These 15 Faceless Niches Will Make You Money in 2026

[00:01] get the most views, and perhaps more importantly make the most money, then we've done here is analyze over a quarter of a million videos. long-form videos. And what it's allowed us to do is rank [music] which niches

[00:17] dominate on the platform and which ones just aren't worth your time. Because this isn't just as simple as looking at a video's views and trying to work out how much revenue it's made from it. You've got to consider the CPM of a

[00:29] You've got to consider the CPM of a video, how risky that type of video is, already on the platform. It's only after we've done all of that that we can give the niche a fair score and then rank it on YouTube. So, let's dive in, shall we?

[00:42] niches is put them in certain collections so that we can look at them more as a group. And the first group is these views are absolutely insane, but so what? The really important thing to try and identify here is do those

[00:57] views actually translate into real engagement and ultimately real money. So, let's take a look at the first channel here. And you're probably already going to be familiar with this because they're on YouTube everywhere

[01:11] right now. So, I'm calling these the then and now transformation channels. And these are opportunities where you can really break out very, very quickly. And yes, it is very easy to see here that it this is an AI-intensive

[01:26] niche, whereby you're generating images of let's say Hollywood actors or the of let's say Hollywood actors or the actors in their most famous characters actors in their most famous characters from films from 20, 30, 40, 50 years ago

[01:40] meeting their current self. But, it could also be done with brands and products. There are examples of cars that are morphing into new versions of generations. And pretty much exclusively, these videos are visually

[01:54] driven. There might be some music uh running alongside it, but there's no narrative, there's no voice over, [music] there's no language barrier. So, it has a global appeal in terms of an audience. And then we have the pattern

[02:07] interrupt aspect of this. These videos are basically listicles hidden in plain sight. However, this niche is not without its challenges. It is pure visual spectacle. It's impressive, people will watch it, and then they'll

[02:21] scroll onto the next thing. Think of all of those Bigfoot POV AI videos from about 6 months ago. I do think that this Venom now transformation niche might be in the same place in 6 months' time. Also, celebrity likeness in AI-generated

[02:36] content, legal gray area? I'm pretty positive none of these actors agreed to have their likeness used in this way. So, is there going to be some sort of copyright likeness backlash at some

[02:51] point? You would kind of think so. And then in terms of CPM, we're looking at the entertainment industry here. So, there's going to be nothing too there's going to be nothing too spectacular about these CPMs. So, yes,

[03:04] millions of views, but what's the payout from them if your content is accepted I'm giving this one a middle-of-the-road beat here. Now, in close proximity to

[03:17] this niche, we have the superhero mashup videos where you can take these famous characters from different universes and put them together, and this means that you have these fantasy matchups, and fans can really get engaged with that.

[03:33] with less than 10,000 subscribers are getting millions of views. And then everything just a big step further and transforming these characters into the animal versions of themselves to have,

[03:48] you know, quote-unquote epic battles. Now, given the views here, this seems like easy money, right? However, the big and fatal flaw of this is intellectual you've got Warner Brothers at swing merger knee because of countless copies

[04:04] generations. And on the other side of the coin, you've got Disney signing an agreement with OpenAI so that you can generate Disney characters in Sora. So,

[04:16] have no idea whether these channels will be accepted into the YouTube Partner Program now or in the future. But what I do know is that companies don't tend to like having their IP mashed together in this type of way. You've also got to

[04:31] consider this content is directed more towards kids entertainment, which means that their CPMs are going to be lower if they are available. So, yeah, I'm sticking this one firmly in the D tier. On to the next niche now, and on Reddit,

[04:45] there is a subreddit called oddly satisfying, which I can lose myself in for hours. Now, imagine if you add AI and ASMR to Now, imagine if you add AI and ASMR to the concept of oddly satisfying visual

[04:59] and this is what you end up with. Which crazy bed would you sleep in, and which dream pool would you choose? These are the surreal AI-generated environments

[05:12] that pass themselves off as interactive choices. channels here getting views in the tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, sometimes millions of views. So, yes, it certainly fits the insane views

[05:27] criteria. But when we talk about CPM, it's probably at a moderate level at best since it is content that probably skews towards a younger audience. And this is definitely one of those AI niches where the barrier to entry is

