You need to hold a piece of paper on your forehead that says an animal or an item, and the person that you’re playing with has to act it out so that you can guess what’s written on the paper.

42. Water Bomb Challenge

You can take turns with a friend filling up a water balloon, and see who is able to make the bigger water balloon before it eventually pops.

43. Potato Carving Challenge

If you like to get creative with your friends, you can try to carve a potato, and the person who has the best potato carving wins.

44. What’s that Smell Challenge

With this challenge, you blindfold someone in your group, and then choose a number of different things for them to smell. They have to try and guess what they are smelling.

45. The Pause Challenge

With this challenge, you have to get together with a friend, and pause one another randomly at times.

When you have been paused, you need to stay that way for at least five seconds.

46. Guess the Song

With this challenge, you have to guess a song that someone has put on, but you can only guess it from hearing three seconds of it.

47. Doll Hands Challenge

For this challenge, you get to play around with doll hands, and see what kind of tasks you can complete by using tiny doll hands.

48. Truth or Dare Challenge

You are bound to have heard of this challenge, which involves asking one of you friends if they want to choose truth or dare.

If they choose truth, then they have to tell the truth about something, and if they choose dare, then they have to complete a dare that you choose for them.

49. Bottle Cap Challenge

Are you someone who thinks that they might be able to kick the cap off of a bottle? If so, you can try the bottle cap challenge.

50. Coin Flip Challenge

In this challenge, you decide on a dare between two people, and then they have to flip a coin to determine who has to do the dare.

51. Make My Friend Ugly

In this challenge, you have to choose an outfit for your friend to make them as ugly as possible.

52. Soccer Challenge

You can choose an object that you don’t mind getting kicked around a bit, and then put it in the middle of the room. The goal is to kick that object with a soccer ball.

53. Mute Challenge

This challenge involves holding the remote, and pressing ‘mute’ when you want someone to go mute.

Whether they are singing or talking, they have to stop and pretend to be mute when you aim the remote control at them.

54. Best Friend Challenge

Do you want to test your best friend to see if they really are your best friend? You can ask them a series of questions to see if they really know you, and vice versa.

55. Dad vs. Mum Outfit Challenge

Get each of your parents to buy you an outfit, with a budget of course, and see who did better.

56. Last to Use WiFi Challenge

Get together with your friends and challenge yourselves to see who can hold out the longest without using the WiFi.

57. Swap Drive-Thru Challenge

This involves placing your order at the first window, and then swapping seats with your friend at the second window, confusing the worker in the window.

Food Challenges

Some of the more popular challenges on YouTube have been related to food.

There are a lot to choose from out there, and some can be done alone, while others can be done with your friends.

Let’s take a look at the most popular food-related challenges on YouTube.

58. Ghost Pepper Challenge

One of the hottest chilis in the world is the ghost pepper, so if you think that you can handle spicy foods, then you might want to give this one a go.

Otherwise, you could start out with another chili, and work your way up until you’re brave enough to try the ghost pepper.

59. Smoothie Challenge

This is a challenge that can result either in a delicious smoothie for you to eat, or something that you will want to vomit up as soon as you have eaten it.

With this challenge, you get a certain number of ingredients, half which should be normally delicious, the other half no so much.

Then you put them on a piece of paper in a hat and mix them up, then pick them at random. Put all the ingredients together in a smoothie, then drink it. Good luck!

60. Bean Boozled Challenge

If you are a fan of Harry Potter, then you are going to be a fan of the bean boozled challenge. This is a challenge that sees you eating jelly beans that are similar to the flavors from the movies and books. You will need the Bean Boozled jelly beans box, where they have a mix of delicious flavors, and questionable ones.

61. The Cinnamon Challenge

There’s a good chance that you have heard of the cinnamon challenge if you have been on YouTube for a while at this point.

This involves taken a spoonful of cinnamon, and trying to eat it in under a minute without the aid of water or any other liquid.

More often than not you’re not going to be able to, and you’re going to need something to drink. Just be careful that you don’t inhale it and choke.

62. Eat it or Wear it Challenge

This can get pretty messy. With a challenge like this, you are going to put different kinds of foods in different bags, which means that you won’t be able to tell what’s in the bags.

Then, you are going to take a turn choosing a bag with someone else. You have to eat whatever you find in the bag, and if you can’t eat it, then you have to wear it.

63. Pizza Challenge

Again, this challenge involves hidden different ingredients in bags, so that you can’t see what the ingredients are.

Then, you are going to choose a bag at random, and create a pizza. You will have to eat the result, which could be quite nasty.

64. Exploding Watermelon

This is definitely a challenge that you will want to do outside. You will need a watermelon, and a lot of elastic bands.

Then, put the elastic bands around the watermelon, and try to get as many on there as possible before it explodes.

