by Ferdinand Ekechukwu
From a lounge Instagram Live to 1 billion YouTube views, Pastor Nathaniel Bassey’s Hallelujah Challenge journey was in focus through the week as he turned the primary African gospel artiste to cross one billion YouTube views with the digital reward and worship session.
The channel was created on March 4, 2011. The milestone coincides with the October 2026 version of the Hallelujah Challenge, 9 years after he began the programme in June 2017 with midnight Instagram Live reward and worship periods from his lounge.
The October 2026 version spanning 26 days from fifth to thirtieth October, corroborated with figures from analytics platforms Social Blade and ReachRanking, knowledge on his official channel, Nathaniel Bassey Main, confirmed a cumulative 1,014,544,577 views and 5.24 million subscribers drawn to the channel as of November 2, 2026.
On the channel, the version’s grand finale, the Hallelujah Festival, recorded between 2 and 4.3 million views, whereas the opening session drew over 4 million, in accordance to ReachRanking. The first Hallelujah Challenge ran from June 1 to June 30, 2017.
It adopted an earlier on-line initiative referred to as the #TonguesChallenge, which concerned praying for one hour each month, and has since advanced into a world Christian gathering, drawing members from varied international locations by reside broadcasts, recorded periods throughout social media.
Trailed by criticism when it began, Hallelujah Challenge has since turn out to be a recurring programme, with editions held throughout set durations annually. The periods begin at 11:59pm, and a few editions have included bodily festivals, with A-list celebrities drawing extra consideration to it.