[05:41] really low. You can probably generate dozens of these videos with a prompt tweaking. So, I think given that everything in this niche is somewhat mid

[05:53] except for competition, which is likely to be very high very quickly, this is going to be in the C tier for me. So far, we've seen that insane views don't revenue. But, I think we might have found one

[06:06] with this last niche in the collection. And what I'm tentatively calling this niche is deep science explainers. >> Trappist-1. It sits 40 light-years away orbiting an ultra-cool red dwarf star. The planet is roughly Earth-size and

[06:20] >> So, this is a niche where audio is becoming a lot more important because the language is localized and there's clearly more research going into this type of video, which is a MS Paint

[06:33] type of video, which is a MS Paint version of the habitable planets close to Earth. And on this channel, which is relatively small, it has hundreds of thousands of views and just as importantly, look at the engagement in

[06:46] terms of likes, but also tons of comments. You have in the comments what I would like to call the well, actually community that is debating each other, correcting the wrongs of a video, and asking deep philosophical questions. And

[07:00] finally, we're leaning into a category which has potentially higher CPMs, tech pay more for this type of content. So, with insane views and high CPMs, this is

[07:12] the perfect niche to jump into, right? Well, there are other realities that you need to consider. This audience is going to be a lot more demanding than the AI-generated content that we saw earlier. Accuracy matters, and your

[07:24] audience will call you out if you get things wrong. So, what's probably a good idea is to cite your sources as this Feynman channel does with their content. intentional with the aesthetics, the visuals of the video. We've got the

[07:37] Paintify earlier, but we've also got these vintage lecture styles and also the soothing ambience of the video that you're seeing right here. AI voices can be used, but if you notice, they're at a

[07:51] more measured tone, more slow-paced. >> Once you know dark chemistry exists, becomes very high. >> It actually allows you to extend the documentaries, sometimes ultra-long videos. Now, what all of this does, from

[08:07] the research to the effort put into the videos themselves, is really raise the barrier of entry, especially when you consider the expectations of the audience. What this means is that competition is fairly light in this

[08:21] looking at today, actually, this gets a high score in our data set because of the insane views, because of the potential high CPMs, and the engagement apart from everything else. So, here we have, ladies and gentlemen, our first

[08:37] STN niche. So, four niches here, each with crazy views even on small channels, but three of those niches feel like traps, hollow niches, where the CPMs are

[08:49] low, the legal ramifications are somewhat risky, and the engagement is we're going to look at are secrets and scandals. This is all about pulling back the curtain, exposing what really

[09:01] happens, showing the average person something that they're not supposed to know. This insider knowledge format is one of the most powerful drivers of engagement on YouTube. And what better industry to expose than casinos, how so

[09:15] much money is made, what happens really in Las Vegas. casino floor right now that's about to pay out $15,000. The casino knows which one it is. The slot technicians know which one it is.

[09:29] know how to spot it, too. >> The insider secrets format here provokes personal stories and lots of conversation in the comments. The audience is predominantly males with a disposable income and it also attracts

[09:44] the travel and entertainment CPMs, which just raises things a little bit there in terms of revenue. And this idea of how casinos work is all framed around that they apparently have. >> I'm a former slot technician who worked

[09:58] in Las Vegas casinos for over a decade. >> And there are quite a few independent channels here that are all performing well, which shows that this niche is no fluke. Now, the golden title formula here seems to be ex-casino employee

[10:11] reveals blank, whatever that is for the topic. And then the sub-niches here are slot machines being exposed, poker rooms exposed, the history of Vegas casinos,

[10:23] and casinos that are closing in recent times. Casino footage and animations of how these things work are obviously in high demand here. But, what's also interesting is the use of AI voices. >> Most players think hitting it big means

[10:37] cash in hand and a free walkout. That is only what the casino wants you to >> On the one hand, obviously, the creator is going for anonymity, but at the same is going for anonymity, but at the same time, an AI voice leads to a certain

[10:51] question over the credibility of these stories. What's to say that they weren't just prompted through an AI tool? And while the CPMs could be potentially while the CPMs could be potentially high, there is the concern of gambling

[11:04] on YouTube. Over the last couple of years, this niche has been hit with advertiser rules and guidance getting a lot stricter. So, there could be

