Ray William Johnson used to be a competitor for most subscribers on YouTube. They were consistently compared until Ray lost some traction and Ryan now stands on his own.
Ray William Johnson's namesake channel surpassed Ryan Higa's nigahiga channel for the most subscribed channel on YouTube at around 3.9 million subscribers on June 27, 2011. In late 2013, Ryan's nigahiga channel surpassed Ray William Johnson for good at around 10.3 million subscribers. By then, both had their channels in the late top ten most subscribed on YouTube.
Both YouTubers implement a "<3" symbol.