Ready to feel truly awful for abandoning that YouTube channel where you rate biscuits after two incredibly half-assed attempts? Forbes has unleashed the 2018 list of highest paid YouTubers, and it is an unholy conglomerate of some of the globe’s most brain-cooked humans who have earned a borderline illegal amount of money over the past year.
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Unbelievably, the top ten earners on YouTube have, combined, earned a staggering AUD$244.8 million (USD$180.5 million) in 2018, through a varying combination of ad revenue on the otherworldly amounts of views their content generates, as well as external business opportunities and endorsements.
And while gaming channels feature heavily throughout the top ten, the number one spot this year went to a tiny child.
Ryan ToysReview, in which an 8-year-old child unboxes toys of varying scale and indoctrinates the children of desperate and exhausted parents into rampant, self-sustaining consumerism, is 2018’s highest-paid YouTuber, pocketing an eye-watering AUD29.84 million (USD$22 million) in 2018, thanks largely to a line of signature toys and apparel which sells at Walmarts around the US.
The world’s highest-paid YouTube star: Ryan ToysReview has generated 26B views and earned $22M in the last year thanks to his signature line of stuffed animals, collectibles and apparel now selling at Walmarthttps://t.co/59Pvme6gae pic.twitter.com/4KlR3CJcgQ
— Forbes (@Forbes) December 3, 2018
Both of the awful Paul brothers, named Logan and Jake despite their virtual and incredibly dull lack of difference, featured prominently on the list. The one who didn’t post a video featuring a real suicide victim’s body in a Japanese forest came in second on the overall list with 2018 earnings of AUD$29.16 million (USD$21.5 million). The one who did plummeted to tenth on the list with earnings of just AUD$19.67 million (USD$14.5 million), proving definitively that, for rich lunatics, actions have tiny, imperceptible, incredibly temporary consequences.
The boisterous younger brother of Logan Paul, Jake Paul earned a career-best income from his thriving merchandise business and more than 3.5B video views in a year—making him the world’s 2nd highest-paid YouTube starhttps://t.co/n6B6G5Er0G pic.twitter.com/J7grGxgURq
— Forbes (@Forbes) December 3, 2018
10 months ago, Logan Paul posted what could have been a career-ending video. Here’s how he recovered and became the world’s 10th highest-paid YouTube star:https://t.co/pojcCX3Bd6 pic.twitter.com/eWiUxFRRwv
— Forbes (@Forbes) December 3, 2018
Sad stuff.
Speaking of spectacular crash-and-burns, PewDiePie‘s career-long use of repeated racial epithets managed to catch up to him in 2018, and as a result his yearly earnings shrank down to a mere AUD$21.02 million (USD$15.5 million); an amount which snuck him into the top ten in ninth place. A fact I’m sure keeps him up long into the good night.
Cop the full list of Forbes’ Top Ten highest-earning YouTubers for 2018 below.
- Ryan ToysReview (toy reviewer) – $US22million
- Jake Paul (vlogging) – $US21.5million
- Dude Perfect (trick shots) – US$20million
- DanTDM (gaming) – US$18.5million
- Jeffree Star (beauty) – US$18million
- Markiplier (gaming) – US$17.5million
- Vanoss Gaming (gaming) – US$17million
- Jacksepticeye (gaming) – US$16million
- PewDiePie (gaming) – US$15.5million
- Logan Paul (vlogging) – US$14.5million