[11:16] potential for that channel to not even be monetized or with their ads severely limited. So, again, I'm putting this in the middle of the road B tier for me. >> So, how did the golden child of fast casual burn its investors and alienate

[11:30] wreckage. >> Industry downfall exposés. How insert brand destroyed itself. And you can do this for any industry. Tech, food, retail, luxury, cars, entertainment. You're never going to run out of topics

[11:46] You're never going to run out of topics here. And what this does is blend with the finance and business niches, which means that CPMs creators in this niche are also doing is taking publicly available information

[12:01] subjective thoughts and opinions, which means that it's relatively low-risk content. And to add to all of this good news, the comment rate is pretty high on these videos as well. The titles here pretty much write themselves. It's all

[12:14] about this particular brand destroying itself or making a humongous mistake. And the format of these types of videos investigative, data, timelines, follow the money. Again, AI voiceovers are going to be frequently used here along

[12:28] with news footage, satellite imagery and data visualizations. The research aspect of these does bring in a certain barrier to entry. You've got to put in the work documentary that viewers are really going to engage with. So, this niche has

[12:43] the same exposed the truth energy as casino secrets, but it's a safer niche to jump into. You've got an infinite supply of topics to talk about here. And the CPMs are probably going to be quite lucrative. That research and clear

[12:58] production values in the videos that we see here does raise the barrier to entry. And there is a lot lower risk because we're not talking about gambling. So, based on all of those positives, I think we have our second

[13:10] STN niche that you can dive into. All right, next up, we briefly mentioned previously about publicly available information. But what about publicly available footage? In the US, police body cam footage is regarded as public

[13:23] record, which means it's in the public domain, which means you can use it on content is readily available doesn't mean that you can grab it and upload it is where creators really have to pay attention to something called

[13:37] transformation, turning the content into something fresh and new, giving it a new perspective. In this case, as we can see, the creator is adding context to the body cam footage before diving back into the conversation between the police

[13:54] into the conversation between the police and I guess the suspect. >> Okay, got you. And then you told me that you did not make a transaction and now you Hold on. Hold on. Let me finish. >> The beauty with this niche is that the

[14:06] drama, the tension, the narrative, the storytelling, the conflict, it's all just need to mold it into something new and fresh. And again, these videos draw in a high level of engagement and conversation. But obviously, the

[14:20] challenge here is if the content is publicly available to anybody, then the barrier to entry is quite low, which means that saturation competition is already there in abundance. And remember, folks, we're capturing footage

[14:33] of people at their worst, so the content can be of a pretty negative tone and theme, quite graphic, so there is that risk of demonetization as well. So, this

[14:46] slots itself firmly in the B category. So, this what you might call insider knowledge format is one of the strongest drivers of engagement on YouTube. The breakdowns prove that. Body cam footage works, too, but you do have to remember

[15:01] that all important word that extends to all of these niches to a certain extent, transformation. Make it something different. Make it something new. Make it essentially you. The next collection of niches are unashamedly built on AI.

[15:15] None of these channels would have existed two years ago. They're built on existed two years ago. They're built on Sora, Kling, Runway, VEO. This isn't a question of whether or not AI has a place on YouTube anymore. It's more a

[15:27] question of which AI content has staying power, whereas other niches are a complete gold rush. And this first niche kind of typifies AI exactly, where you think to yourself, "Yeah, this is kind of cool, but who

[15:41] came up with this idea?" We've got AI-generated deep salvage operations and submarines from the bottom of the sea. But then it's taken a step further, because it's not just salvaging, it's restoring this epic legendary ship as

[15:57] well. And if you haven't already noticed, as good as these may look and as convincing as they might seem, they're all 100% AI-generated. Now, a ASMR vibe to them. They're not

[16:10] documentaries, they don't have narration. It's more the calming music or the machine sounds. It's kind of like white noise. And what some of these themselves to real events, like a missing plane, the Titanic, the

[16:24] battleship Bismarck. If you can have that attachment to something that feels tangible, even though it is AI, that has more pull with the viewer. And indeed, themselves when it comes to intellectual property, salvaging Optimus Prime, even

[16:41] Thomas the Tank Engine, which again will have a huge draw with viewers, but it does put you in the crosshairs of copyright infringement, demonetization, that type of thing. In terms of AI niches, this is as classic as they come.

