This article is also available in Japanese: Read the Japanese version
Whenever he found a box, Maru the Scottish Fold would climb in, just to give it a try.
The YouTube channel "I am Maru." has been building up footage of Maru's everyday life since 2008.
In 2016, Maru was even recognized by Guinness World Records as the most-viewed animal on YouTube.
In this article, we trace the story of Maru and his channel using the channel's official data and video titles, the owner's official blog, 私信 まるです。 ("A Personal Note: I Am Maru"; our translation), and articles from Guinness World Records.
Maru and "I am Maru.": Profile
Channel name: I am Maru.
Channel name in English: mugumogu
Handle: @mugumogu
Maru's birthday: May 24, 2007
Breed: Scottish Fold, male
Account created: July 10, 2008
Subscribers: 899,000
Total views: about 593.57 million
Public videos: 2,193
Measured: October 27, 2026
We measured the subscriber count, the total views, and every view count in this article from YouTube's official data on October 27, 2026.
Maru's birthday and breed come from the profile section of the owner's official blog, 私信 まるです。 (in Japanese and English).
The blog's links section points to "mugumogu" on YouTube, and the channel links back to the blog in turn. The blog's author name is "mugumogu" as well, the same as the channel's handle.
Guinness World Records' 2017 article also introduces him under the name "Mugumogu".
The First Video, July 2008: "Hello from under the sofa"
Sorted oldest first, the channel's public videos begin with "Hello from under the sofa." (ソファの下からこんにちは。; our translation), posted on July 10, 2008.
It went up on the same day the account was created. Maru was just over a year old at the time.
In 2008 alone, 60 videos were published, which shows the owner was filming at quite a pace from the very start.
A 2025 Guinness World Records article passes on what a Guinness World Records adjudicator said: at first, "Maru’s owner was simply documenting his growth through photos and videos".
According to the same article, the first few videos drew relatively few views, but the ninth upload, showing Maru jumping into small cardboard boxes with his legs left sticking out, went viral.
The Most-Viewed Video: "I am Maru."
The most-viewed video on the channel is まるです。 ("I am Maru."; our translation), posted on January 12, 2009.
It has about 30.14 million views. Its title is the channel's name itself, like a self-introduction from Maru, and the "I am Maru." series grew from there.
Published on May 24, 2012, Maru's fifth birthday, "I am Maru 4." also ranks among the most-viewed videos, with about 7.83 million views.
Another, "Maru loves too much." from October 19, 2010, sits near the top as well, with about 3.36 million views.
That so many videos from 2009 to 2012 are still near the top may mean that a great many people came to know Maru around that time.
Boxes and "cats are liquid"
When you think of Maru, you think of boxes.
The Guinness article, too, presents the sight of him "squishing himself into tiny cardboard boxes" as his signature. According to a Guinness World Records adjudicator, "Maru’s owner attributes this success to Maru’s ability to fit into small cardboard boxes and his love for his living room swing."
That idea carried over into the Shorts the channel published in 2022.
The September 7 Short "Maru finally completely proved that cats are liquid." has about 7.62 million views, which puts it among the channel's top three.
According to the description, it was the channel's first YouTube Short (the line is in Japanese; our translation). Maru fitting neatly into a box was probably a good match for the short format, too.
Another Short followed on the 26th of the same month: "Meltability level of cats." It, too, ranks near the top, with about 4.79 million views. Seeing 2022 Shorts up there alongside "I am Maru." (まるです。) from more than 13 years earlier is an interesting twist.
2016: A Guinness World Records Title
According to a March 2017 Guinness World Records article, Maru held the Guinness World Records title for "Most views for an animal on YouTube".
The record stood as of September 22, 2016, when his videos had been viewed 325,704,506 times.
The profile section of the owner's blog also says, in Japanese, that he was recognized by Guinness World Records in September 2016 as the animal whose YouTube videos were watched most in the world (our translation).
That said, this is a record as of 2016. The 2025 Guinness article says Maru "once held the record".
In 2017, Guinness World Records came to see Maru and filmed him when it "travelled around Japan to film some of the country's most amazing record holders for a new video series."
Hana and Miri, the Cat Family
Maru isn't the only cat on the channel.
The blog's profile introduces Hana as a female mixed breed born around April 10, 2013, and Miri as a female mixed breed born around September 2020.
Counting public videos by year gives 194 in 2020, 304 in 2021, and 316 in 2022, a sharp rise from around 2020, the year Miri was born.
2022 was the busiest year, and it seems fair to call it the period when the channel was bringing viewers the life of the three cats almost every day.
September 6, 2025: Maru Passes Away
On September 6, 2025, the owner reported on the blog that Maru "went to heaven" that morning, in a post titled "To everyone who always supports Maru."
The Guinness article likewise reports a statement on Maru's YouTube channel giving the same date.
Born on May 24, 2007, Maru was 18.
Since then, the blog has carried videos of Hana and Miri walking in Maru's favorite flower bed, along with old photos of Maru labeled with the year they were taken.
"I am Maru." Today
The channel is still going.
By year, it published 208 videos in 2023, 185 in 2024, and 111 in 2025. That is a calmer pace than the 316 of 2022, but the uploads have not stopped.
In 2026, 75 videos had been published by October 24. October alone brought uploads such as "Goodbye, observation deck!" and a video in which Miri falls off the scratching sofa, startling both Hana and Miri.
Hana and Miri are the stars now, but videos with Maru's name in the title still appear, such as the October 3 video "Maru was busy looking at the work of the bathtub."
The most recent upload is from October 24: "New observation deck and Hana&Miri!." On October 26, the blog also reported that the new observation deck had been completed. According to the post, it is "securely fixed without drilling into the wood", and it will be fun to see how Hana and Miri spend their time on it.
According to the blog, Maru also has an essay book, まるです。猫と暮らすということ ("I Am Maru: What It Means to Live with a Cat"; our translation), published by Futabasha.
Summary
"I am Maru." is the channel that began posting Maru the Scottish Fold's everyday life in July 2008.
Its most-viewed video is "I am Maru." from 2009, and in 2016 Maru was recognized by Guinness World Records as the most-viewed animal on YouTube.
Maru passed away on September 6, 2025, at the age of 18, but the channel still brings viewers the everyday life of Hana and Miri.
Whether you remember Maru's box videos or are just discovering him, working through the videos from the oldest on will likely turn up something new.
