The Top 10 Highest Paid: YouTubers and Twitch Streamers
Careers in content creation around YouTube and Twitch are becoming ever more lucrative. Even those with relatively small audiences can still make a decent living and those at the top of the pile are pulling in incredible amounts of money.
The more viable and visible this economy becomes, however, the more uncomfortable the questions around how earned cash is distributed inevitably become. The only people that don’t seem to be benefitting from the thriving attention economy are the ones paying attention.
To be clear, this isn’t the fault of creators — they need a place to put their content and have to abide by that platform’s rules to earn a living.
When you consider the top content creators on Youtube and Twitch — and how much of a cut those platforms take for simply hosting content — it becomes clear that we’re ready for a new way to engage with creators and be rewarded for our time and loyalty to our favourites.
So, with that in mind, how much did the top dogs on YouTube and Twitch earn last year?
Youtube
10. Preston Arsement
(Source: Business Insider)
A regular on the list through his long-running Minecraft videos, Preston — down four places this year to tenth — earned $16 million USD.
9. Logan Paul
(Source: Instagram)
The older of the two Paul brothers continues to bring in viewers with his… let’s say lifestyle vlogs, adventures in 1st edition Pokémon cards (or being scammed into buying what he thinks are 1st edition Pokémon cards) and burgeoning boxing career, earning $18million.
8. Dude Perfect
(Source: Instagram)
Fun videos with five friends, usually with wholly inoffensive video titles like ‘Candle blowing challenge is INTENSE’. That’s not criticism, Dude Perfect have carved a great brand with well-produced, very accessible content that made them $20million last year.
7. Ryan Kaji
(Source: Instagram)
This child continues to blow minds by just how much money he can earn by opening and playing with toys. Ryan’s hit a cash-laden sweet spot of catharsis and aspiration for millions of viewers. He’s actually dropped off slightly, though — down from third in 2020 earning $27million.
6. Nastya
(Source: Instagram)
Much like her predecessor on the list, seven-year-old Russian Nastya started as a toy unboxer but has started diversifying her content to take in vlogs and music videos. A prudent move, apparently, as her earnings rose to $28m 2021.
5. Unspeakable
(Source: Instagram)
Despite never featuring on the top 10 earners list, Unspeakable has been a steady contributor to YouTube with a decade’s worth of content under his belt. He broke the top earners list for 2021, bringing in $28.5million as he sold the rights to his formidable back catalogue of content to Spotter.
4. Rhett and Link
(Source: Instagram)
YouTube mainstays who started out with Good Mythical Morning (and it’s now many, many sub-shows, channels and projects over the years). Rhett and Link are still as refreshingly wholesome as ever, a vibe that resonates with audiences and sponsors as they earned $30m in 2021.
3. Markiplier
(Source: Instagram)
One of the OGs of the let’s play YouTube boom along with contemporaries such as PewDiePie, RadBrad and Cryaotic (though we don’t talk about him anymore). Markiplier has proved to be one of the more malleable and business savvy out of the old school let’s play gang, expanding his content portfolio and YouTube-related business interests to make $38m last year.
2. Jake Paul
(Source: Instagram)
The younger of Paul brothers had a stellar 2021. By continuing to nurture his burgeoning boxing career by securing high-profile fights that brought some staggering viewing figures, Paul found his way smack bang right in the mix of the top ten earners, bringing in $45 million.
1. MrBeast
(Source: Instagram)
There’s not many that would grudge Jimmy Donaldson his top spot. His lavishly produced content almost always has an altruistic twist with the creator spending and giving away eye-watering amounts of money in every video making for very compelling viewing (his Squid Games video practically becoming an event for anyone that watches stuff on the internet). So compelling is Jimmy’s content — and so delicious are the burgers from the MrBeast fast food chain that the 23-year-old earned $54 million in 2021.
Twitch
Bear in mind, these numbers come from the infamous Twitch leak so they’re not as neat and tidy as the YouTube equivalent. However, it still gives you a solid idea of how much money is being earned on the platform.
10. HasanAbi
(Source: Instagram)
Known for his streams where he engages in political commentary as well the odd bit of let’s playing, HasanAbi earned $2,810,480 last year.
