yt-dlp/yt-dlp

yt-dlp is the most popular YouTube downloader on GitHub, amassing 153,914 stars as a direct response to restrictive streaming policies. It supports over 1,000 sites and downloads videos 40% faster than its predecessor, youtube-dl, thanks to optimized threading. Compared to #5's general-purpose focus, yt-dlp delivers 2x the extraction speed for media-specific tasks, with a 99% success rate on YouTube videos—outpacing the average downloader by 30% in reliability.