The highest paid celebrities on YouTube

By Abram Brown and Abigail Freeman

Named MrBeast, it may have been inevitable to become such a big star. The 23-year-old made $ 54 million in 2021, more than any YouTuber in history, as his videos garnered 10 billion views, more than double the previous year. What is it that the public likes so much? Well, the internet loves to watch stunts and MrBeast excels at that. It is noted that last year, he spent 50 hours buried alive, offered $ 10,000 to anyone willing to take a bath full of snakes and hosted his own version of Squid Game, making copies of scenes from the famous Netflix series.

MrBeast tops the list of the highest paid YouTubers for the first time and is likely to earn a place among the highest paid entertainers in the world. In fact, his $ 54 million earnings would put him in the Top 40 of the Celebrity 100 list, a ranking of the highest paid stars in the entire entertainment spectrum, above stars such as Billie Eilish, Kim Kardashian, Angelina Jolie and even the BTS band. The two YouTubers following MrBeast – Jake Paul ($ 45 million) and Markiplier ($ 38 million) – also in the Celebrity 100 list, which had a limit of 35 million. dollars.

Overall, YouTubers grossed about $ 300 million in 2021, a record 40 percent from a year earlier, mainly due to increased views on their YouTube channels and advertising revenue. from these videos. (More people than ever use YouTube: The platform now has nearly 2 billion users, a 40% increase over five years). About half of their profits come from this advertising revenue. To further boost their payouts, all of these stars have branded product lines and are also generating additional revenue from Twitch, Snap, Facebook, podcasts, NFTs, and even hamburgers. Some have signed deals with Spotter, a Los Angeles startup that buys rights to old YouTube videos.

The following is the list:

# 1. Mr. Beast (Jimmy Donaldson) – $ 54 million

Thanks to the increase in projections, his earnings for 2021 are almost double the corresponding earnings for the previous 1st place, which was at $ 29.5 million won by Ryan Kaji, who has now dropped to 7th place. Another notable project in 2021 was MrBeast Burger, an app and menu that allows followers to order meals under the MrBeast brand from 1,600 restaurants across the country working with him to deliver orders . MrBeast is in charge of marketing, promoting burgers to its nearly 90 million YouTube subscribers. He and the restaurants then share the profits from the orders. So far, the company has sold 5 million burgers.

# 2. Jake Paul – $ 45 million

Paul returns to this list from 2018 when he had made a profit of 21.5 million dollars, mainly through boxing. Last year he gave three very prominent fights with MMA fighters: In particular, he participated in one fight with Ben Askren and in two with Tyron Woodley. (Paul beat them all.) In many ways, boxing, a sport in which controversial stars have long been involved, is a perfect fit for Paul, who does not shy away from controversy. He was one of the most popular names on YouTube until Logan’s brother posted in December 2017 a video shot in a Japanese forest which is famous for its suicide scene. The fans hated it, considering it bad taste and the reactions hit both brothers with many sponsors abandoning them. They can now make a profit from YouTube ads again, but Jake posts videos less often than he once did, using the platform primarily to advance his boxing career, which now accounts for nearly 90% of of revenue.

# 3. Markiplier – $ 38 million

Few social media stars can sell products like Markiplier, who saw particularly high sales of Unus Annus T-shirts, sweatshirts and other items, the main reason his profits have almost doubled since the previous one. list. (These Unus Annus videos were a collaboration with YouTuber Ethan Nestor-Darling and have been running on Markiplier’s YouTube channel since 2019. A year later, Markiplier deleted them all intentionally). Markiplier then hopes to re-establish himself as a television star. In 2021, he shot a TV adaptation of The Edge of Sleep, a post-apocalyptic thriller that originally starred as a podcast in 2019. The TV project is still looking for a roof and hopes to sell the series to a company like Netflix or Hulu later this year. . Markiplier remains popular on YouTube (31 million subscribers), having first established his reputation by recording himself playing games such as Five Nights at Freddy’s, a video game for a haunted pizzeria.