[16:56] A somewhat weird, out-there idea, which actually works and gets decent views. long as well, up to 30 minutes in length. But given that this is an ASMR play in terms of content, I wouldn't expect the CPM premiums to be that high.

[17:12] This content is also pretty easy to copy as well, so competition in this space is probably growing as I speak. But if you avoid the intellectual property stuff like salvaging Optimus Prime and Thomas the Tank Engine, then yeah, this maybe

[17:27] has a middle-of-the-road B-tier vibe to it. All right, then. You know what else we can do with AI? Have big mythical creatures battle each other. The title formula is pretty obvious here. Beast A versus Beast B, who will win? And that

[17:42] notice some similarity here with a channel we looked at a lot earlier when there was IP being used. So in this case, stick to things that are in the public domain. Mythical creatures, dinosaurs, that type of thing. In terms

[17:55] of the audience here, we're looking at a mix of entertainment and gaming-adjacent again are going to be relatively moderate. Perhaps the most interesting thing about this niche, especially given that it's AI, is as of time of

[18:08] competition. So when you combine that with a low risk of the content being demonetized, it climbs all the way up to the A-tier. All right, I've got a question for you now. What never gets

[18:20] History. I think. And right now it's getting a fresh lick of AI paint. In some cases, it's producing authentic-looking photographs to match the narrative of the historical event. In others, it's

[18:35] bringing video to a period of time where it didn't exist. There is also some natural built-in advantages to this niche in that it's education content, so CPMs are going to be relatively high, and there is almost no risk of

[18:51] demonetization of this content. On the face of it, this sounds like the perfect niche to get into, but it does have one fatal flaw. History didn't suddenly become popular on YouTube because AI gave us access to it. Creators have been

[19:05] making history content on YouTube for over 20 years. AI is simply a tool that can potentially enhance it. So this is where you will still need to find your unique angle or have a very high production values. I think the place

[19:19] where we've seen most innovation is taking video to events in the past where it just literally wasn't possible, but the AI looks so good and convincing that although you know it's an AI reenactment, it adds so much more value

[19:35] to the content. So, great CPMs, low risk of demonetization, but the competition have several attempts at this before you have several attempts at this before you find your golden historical AI niche. In

[19:48] challenge that you're going to find with most of these niches that are relying on almost exclusively AI generated content. First mover's advantage and even when you have that, people flood into that niche so quickly that the opportunity

[20:04] quickly disappears. You know what YouTube has been really good at since its inception is sending you down rabbit holes for hours and hours and this is what our next collection of niches are going to focus on. These are the videos

[20:16] that make you say, "Ah, I never thought about that." Or the videos where you occasionally think about it during the day and all of a sudden there is a YouTube video that answers that very question. We'll start with these what

[20:28] happened to your body health animations. These videos can look at your body from different angles. For example, what happens when you stop indulging in a bad habit for a period of time or what happens to your muscle mass if you do a

[20:40] fitness workout for a period of time. What's interesting about these videos is that in the comments you'll see a high quality of engagement. These are personal stories and anecdotes from people who have either suffered or

[20:53] benefited from these health explanations. The title formula is quite simple here. What happens to your body when you do this action for this amount of time. And the secret weapon here is the simple animation style. This niche

[21:06] is usually dominated by jacked-up influencers. So, to see a simple stickman is more inviting and less intimidating. These videos are perfect for viewers who are embarking on new health journeys. And the idea behind

[21:20] them is to explain complex concepts in simple ways and make them very approachable for the audience. Health content is a pretty high CPM. You do have to make sure that the information that you're giving is reliable and

[21:33] credible. But the saturation here is also low as well. So, this is going firmly in the A tier and it's seeing engagement of these videos that helps push it towards the top of the list. >> Something extraordinary happened to

[21:46] children who grew up in the 1970s and brain research is finally explaining it. because I need to look at my notes to make sure I pronounce all of these words correctly. In these videos we're talking about dopamine detoxes, serotonin