65. Ice Cream Tasting

All you need to do for this challenge is get a variety of different ice cream flavors and then taste test them. If you can guess the flavors right, then you win.

66. Tin Can Challenge

This is another taste test challenge that is blind. It’s easy to get ready for it, all you will need to do is go to the store and buy a few tin cans.

Once you get home, get rid of the labels. Now, mix them up, and you can take turns with someone else trying out the tins at random.

67. Baby Food Challenge

This is another quick but fun challenge that you can attempt.

Here, you are going to buy baby food, and you get to taste test it – just make sure that you get rid of the labels so that you can try and guess what baby food you are eating.

This is a fun group challenge.

68. McDonald’s Roulette Challenge

The next challenge is a fun way to spice things up the next time that you go to MacDonalds with all of your friends.

All you need to do is go through the drive through, and order what the car in front of you has ordered. Who knows what you’re going to end up getting – it’s all part of the fun.

69. 10,000 Calorie Challenge

This next challenge is particularly hard if you are someone who isn’t used to eating a lot on a regular basis.

It means that you’ve got to eat four times the amount that you normally eat. You can spice this challenge up by eating a number of different foods, and of course choosing your favorite foods to eat.

Just make sure that you attempt this challenge in moderation, because you want to take care of your health.

70. Big Meal Challenge

This is another challenge that you can attempt if you are someone who likes to eat a lot of food from time to time, but it’s not going to be as hefty as the 10,000 calorie challenge.

If you don’t want to go all the way with the 10,000 calorie challenge, then try a big meal instead.

71. Hungry Hippos

This challenge involves you eating as much candy, whether it’s skittles, smarties, or something else, as you can in a time that you have set for yourself.

As you go along, put the candy that you have gathered in your mouth in a cup, and the person who has had the most candy at the end of the time wins.

72. Generic Brand vs. Brand Name

Are you able to determine the difference between a brand name food and a generic name food?

This challenge is going to put your ability to do this to the test, and the best part is that you can choose all of your favorite foods.

73. Sour Candy Challenge

Are you someone who likes sour candy? Then you might want to try out the next food YouTube challenge.

It’s pretty simple, find the sourest candy that you can at your local supermarket, and then try to eat it in front of the camera.

74. What’s in my Mouth

This is a fun challenge to do with a partner. One person is going to be blindfolded, and the other person is going to put a variety of food in that person’s mouth.

All you need to do is be able to guess what food is in your mouth, and then you can swap and challenge your partner to do the same.

75. Pancake Art

The next challenge was started by Collins Key, but you don’t need to go as extreme as they do over on their channel. The basis of this challenge is pretty easy to explain – you’ve got to try and make something artsy out of your pancake, and the best pancake wins. You can even add food coloring if you want to spice things up a bit.

76. Saltine Challenge

This is a pretty classic challenge among people that have been on YouTube for a while.

In this challenge, you’ve got just one minute to eat 6 saltine crackers, and you don’t get anything to drink in between each one.

While the concept is pretty straightforward, it’s harder than you might think to get six dry crackers down in just a minute. Again, just be careful that you don’t choke.

77. Whipped Cream Challenge

Another challenge that you can do with food that is fun is the whipped cream challenge.

With this challenge, you put a dollop of whipped cream at the top of your fist, and make sure that your arm is extended out all the way.

With your other arm, you bring it down on the inside of your elbow, which causes your arm to fly up and the cream as well. Ideally, you are going to be able to catch the cream in your mouth.

78. Korean Spicy Noodle Challenge

Everyone knows that Korean noodles are the hottest, so it will come as no surprise that someone has turned them into a challenge.

If you like spicy food, then you might want to take on the spicy noodle challenge. Of course, the goal is to finish your noodles.

79. Sugarless Gummy Bears Challenge

Most of the time, gummy bears are nice and sweet, but occasionally, people has said that the sugarless ones can cause you to have a stomach ache and need to go to the toilet.

The challenge involves eating a five-pound bag of sugar-free bears, and seeing if you can avoid the toilet.

80. Ice Cream Sundae Challenge

Are you someone who just can’t resist ice cream? Then this challenge is going to make sure that you are pushed to the limit when it comes to your love for ice cream.

It’s a pretty simple challenge, all you’ve got to do is eat a massive ice cream sundae. See if you can’t eat a sundae that’s 10,000 calories.

81. 10K Fruit Challenge

If you don’t want to deal with a brain freeze from ice cream, another fun YouTube challenge that you might want to try is the 10K fruit challenge.

As you might have been able to already guess, you get a bunch of fruit together, up to 10,000 calories. You will be surprised how much fruit you have to eat to achieve this challenge.

82. $100 Burger Challenge

This is another fun food challenge that means you have to eat as much as you can.

You can do this at a popular local steakhouse, and it generally involves eating a huge burger, as well as any sides that come with it, within a short amount of time.

