diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 1612bda5ae..96f5d7ecb2 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -1552,7 +1552,7 @@ # EXTRACTOR ARGUMENTS
 
 #### youtube
 * `skip`: `hls` or `dash` (or both) to skip download of the respective manifests
-* `player_client`: Clients to extract video data from. The main clients are `web`, `android`, `ios`, `mweb`. These also have `_music`, `_embedded`, `_agegate`, and `_creator` variants (Eg: `web_embedded`) (`mweb` has only `_agegate`). By default, `android,web` is used, but the agegate and creator variants are added as required for age-gated videos. Similarly the music variants are added for `music.youtube.com` urls. You can also use `all` to use all the clients
+* `player_client`: Clients to extract video data from. The main clients are `web`, `android`, `ios`, `mweb`. These also have `_music`, `_embedded`, `_agegate`, and `_creator` variants (Eg: `web_embedded`) (`mweb` has only `_agegate`). By default, `android,web` is used, but the agegate and creator variants are added as required for age-gated videos. Similarly the music variants are added for `music.youtube.com` urls. You can also use `all` to use all the clients, and `default` for the default clients.
 * `player_skip`: Skip some network requests that are generally needed for robust extraction. One or more of `configs` (skip client configs), `webpage` (skip initial webpage), `js` (skip js player). While these options can help reduce the number of requests needed or avoid some rate-limiting, they could cause some issues. See [#860](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/pull/860) for more details
 * `include_live_dash`: Include live dash formats (These formats don't download properly)
 * `comment_sort`: `top` or `new` (default) - choose comment sorting mode (on YouTube's side)
diff --git a/yt_dlp/extractor/youtube.py b/yt_dlp/extractor/youtube.py
index 3ae0f5a270..203f4a92ad 100644
--- a/yt_dlp/extractor/youtube.py
+++ b/yt_dlp/extractor/youtube.py
@@ -2339,18 +2339,21 @@ def _extract_player_response(self, client, video_id, master_ytcfg, player_ytcfg,
 
     def _get_requested_clients(self, url, smuggled_data):
         requested_clients = []
+        default = ['android', 'web']
         allowed_clients = sorted(
             [client for client in INNERTUBE_CLIENTS.keys() if client[:1] != '_'],
             key=lambda client: INNERTUBE_CLIENTS[client]['priority'], reverse=True)
         for client in self._configuration_arg('player_client'):
             if client in allowed_clients:
                 requested_clients.append(client)
+            elif client == 'default':
+                requested_clients.extend(default)
             elif client == 'all':
                 requested_clients.extend(allowed_clients)
             else:
                 self.report_warning(f'Skipping unsupported client {client}')
         if not requested_clients:
-            requested_clients = ['android', 'web']
+            requested_clients = default
 
         if smuggled_data.get('is_music_url') or self.is_music_url(url):
             requested_clients.extend(