[22:00] hacking, brain rewiring, and neuroplasticity. This niche is neuroscience explainers. Just like the previous niche, this has a high level of comment quality engagement. And there is a self-improvement crossover appeal to

[22:15] these videos which makes them more appealing to a wider audience. Again, like the last niche, simple visualizations help explain these complex topics. And then we get to the CPMs which are really quite intriguing

[22:30] and inviting. Health, science, wellness. That's a good start. But some of these videos also target older generations, people from the 70s, 80s, 90s, older people with more disposable income. This niche is also fairly untouched by high

[22:47] self-improvement aspect of these videos that pushes them over the top for me. People don't just passively watch the video. They take action on the content and then they come back in the comments

[23:00] to feedback on how it all went. That is a real committed audience. ST For this next niche, you've probably wondered about how all of these things work very briefly throughout your day at some point in your life. How GPS works

[23:14] traffic lights are actually timed or what the process is behind an actual what the process is behind an actual payment. Or intriguingly, if you're from a older generation, what happened to all of the TV repair

[23:27] shops? This is all curiosity-driven content, not outrage-driven content, advertiser-friendly. It's also evergreen, and if you're onto that nostalgia kick, then the engagement rate can be phenomenal. Look at this, over

[23:41] 2,000 comments on this video. And this is another one of these niches where the topic supply is pretty much infinite. You're interacting with all of these to keep your head on as to what all of

[23:54] these intriguing things are that you want the answers to that your audience perspective, you just phrase it as how Why does that actually happen or why does this suddenly disappear? With the

[24:07] topics often revolving around tech or education or an older audience demographic, the CPMs are pretty generous as well. Of all of the niches we've looked at today, this has the highest engagement rate of the entire

[24:20] data set. The only thing that brings it down from being an ST niche is the fact that there is quite a bit of competition here. So, in case you didn't realize, this is the strongest group that we've looked at because the niches all tap

[24:33] into the same thing. They make viewers see something familiar in a completely new and enlightening way. It might be a body, it might be a brain, it might be all of the tech around you. The engagement is high and real because

[24:45] viewers are able to connect it to their own lives. There's no clickbait required here. This is driven off of pure curiosity, which is the best type of YouTube content. There's no danger of the content being demonetized,

[24:58] especially if there's no gimmicks. Okay, we have two more niches that I want to why in a moment. The first one is what you might tentatively call Idiots at Work. This is your classic fails compilation with a slight tweak towards

[25:12] the construction angle, which might attract more tradespeople, engineers, maybe raise a CPM just a little bit. The trouble is, it is still a fails niche could not be higher because it's been

[25:26] around on YouTube since YouTube itself. You're also going to fall into that danger zone of reuse and repetitious content that YouTube treats as inauthentic these days unless you do some significant transformation on it.

[25:38] And the increased severity of the harmful situations that you find means that it might not be advertiser-friendly stuff. For all of these reasons, this is the second niche to go to the very bottom of the list.

[25:51] And another niche swiftly joining the bottom of the pile is slowed reverb music. What's happening here is a creator is taking a song, slowing it down, adding a reverb effect along with some aesthetic visuals. And as much as I

[26:05] can't because we'd probably get a copyright claim. That's going to be the huge problem with this niche. The music is copyrighted to the artist. The melody is also copyrighted, so even changing

[26:18] considered copyright infringement. What's likely to end up happening is that the owner of the original music will just claim copyright on that video and earn revenue for themselves. So, this isn't necessarily a niche, it's

[26:32] further insult to injury, I'm putting these last two niches in a special collection known as the graveyard. True, you might get tons of views from both niches, but they're never ever really going to make you any revenue.

[26:46] And there you have 15 faceless YouTube niches ranked by analyzing over a quarter of a million videos. And look, I appreciate that we can't cover every single niche in this video. But beyond the obvious things like CPMs, content

[27:01] about all of the things that we've talked about today. From viewer engagement to audience demographics to barriers to entry to first movers advantage. Yeah, all of that and so much

[27:13] more has been covered. So what I recommend you do is rewatch this video again from a different perspective. What research techniques can I take and use for myself? Or if you need something a little simpler, a little more back to

[27:27] basics, then I highly recommend you watch this complete guide to starting a watch this complete guide to starting a faceless YouTube channel next.