After a pretty terrible year, gamer PewDiePie is no longer the richest YouTuber in the world slipping into sixth place.
At the end of each year Forbes releases their list of the highest-paid YouTube stars and since PewDiePie caused repeated controversy in 2017, it is to no-one’s surprise that he has been knocked off the top spot.
Real name Felix Kjellberg, PewDiePie saw himself dropped by advertisers after he came under fire for posting several videos that included racist language and anti-semitic imagery.
Last year the Swedish YouTuber’s earnings were around $15 million but in 2017 they dropped to $12 million after Google took him off its preferred program and Disney dropped him from their multi-channel network Maker Studios which no longer exists.
Many other companies also blacklisted him leading to a significant drop in revenue but PewDiePie can’t really complain as $12 million is still a jaw dropping amount of money.
And even though he lost advertisers his subscribers were clearly not put off by his behaviour as his videos are still watched by nearly 60 million people.
Replacing him as the highest paid YouTuber is someone you may have never even heard of – DanTDM.
Daniel Middleton really is in a league of his own earning a rather sweet $16.5 million the past year thanks to a sold-out world tour, 17 million subscribers and over 11 billion views on his channel.
The 27-year-old from Aldershot in England started making videos in 2012 about Minecraft and Pokemon while working at Tesco and his channel soon blew up.
Having not featured at all in the top 10 list of highest paid YouTubers previously, Dan has had a fantastic year.
His recent live show at the Sydney Opera House became the second fastest selling show the venue has ever hosted, he published a graphic novel and he has also set the Guinness World Record for ‘most views for a dedicated Minecraft video channel’.
Making money through advertising, Dan got a big cut with YouTube giving him 68 per cent of the profits made.
For the first time nearly half of the YouTubers on the list specialise in gaming with millions of viewers watching their channels for the hilarious commentaries and reviews of the latest releases.
Combined, the 10 highest paid YouTubers earned between them an eye-watering $127 million between June 1 2016 and June 1 2017 before taxes and management fees, a remarkable 80 per cent increase from last year’s £70.5 million.
Forbes used data from YouTube, agents, publicists and lawyers to calculate the figures.
The list also features six-year-old Ryan from Ryan ToysReview who has an incredible 10 million subscribers watching him review and play with different toys.
He made $11 million this year making the eighth spot on the list.
Only one woman made the top 10, Lilly Singh (IISuperwomanII) squeezing into tenth place dropping from third in last year’s list.
Here is the list in full:
- Daniel Middleton (DanTDM) – $16.5m
- Evan Fong (VanossGaming) – $15.5m
- Dude Perfect – $14m
- Mark Fischbach (Markiplier) – $12.5m
- Logan Paul – $12.5m
- Felix Kjellberg (PewDiePie) – $12m
- Jake Paul – $11.5m
- Ryan ToysReview – $11m
- Smosh – $11m
- Lilly Singh (IISuperwomanII) – $10.5m
From what the numbers tell us, YouTubers are growing stronger and stronger as the years pass by.
