Nigerian gospel minister Nathaniel Bassey has become the first African gospel artiste to pass one billion views on YouTube.
Data on his official channel, Nathaniel Bassey Main, showed it had recorded over 1.014 billion views and 5.24 million subscribers as of Sunday.
Bassey created the channel on March 4, 2011, meaning the feat comes more than 15 years after it launched. The channel carries gospel music, worship sessions, live performances and broadcasts of his online prayer meetings.
The milestone coincides with the October 2026 edition of the Hallelujah Challenge, the midnight worship and prayer programme he started in June 2017.
What began as an online gathering has grown into a global Christian movement, drawing participants from Nigeria and other countries. Its live sessions and recorded broadcasts have also helped boost his YouTube audience.
Bassey’s songs, including “Imela”, “Onise Iyanu”, “Olowogbogboro” and “You Are God”, have won listeners among Christian music lovers in Nigeria and beyond.
He has previously said the Hallelujah Challenge is not mainly about making money. In October 2025, he restated his decision not to monetise the programme’s official YouTube channel, stressing that his focus is on ministry rather than earnings from the prayer sessions.
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