The 10 Best Wilderness Survival YouTube Channels

Wilderness survival is something special on the screen. There isn’t much that compares to being outdoors, but the best wilderness survival YouTube channels can get you close. By sharing their own love of bushcraft and outdoor survival, these top creators can share tranquility, survival techniques, or just a laugh.

Whether you are looking to learn or just relax, wilderness survival is a great rabbit hole to go down on YouTube. With a huge range of skills and techniques out there, you can always find fresh faces and content stepping up and sharing their love of the outdoors.

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Contents (Jump to a Section)

• What is Wilderness Survival on YouTube?
• Top 10 Survival YouTube Channels
  1. Coalcracker Bushcraft
  2. David Canterbury
  3. Ovens Rocky Mountain Bushcraft
  4. Corporals Corner
  5. Survival Lilly
  6. Donny Dust’s Paleo Tracks
  7. Joe Robinet
  8. Fowler’s Makery and Mischief
  9. My Self Reliance
  10. TA Outdoors
• Honorable Mention Channels
• The Final Word

Our list of the best YouTube survival channels has been updated for 2026, with no changes to the top 10 positions, despite some channels gaining thousands of followers.

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What is Wilderness Survival on YouTube?

Wilderness survival refers to the knowledge, skills, and techniques necessary to survive and thrive in the wilderness. It involves being able to solve basic needs such as shelter, water, food, and fire, without the amenities and comforts of modern civilization. It requires physical endurance, mental resilience, and adaptability to changing conditions.

In a wilderness survival situation, an individual must be able to assess their situation, use their environment to their advantage, and make sound decisions to ensure their survival. This usually involves making a shelter to protect yourself from the elements, finding and purifying water, gathering and/or hunting for food, and starting a fire for warmth and cooking.

The overall goal of wilderness survival is to be prepared and resourceful in the face of adversity, enabling one to thrive in a natural environment without the modern amenities and conveniences that we often take for granted in our everyday lives.

Outdoor survival YouTube channels chronicle these journeys, share experience and wisdom, and hopefully inspire the viewer to give it a try.

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Top 10 Survival YouTube Channels

These YouTube channels all champion wilderness survival, and the creators below express their love of the outdoors through the content they create. While ASMR-style videos can also accomplish this, we focused on the channels that share actionable survival advice with words.

The channels we selected, and then ranked by subscriber count, are educational-first, rather than entertainment-first. While entertainment is important, we excluded ASMR channels, the ‘survival’ channels of fast-motion pool building by pairs of barefoot men, and beautiful women performing random survival tasks without words or context.

While I appreciate the entertainment value and sometimes even the educational value of those channels, the channels below stand out as true wilderness survival creators that demonstrate their survival knowledge by teaching with authority and performing survival tasks expertly.

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Coalcracker is more than a YouTube channel; it’s a survival school that teaches a range of topics that mostly focus on bushcraft and wilderness survival. You’ll also find a splash of prepping on his channel, but not enough to move Dan’s efforts over to our prepper YouTube channel list, where it would also easily rank.

The channel focuses on embracing the wild, featuring how-tos, vlogs, and reviews in the Appalachian mountains of Pennsylvania.

Learn the Trick this Survivalist uses to stay warm! Winter Survival, Survival Hacks, Survival Tips

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Dave is one of the older entries on this list, with plenty of baggage in tow. He was not so forthcoming about his actual military experience on the great TV show Dual Survival, which led to him not showing up in later seasons. Despite the controversy, he still has a wealth of knowledge and a strong following on YouTube. He has authored bestsellers, including Bushcraft 101, one of the best wilderness survival guides you can get.

His channel explores outdoor self-reliance and includes uploads from his Pathfinder school series:

Sling Bow Final Modification How To

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Greg is quite the character and became a fan favorite after his appearance on season 3 of Alone, and has somewhat become the face of Western Canadian survival. He is carefree, kind of goofy, and loves living off the land, which all makes his channel very entertaining. His YouTube channel focuses on survival challenges in the Canadian Rockies of British Columbia.

Greg Ovens is buddies with Fowler (further up on this list), who also competed on the survival TV show Alone. Together, they put out entire feature-length films on YouTube, filming their survival adventure challenges together:

Ovens 30 Day Survival Challenge: THE MOVIE (Canadian Rockies)

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Shawn loves the outdoors, and it shows in his bushcraft-oriented channel when he gives great tutorials. Out of all of the channels on this list, I’m surprised that Corporals Corner is not higher up in the subscriber count, given how long it’s been going.

This channel deserves the love it’s earned and is one to check out if you appreciate survival skill demonstrations.

Solo Overnight Building an Underground Shelter and Fireplace In The Snow and Lil Smokies Bacon Chili

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Survival Lilly proves that you don’t need a SERE background to be passionate about wilderness survival. As a self-taught wilderness survival expert, she shows that anyone who applies themselves can enjoy what nature provides and prove themselves against survival challenges.