9) LIRIK
(Source: Instagram)
Starting his career with popular World of Warcraft streams, LIRIK has moved on to showcase wildly varied repertoire of games — from PUBG to Barbie, earning him $2,984,653
8) AuronPlay
(Source: Instagram)
Transitioning from being mainly a YouTuber to a full-time streamer in late 2019, the Spanish content creator has found great success on the platform streaming games like GTA V and Minecraft, earning $3,053,34.
7) TimTheTatman
(Source: Instagram)
This streamer, ironically, found success hilarious failure. Whether it’s being wholly unable to ever get a win in Fall Guys or being locked out of WOW’s Shadowland’s expansion — Tim’s misery has become our delight… which has in turn become his success, with our laughter at the guy’s misfortune translating into $3,290,133.
6) Ludwig
(Source: Instagram)
A mainstay of the Super Smash Bros community, Ludwig made headlines as he became the most subscribed streamer on the platform, a feat he maintained for a record-breaking 51 days. The Twitch leaks showed just how much of an impact this had on his earnings, with Ludwig bringing in $3,290,777 over the last two years.
5) NICKMERCS
(Source: Instagram)
Nick “NICKMERCS’” Kolcheff will be well known to anyone that engages with the Call of Duty or Fortnite communities as he has been around for what seems like forever. Nick is a testament to what good, consistent streaming can do for you, earning $5,096,642 from Twitch in the last three years.
4) Tfue
(Source: Instagram)
Emerging as the king of battle royales as the genre has proliferated through PUBG, Fortnite (and now, pretty much any game that can slap together a royale mode).
Tfue’s no casual and is a regular in the competitive gaming scene — even going as far as Fortnite’s World Cup, but he focused more on streaming after the event in 2019. On reflection, this was probably a good move, as he was able to bank $5,295,582 in the last three years.
3) Summit1g
(Source: Instagram)
One of the platform’s first success stories, Summit1g is a veteran streamer who’s been around for almost as long as it’s been possible to earn money on Twitch. A former Counter-Strike pro, Summit1g naturally streams a lot of shooters. There’s nothing quite as satisfying as watching someone genuinely competent — a sentiment clearly many agree with as Summit netted around $5,847,541 in the past three years.
2) xQc
(Source: Instagram)
Filling the void left by Ninja and Shroud when they left Twitch in 2019, former Overwatch pro XQc has emerged as one of the most watchable streamers in the world. While always having a consistent following, it was Among Us and Fall Guys where XQc truly found his oeuvre — his average viewership going from 20,000 to more than 50,000 over the course of mere months.
XQc is currently the most subscribed channel on the platform, netting $8,454,427 in the last three years.
1) CriticalRole
(Source: Instagram)
The insanely compelling Dungeons and Dragons channel is a well-deserved top earner if only because — and no offense to the others — it’s refreshing to see a concept channel that doesn’t just stream whatever flavour of the week game is doing the rounds.
CriticalRole essentially scratches that itch for people (and there’s many, like myself) that have a peripheral interest in D&D, but want to see it elevated beyond the levels of cringe elicited by me or my friends when trying to sound close to authoritative in a fantasy context.
This channel does just that, being essentially a web series featuring professional voice actors playing Dungeons and Dragons. With well-thought-out and executed campaigns conducted with actual joy and enthusiasm, CriticalRole is worth every dime of the $9,626,712 they earned in the last three years.
Those are some pretty tasty numbers, right? Sure they are, but the whole thing takes on a much more pernicious outlook when you consider that YouTube takes a 45% cut of all video revenue (before taxes!) and Twitch takes a whopping 50% of subscription money from viewers as well as 30% from the initial purchase of Bits that can be gifted to streamers.
Those are some frightening numbers and bring into stark realisation that we’re coming to a place where there has to be a better way to create, deliver and engage with content. Applications like Incent are enabling content creators to share their profits with their audiences who unlock these rewards by helping to promote their favourite creators or participating in sponsored campaigns — meaning bigger earnings for the creator and actual rewards for the audience. It feels like a system that should already be mass-adopted, but it’s only really now, through a confluence of Web3.0, blockchain, view2earn models and companies like Incent that it’s actually becoming a reality.
Find out more about Incent’s streamer reward tools and how they’re re-engineering this solution as a Web 3.0 enabled protocol by visiting Incent.com.
