YouTube has totally changed the face of entertainment worldwide and created some huge stars along the way. It seems so simple right, just record yourself doing something cool, post it online, and next thing you know you're in YouTube Rewind, right? Well, there's actually a lot more hard work that goes into being a YouTuber, but the rewards can be incredible. Some of the richest new celebrities from the past decade have come from YouTube; but just how much do the biggest youtubers make? Today I've put together a list of some of the highest earning YouTubers around right now.
Keep in mind that these numbers are based on Ad Revenue alone, as most big youtubers sell merch, do brand deals and way more. That being said, let's get it on!
KSI
I believe my brain cells would kill me if I fail to make mention of my favorite YouTuber.
KSI is one of the biggest YouTubers to come out of England, with a respectable 20 plus million subscribers. He made a name for himself through FIFA videos and rap music, having actually worked with some big names in UK hip-hop. Along the way he picked up vlogging, and even had a boxing match with American YouTuber Logan Paul, earning an estimated $11 million. With money like that, it's no wonder KSI casually bought a gold iPhone X while walking around a mall in Dubai, coming in at a cool 40 thousand dollars. But that's chump change compared to some of the massive purchases this Nigerian/UK YouTuber has made. In March of 2019, KSI unveiled his 500-thousand-dollar custom made chain modelled after the Dragon Ball Super character Beerus. The chain contains over 2,000 stones and took 550 hours of craftsmanship to make by one of the best jewelers in London. According to Social Blade, between his two channels, KSI likely makes between 1.2 and $3.2 million annually. Sure is a long way to come from recording yourself playing FIFA.
DAVID DOBRIK
Have you ever wanted to be friends with the characters from your favorite tv shows? Well, David Dobrik made that dream a reality, becoming best friends with Josh Peck from Drake and Josh. Of course, that's no surprise, considering how charismatic and likeable the Slovakian Vlogger is, and his respectable 13.8 million subscriber channel proves it. Dobrik lives in a $2.5 million mansion in Los Angeles, which he says is "not too big, not too small, not too modern and not too old", perfectly balanced as all things should be. Except for that price tag of course. David doesn't just use his millions to spoil himself though, and famously prefers to spend it to make his friends happy and of course then record their reactions and post them on YouTube in order to make it back. So far, he's bought 15 of his friends' brand new cars with the help of some sponsors, as well as highly sought-after Hamilton tickets, which, honestly might be worth more than some of those cars. His channel brings in between 4.8 and $13 million dollars a year.
DUDE PERFECT
so this one isn't so much a YouTuber as it is a team of youtubers, but trust me, they've definitely earned a spot on this list. Famous for their insane trick shots and crazy sporting feats, it's no wonder that the group of old college roommates from Texas were able to win over the hearts and minds of the entire world when they first broke out on the YouTube scene. With a current subscriber base of over 45 million, Dude Perfect is one of the largest YouTube channels on the planet. The team has also ventured outside YouTube and have their own show, eponymously named "The Dude Perfect Show", on Nickelodeon and CMT which has been running since 2016. The group purchased a massive 35,000 square foot warehouse in Frisco, Texas, something you could never find in the YouTuber mecca that is LA, back in 2016 and are able to use the space to create some of their craziest tricks yet. I guess everything really is bigger in Texas. They have a massive merch empire, spanning clothing and all kinds of sporting equipment, but from their huge channel alone, the group rakes in between 5 and $13.2 million dollars a year.
NINJA
While not making a name for himself on YouTube, the famous streamer Ninja definitely makes a huge impact on the platform. Originally starting as a gaming streamer on Twitch, his YouTube channel is home to the highlights of his gaming career and life and holds an impressive 22.8 million subscribers. Arguably the most famous celebrity to come from the internet, Ninja was the first e-sports contender to ever be featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated magazine. He's done brand deals with massive companies like Epic Games, Samsung, Uber, Adidas and Microsoft, with each deal netting him millions of dollars. In stream donations alone, Ninja earns over $250 thousand a month, and maintains live audiences of hundreds of thousands at a time, and the highlight reel that is his YouTube channel brings in a passive half a million to $1.3 million a year. In 2019, Ninja made a deal with Microsoft to leave Twitch and start streaming exclusively on their debut streaming platform Mixer, earning him somewhere in the ballpark of 100 million dollars.
MR BEAST
Currently one of the most famous names on YouTube, Mr Beast exploded onto the YouTube scene by giving away thousands of dollars to random streamers and spending huge amounts of money to set insane world records, such as Ubering all the way across the country. Originally uploading for years to almost no views, the North Carolina born YouTuber struck it big in 2017 when some smart investments in cryptocurrency made him an overnight millionaire. Instead of spending the money on himself, however, Mr Beast found more joy in giving it all away, and within 9 months had given away well over a million dollars. He frequently goes around the country, surprising people with random donations of thousands of dollars, or challenging them to 24-hour challenges to win tens of thousands, and that's on the lower end. In 2019, he opened up a free car dealership and gave away 15 cars to unsuspecting shoppers, opened up a store where he sold items like TVs and gaming systems for the low-low price of FREE, played every carnival game at the largest Six Flags in America until he had won every single prize, only to give them all right back, and gave his younger brother 24-hours to spend 100 thousand dollars, and that's just scratching the surface. Mr Beast earns most of his money, or rather the money he gives away, from merch sales and brand deals, as well as the revenue he makes from views on his videos. He regularly pulls in 10s of millions of views per video and has so far amassed an audience of over 24 million subscribers. Because of these huge numbers, his channel alone earns around 6.2 to $17 million a year. That's a whole lot of "last person to leave" challenges right there.
PewDiePie
Felix Kjellberg, also known as PewDiePie, has held the spot of most subscribed to YouTuber for more than half a decade. That's right, Most subscribed YouTuber, I don't count corporations. In one amazing week in August 2019, PewDiePie became the first person to pass 100 million subscribers, married his longtime girlfriend Marzia, and beat the Ender Dragon in Minecraft, a game which he single handedly brought back into the limelight after years of being seen as a niche kids game. Along the way, the money and fame really haven't changed Felix much, as he lives in a humble house in Brighton, England, and drives an average car, but staying a down to earth and relatable guy has been the key to his success for so many years. He does treat himself and Marzia to frequent vacations to places like Japan and Thailand, where he spent his amazing honeymoon, and he's found an interest in designer clothes. Add to that, his incredibly popular and constantly changing line of merch, and it's no wonder that this Swedish YouTuber called an estimate of his net worth of $40 million dollars "a little low" in his 2019 video where he googled himself. Each of Felix's videos pulls in millions of views, and he's frequently at the top of the trending page, although, not so much in America for some reason. The PewDiePie YouTube channel rakes in a whopping 10.5 to $28 million a year.
Hmm. I know the top 1 and 2, but the rest is not haha. What a huge sum of money they are from vlogging.