Her channel has allowed her to venture to places all over the globe to challenge herself with survival scenarios.

My Super Shelter - A Tour Through My Bug Out Camp

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Donny Dust is all in on his wilderness self-reliance training school, Paleo Tracks. He travels the world finding unique wild landscapes to learn from local cultures and test his survival techniques, all of which he shares at his world-renowned self-reliance school. He’s also grabbed the largest subscriber increase over several years, muscling his way into the top 5.

He has authored books, been in several TV shows and movies, and is our editor’s pick. He has put it on display during season 6 of Alone and has several other TV projects. Subscribe to this professional caveman and learn a thing or two yourself.

How to Make a Stone Axe

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Joe Robinet is NOT a survivalist but just likes getting into the woods for some bushcraft fun. His dog, Tripper (a Dutch Shepherd), may also be the star of his works and starred with him on another TV project, Man, Woman, Dog. When Tripper got sick and passed away from a bone disease at only three years old, it broke all of our hearts- but none more than Joe’s.

Nevertheless, Joe persists and continues to make content on his channel, sharing his enduring love for the outdoors.

24h Walmart Camping/Survival Challenge $500 Spent on Walmart Camping Gear, Camping with my Dog

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A boat builder from Maine, Fowler quickly became a fan favorite as Alone season 3 highlighted his mental perseverance and knack for wilderness survival. His anguish over the 87 days of missing his family made us all root for him, and now he continues to share his adventure on his popular YouTube channel. He shares his love for the outdoors with 30-day challenges and catch-and-cooks, always making it fun.

His YouTube channel features survival challenges all over the place, often featuring other well-known survivalists. He’s best known for his unique survival gear choices, like a slingshot for hunting and the Spetsnaz shovel he brought with him on Alone.

30 Day Survival Challenge - Texas: THE MOVIE (Catch & Cook)

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Overlooked on previous lists, we waffled on whether to include Shawn’s channel in our off-grid/homestead list or wilderness survival. His channel is split between the two, but we think his wilderness survival skills and tutorials are worth highlighting here.

Lately, he’s leaned less into outdoor survival tutorials, but you can still find older gems on his channel. If he continues to focus more heavily on homesteading, we’ll swap him over in the future, but figured he deserved a callout this year for his great videos:

PRIMITIVE SURVIVAL SKILLS | Smoking Meat Over the Fire Cooking

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Honorable Mention Channels

These channels were reviewed and have good content, but did not have the subscriber count or active uploads to stack up against our top 10. Still, they may be a good option for you if you are looking for even more wilderness survival YouTube channels:

• Survivorman – Les Stroud – 933,000 subscribers and iconic shows- but it’s just that. Go to our TV show roundup to find Les (can’t have him eating up all the spots!)
• Ultimate Survival Tips – 454,000 subscribers – Just missing out on the top 10, David keeps his focus on knives, bows, and outdoor survival.
• AlfieAesthetics – 383,000 subscribers and started back up recently after a few-year hiatus.
• Far North Bushcraft and Survival – 375,000 subscribers – Lonnie and Connie share their old-time cold-weather bushcraft and survival skills with a relaxingly calm demeanor.
• MCQBushcraft – 326,000 subscribers – Mike shares bushcraft content out of Sweden, although the posting frequency has dwindled.
• Ranger Survival and Fieldcraft – 326,000 subscribers – Andrew, a 20-year wilderness survival skills instructor, shares skills and how-tos and mixes in an occasional prepping video.
• Nagualero – 322,000 subscribers – Ric is no longer with us, so this memorial channel isn’t posting new videos- but it has a great bushcraft library to check out.
• Survival Russia – 274,000 subscribers – Lars is from Denmark, but he lives on a homestead in rural Russia where he films his bushcraft adventures.
• Wild Woman Bushcraft – 210,000 subscribers – Venessa Blank speaks English on her channel, but you can tell she is German by her heavy accent. She shares both her homesteading adventures and how-to bushcraft videos.
• Paul Kirtley – 107,000 subscribers – Paul has been teaching bushcraft and a wilderness guide since 2003, and has had his channel running since 2011.
• Zed Outdoors – 104,000 subscribers – Out in the UK, there is plenty of woodcraft and carving in Zed’s outdoor channel.

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The Final Word

Wilderness Survival YouTube channels are out there in droves, but these channels are the biggest and best you can find. If you are looking to try something new, give our editor’s pick a go. If you are looking for other media to explore prepping and survival topics, check out these rankings and roundups:

• The 10 Best Prepper YouTube Channels
• The 10 Best Off-Grid Homesteading YouTube Channels
• Bug Out Bag List | 44 Essentials

If you have any favorite channels that we may have missed or chosen not to rank, weigh in below in the comment section. We’ll always take the time to review it before our next roundup and see where it stacks up.

Keep exploring, stay prepared, and be safe.

See more of our expert-written guides, resources, and reviews in your search results – add TruePrepper as a preferred source.

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