Dan and Phil’s YouTube story starts separately: Phil began in 2006, and Dan joined the platform in 2009, with their joint gaming channel arriving later in 2014.

Quick Scoop

  • Phil (AmazingPhil) posted his first YouTube video in early 2006, making him one of the earliest notable British creators on the site.
  • Dan (danisnotonfire / Daniel Howell) started uploading videos in 2009, inspired in part by Phil and other creators he watched.
  • Together, they launched their joint gaming channel DanAndPhilGAMES on 12 September 2014, which later rebranded simply to Dan and Phil in October 2025.

Mini timeline

  1. 2006 – Phil starts his channel AmazingPhil and begins posting vlogs and skits.
  1. 2009 – Dan launches danisnotonfire and the two meet and start collaborating, including the iconic “phil is not on fire” on Phil’s channel that same year.
  1. 2014 – They debut DanAndPhilGAMES , which quickly becomes one of the fastest-growing channels on the platform at the time.
  1. 2025 – The gaming channel is rebranded to Dan and Phil , reflecting a broader range of content than just games.

Forum & trending context

  • Fans on forums and social media often mark “Phan anniversaries” from around 2009, when their collaborations and online friendship visibly kicked off for the public.
  • Nostalgia posts and retrospectives frequently frame their “YouTube era” as spanning from Phil’s 2006 beginnings through the 2010s “Brit Crew” wave and into their recent rebrand and livestreams in 2023–2025.

Answering the exact question

So if you are asking “when did Dan and Phil start YouTube?” in a general sense:

  • Phil started YouTube in 2006.
  • Dan started YouTube in 2009.
  • Their shared channel journey as “Dan and Phil” on YouTube started in 2014 with DanAndPhilGAMES.

TL;DR: Phil has been on YouTube since 2006, Dan since 2009, and their main joint channel project began in 2014.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.