If you manage to do this, then you shouldn’t have to pay for your meal.

83. Letting Your Partner Choose What You Eat

This is a super fun challenge that you can do to try out new foods that you might have never thought of trying.

You can choose someone to decide what you are going to eat, or if you are eating out, you can ask the waiter to choose your order.

84. Mystery Drink Challenge

This involves hiding a number of different drinks from the people taking part in the challenge, which means that they have no idea what they are drinking.

You can either do it with a number of different flavors to see how good people are at guessing, or choose nice and not so nice flavors for a bit of fun.

85. Use Only One Color When Cooking

We’re guessing that you’re able to work out what this challenge involves, and it’s actually pretty simple, but put into practice and you might find yourself struggling to achieve it. Are you able to cook up something that’s going to taste good using just one colour?

86. Junk vs. Health Food Challenge

Dependant on what kind of food you normally like to eat, this challenge could either be enjoyable, or really hard for you.

This challenge has pairs of people going against each other, to see how much healthy food or junk food they can eat in a certain amount of time.

87. Candy Challenge

This next challenge is a fun food challenge to try with the kids. You can put a bowl of candy in front of your child in a room, and tell them that they can’t eat it until you’ve come back.

You can film them while you are gone, and see if they are able to resist temptation.

88. Yellow vs. Red Food Challenge

This can be a fun challenge where you can put your creativity to the test.

You are going to be given either the color yellow or red, and you will have to only eat foods that are this colour during the challenge.

As long as you’re not a picky eater, this is going to be a fun challenge.

89. Food Art Challenge

This next food challenge is fun, because you can pick out your favorite superhero, and then try to create a portrait of them using food.

The fun thing about this challenge is that you can get really creative with how you go about this.

90. Stinky Fish Challenge

Again, this is one of those challenges that might be pretty straightforward to explain, but getting through it is going to be pretty tough.

It involves getting the world’s stinkiest fish, and attempting to eat it. Obviously, the person that can eat the stinky fish wins. Simple right?

91. Eating Only One Food Colour for 24 Hours

If you are someone who likes a bit of a routine when it comes to the foods that you eat regularly, then you might not find it that hard to eat a limited variety of food for 24 hours.

92. Going to the Worst Restaurant Challenge

For this food challenge, you pick a restaurant that has terrible ratings online and film your experience of it.

You need to make sure that it got a rating of one or less, so that you can go and experience just how bad it is for yourself.

93. Going to the Best Restaurant Challenge

You might be more interested in this challenge, where you are able to go to the best rated restaurant in your city or town.

You need to make sure that it has five stars online, and then all that’s left to do is go there and check it out for yourself.

94. Don’t Wipe Your Mouth

If you are someone who loves seafood, especially lobster tails, then you might want to try out this challenge sometime.

It involves eating something really messy like lobster, but doing so without wiping your mouth the entire time.

You might think that it sounds easy, but you might change your mind when you actually try it.

95. Brain Freeze Challenge

Do you like cold, icy drinks and popsicles? Then you definitely need to give this next challenge a try.

The challenge is to try and drink your icy drink as fast as possible, but the trouble is that you might encounter a bit of a brain freeze along the way.

96. Popsicle Challenge

This challenge is fairly straightforward – you get to taste test as many popsicles are your local corner store has, but you’ve got to make sure that you are blindfolded, so that it’s a blind taste test.

Whoever guesses the most right wins.

97. Coffee Challenge

If you are someone who loves their coffee, then you’re going to love this next challenge.

The challenge involves trying different flavors of coffee, and trying to guess the brands right.

98. Burger or Chicken Nugget Challenge

Everyone loves chicken nuggets from MacDonald’s, right? Well, how many can you eat in one sitting? Maybe you could even try to eat as many as 50.

You might think this challenge sounds easy, but you’d be surprised at how difficult it actually is.

99. Extreme Spicy Food Challenge

If you are someone who loves spicy food, then you are going to love this next challenge.

You can play rock paper scissors with your partner, and whoever wins gets to eat mild food, while the loser has to eat super spicy food.

YouTube Challenges: How to Make Your Own

While there are already a lot of preexisting ideas on the internet, it is always best to make an original challenge that’s based on your own life and experiences. 

Take for example if you are traveling to a new country, you can start a “spending only $20 a day challenge” which could draw the attention of travelers, especially on destinations where it is nearly impossible to stay on a budget.

The key is to be creative and always think like a game master – this will help your channel in ways you can only imagine.

Conclusion

YouTube challenges are a fun way to engage with your existing followers and are efficient in attracting new ones.

The secret is to know the audience’s pulse and be updated on the latest trends while adding a unique twist that is your own. 

Make sure to do only the safe ones. After all, your and your subscribers’ safety should always be the top priority.