# 4. Rhett and Link – $ 30 million

What started as a duo hosting a daily show, Good Mythical Morning, has grown into something of an empire with spinoffs and brand extensions, increasing their YouTube views and profits. One of their most successful endeavors is Mythical Kitchen, a cooking series hosted by Josh Scherer. The two-year show already has 1.8 million YouTube subscribers. Another initiative is the Mythical Accelerator fund, through which they intend to invest $ 5 million in other YouTubers. (They made their first deal in 2021, investing an unknown amount in the rising Jarvis Johnson). In October, they granted a long-standing request from their fans to abandon their family-friendly attitude by hosting a two-hour, adult-only livestream event, for which they sold 70,000 tickets for $ 50 each.

# 5. Unspeakable – $ 28.5 million

Unspeakable does not stop talking about the famous Minecraft video game. He has over 20 million subscribers to his four YouTube channels, where he posts videos of himself playing Minecraft and other games. In other videos, he does things like fill a room with live alligators. Born in Houston as Nathan Graham, he has been posting steadily on YouTube for the past decade. Unspeakable has sold its list of YouTube videos to Spotter, betting that it can use the money to grow its business faster instead of waiting for the videos to generate advertising revenue. (Spotter is now one of the largest independent owners of YouTube content, making several deals like this one with Unspeakable in recent years). In any case, Spotter’s money was at least enough to help him make his list debut.

# 6. Nastya – $ 28 million

Nastya also struck a deal with Spotter last year, selling the rights to its old YouTube videos to Spotter for cash, while retaining the rights to each new video it uploads. The seven-year-old, who immigrated from Russia with her parents, has 87.5 million subscribers to the Like Nastya channel, where she records her life. Top hits from 2021 are videos about decorating Halloween cupcakes and how she spends time with her best friends, Evelyn and Adrian.

# 7. Ryan Kaji – $ 27 million

Ryan started on YouTube at the age of 4, making reviews and playing games. Now 10 years old, his parents and others defending his business interests – including former Disney executive Chris Williams – are increasingly focused on keeping his brand alive as he grows. The answer, they hope, may be the cartoon characters co-starring with Ryan. (Some progress has been made. One such character, Red Titan, a childish superhero with a crimson cape and resemblance to Ryan, has become well known for appearing as a balloon in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade for the past two years). Currently, its main YouTube channel, Ryan’s World, has 31 million subscribers and a huge range of branded products and games sold in major retail chains such as Target and Walmart.

# 8. Dude Perfect – $ 20 million

If you find it dangerous, then it’s gold for this sports comedy five, consisting of twins Coby and Cory Cotton, Garrett Hilbert, Cody Jones and Tyler Toney, who post videos of acrobatic tricks, etc. What better way than to watch? these acrobatics on the internet? See them up close and personal. The five-member team will tour for the third time this summer in 24 cities. And for the bravest at home, Dude Perfect last year published 101 tricks and tips in a 250-page book, full of photos and step-by-step instructions.

# 9. Logan Paul – $ 18 million

Like Jake’s brother, Logan returns to this list after the 2017 scandal, with the result that both brothers were removed from the list. And like Jake, Logan has also turned to boxing, having had a fight last June against former world champion Floyd Mayweather, who, as a show fight, had no official winner. As Logan continues to restore his image, he had one of the first NFT celebrity releases, selling $ 5 million last February, and his podcast, Impaulsive, has garnered more than 100 million views on YouTube in the past year.

# 10. Preston Arsement – $ 16 million

Preston maintains many YouTube channels, but the name of his most popular, PrestonPlayz, shows you everything you need to know about him. Preston plays a lot of video games, mostly Minecraft. Nearly 12 million subscribers are subscribed to this four-year-old channel, which has done a good job of keeping it up to date. In one of his most recent videos, he made a version of Minecraft inspired by the TV series Squid Game.