From a living room Instagram Live to 1 billion YouTube views: Nathaniel Bassey’s Hallelujah Challenge journey

The milestone comes nine years after he started the Hallelujah Challenge in June 2017 with midnight Instagram Live worship sessions from his living room.

The October 2026 edition attracted millions of views, with its opening session recording more than four million views and the grand finale exceeding 4.3 million.

Nathaniel Bassey’s official YouTube channel has passed one billion views, reportedly making him the first African gospel artist to reach the mark, and it all traces back to a midnight Instagram Live from his living room.

The milestone coincides with the October 2026 edition of the Hallelujah Challenge, the online prayer and worship programme he founded in 2017.

Bassey told Channels Television at the time that it "started as an inspiration from God." The sessions begin at midnight, a timing the organisers link to the account in Acts 16:25-26 of Paul and Silas praying and singing in prison.

The response came quickly. Within about two weeks, reports state that more than 70,000 people were joining the daily midnight sessions on Instagram and Facebook, along with celebrities including Tiwa Savage, D’banj, Rita Dominic, Funke Akindele and Don Jazzy.

Nathaniel Bassey [Instagram/Nathaniel Bassey] It has since become a recurring programme, with editions held during set periods each year. The sessions start at 11:59pm, and some editions have included physical festivals.

On the channel, the October edition’s grand finale, the Hallelujah Festival, recorded between 2 and 4.3 million views, while the opening session drew over four million, according to ReachRanking.

That matters for how to read the billion. It’s a channel total, and it includes those sessions alongside songs such as ‘Imela,’ ‘Onise Iyanu,’ ‘Olowogbogboro’ and ‘You Are God.’ Views count watching, not individual viewers, so a billion views is not a billion people.

Bassey joins a list of Nigerian channels that have passed the mark. Burna Boy was the first Nigerian artist to get there in 2021, and a 2025 ranking put his channel at about 3.27 billion views.

Fans have suggested Bassey could monetise the sessions. He has maintained that the Hallelujah Challenge is primarily about worship and spiritual devotion, not revenue.