Top 10 highest earning channels on YouTube
A seven year old boy who reviews toys is the highest earning YouTuber according to research by Forbes Magazine published this week.
Ryan, of Ryan ToysReview, won the top spot in the analysis looking at earnings from June 2017 to June 2018 raking in an estimated $22M.
His fortune is amassed from ad revenue, sponsorships and lucrative merchandising deals, for example, with shopping conglomerate Walmart.
The youngster narrowly beat prankster Jake Paul, whose rap songs and controversial prank videos collected some 3.5B views over the year and earned him (along with his thriving merchandising business) an estimated $21.5M.
Jake Paul’s older brother Logan, who took a substantial financial hit after publishing a questionable video showing the apparent victim of a suicide in January which got him kicked out YouTube’s Google Preferred programme, just made it into the top 10 with $14.5M.
YouTube’s most subscribed creator, PewDiePie, who also found himself in hot water this year when some of his content was criticized for being antisemitic, grabbed the number nine spot after pulling in $15.5M through the period.
Several gamers were also featured in the list including the Irish gamer Jacksepticeye at number eight with $16M, Canadian channel Vanoss Gaming at number seven with $17M, Hawaiian creator Markiplier at number six with $17.5M and British gamer DanTDM at number four with estimated earnings of $18.5M.
All have carved out a niche with the games they play on their channel, capturing an audience through their witty, colourful commentary.
All also have money making sidelines with either clothing or accessory lines, or in the case of Vanoss Gaming a fledgling hip-hop career.
The only beauty guru to make it into the top 10 is Jeffree Star, who also runs a profitable cosmetics company. He slides in at number five with earnings of $18M during the 12 months.
Finally placing at number three in the Forbes ranking is Dude Perfect, a sports/entertainment channel led by a five-man crew who published videos over the period which gained 175M views. They earned an estimated $20M.
Our take
While views are certainly a huge component to creator wealth it seems more and more merchandising is becoming an important factor. All of the creators mentioned above have delved into the business to supplement their direct YouTube income.
Sponsokit did an analysis of views gained by each of the top 10 channels over the period the Forbes research was conducted.
As can be seen from the graph the order looks a little different, with PewDiePie for example climbing six places.
It seems creator merchandising will remain a huge driver going forward, probably with smaller influencers copying the business models of these most successful earners on the platform.
In a wider sense, these earnings figures also show that despite complaints from creators throughout the year about the ever changing algorithm of YouTube and their content taking a hit as a result, YouTube careers can be incredibly lucrative and many new and established creators will be inspired to steer the course in order to reap the benefits.
The list further reflects that the knocks to PewDiePie and especially the backlash received by Logan Paul far from killing their channels was only short term and they still managed to carve out success throughout the year, perhaps indicating that once you’re that big on the platform there’s not much that can really put a dent in your earning potential.
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