The Top 10 Highest Paid YouTube Stars: 2018 Edition

cageymaru

cageymaru

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Forbes has created a top 10 list of the highest paid YouTube Stars in 2018. Five of the slots are occupied by channels that play video games. The number one channel features an 8 year old that reviews toys and now has his own line of merchandise at Walmart. Ryan ToysReview - $22M. Jake Paul - $21.5M. Dude Perfect - $20M. DanTDM - $18.5M. Jeffree Star - $18M. Markiplier - $17.5M. Vanoss Gaming - $17M. Jacksepticeye - $16M. PewDiePie - $15.5M. Logan Paul. - $14.5M.


Merchandise has become an increasingly important revenue stream for these top digital stars, almost all of whom (No. 1 being a notable exception) are in their 20s and 30s. Each of the 10 on our list now has a line of merchandise, whose blossoming sales help account for that 42% income increase from a year ago.
 
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vegeta535

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*staggers* Dude perfect is the only channel I ever watched out of that list. It was only cool for a couple days too.
 
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Motley

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THIS IS BULLSHIT! You're not going to believe this, but I only found out about the "youtube stars" making millions, just 1 yr ago. I had no idea these guys make that much.

Its all the 8 yr olds watching this crap, and parents would rather have Pewdiepie babysit their kids than, by god, spend any time with their children.

What I don't get is all the crap TV watchers get from people who watch youtube. Paid professional actors, versus just some idiot that can think of the most stupid crap, gets rave reviews, subs, and money.

With just as much adverts youtube versus TV. And I am muther of god so sick of "if you like my channel, please like and subscribe, and brought to you by Secure VPN, its the greatest VPN ever made!"

Hypocrisy I tell ya.
 
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BoiseTech

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Motley said:
THIS IS BULLSHIT! You're not going to believe this, but I only found out about the "youtube stars" making millions, just 1 yr ago. I had no idea these guys make that much.

Its all the 8 yr olds watching this crap, and parents would rather have Pewdiepie babysit their kids than, by god, spend any time with their children.
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Right, first time I saw my 5 yr old watching some kid play with toys, instead of playing with the toys I bought him I immediately uninstalled youtube from his tablet....
 
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Motley

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BoiseTech said:
Right, first time I saw my 5 yr old watching some kid play with toys, instead of playing with the toys I bought him I immediately uninstalled youtube from his tablet....
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OMG, are you serious? Kids watching kids play with toys? Holy shit I didn't even know that was a thing.

Good move on your part deleting youtube!
 
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Maxx

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Motley said:
THIS IS BULLSHIT!

Its all the 8 yr olds watching this crap, and parents would rather have Pewdiepie babysit their kids than, by god, spend any time with their children.
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PewDiePie's viewer base has actually slid a lot older in recent years. Although many of the other people on the list definitely DO have a young viewer base. But I'm okay with some of them - Jacksepticeye is a smart dude who is very pro-community and pro-charity, and Markiplier is also pretty based. The problem is #2 and #10. I do agree that a lot of parents let their kids be babysat by video but I don't think that's a YouTube problem per se (go check out Twitch).
 
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BoiseTech

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Motley said:
OMG, are you serious? Kids watching kids play with toys? Holy shit I didn't even know that was a thing.

Good move on your part deleting youtube!
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That highest earner 22 million. He's a kid, and he "reviews toys." Basically he plays with them and his parents record it. Its quite sad, he was sick one day, and the parents took his temp, gave him some Tylenol then threw a toy in front of him and started recording.... My wife stumbled on a "this is child abuse" thread about him one day...
 
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Motley

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Ya just the other day I was watching a decent channel, Paul's hardware, and the next video was from Mr Beast, I watched a group of his employees/friends that attached like 5,000 fans to a big board that pushed a car. I was like WTF is this crap, and why would anybody watch this. Holy crap!
 
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Motley

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BoiseTech said:
That highest earner 22 million. He's a kid, and he "reviews toys." Basically he plays with them and his parents record it. Its quite sad, he was sick one day, and the parents took his temp, gave him some Tylenol then threw a toy in front of him and started recording.... My wife stumbled on a "this is child abuse" thread about him one day...
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HOLY SHIT? So let me get this straight, the parents make money by filming their kids? WTF this is just outta control.
 
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ryno9100

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Surprised at the surprise here. One thing to keep in mind is that this is most likely how much the channel itself makes, not the individual. Markiplier has like 10 employees. Most of these channels are actually run by groups of people. That's not to say the amounts their making aren't insane, but it's something to factor in.

Entertainment is a huge money maker. Youtube is an easy, on demand platform with lots of content. These guys just happened to know what content would reach the most people and were good at making it (or had teams that helped them be good at making it). Good on them. They earned their money same as anyone else.
 
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WhoMe

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Motley said:
Ya just the other day I was watching a decent channel, Paul's hardware, and the next video was from Mr Beast, I watched a group of his employees/friends that attached like 5,000 fans to a big board that pushed a car. I was like WTF is this crap, and why would anybody watch this. Holy crap!
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And yet you watched it. But anyway a good dose of porn will clear your mind of such nonsense. One thing these money making Stars have is they aren't porn (well not the fun kind anyway) so they must make up the .001% of the internet that is not porn but still profitable...amazing.

Now how about I start videoing my dogs playing with new dog toys and treats and giving the paws up/down review...think I can make millions?
 
Darunion

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WhoMe said:
And yet you watched it. But anyway a good dose of porn will clear your mind of such nonsense. One thing these money making Stars have is they aren't porn (well not the fun kind anyway) so they must make up the .001% of the internet that is not porn but still profitable...amazing.

Now how about I start videoing my dogs playing with new dog toys and treats and giving the paws up/down review...think I can make millions?
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I searched that on youtube and there were tons of links of people already doing this....
 
Zarathustra[H]

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It still blows my mind that enough people actually watch these clowns that they can make a living at it at all, let alone this kind of killing.

The streamers are the ones who blow my mind the most. I have never once in my life felt even the most remote desire to watch someone else play a video game, either local or via the internet.

To me, YouTube is for cat videos, short clips of "look what I saw today" and instructional videos for how to repair your car and/or house. You know, I want to share a video with friends or family or a forum I'm posting on in order to show them something quick. That's the only thing I use it for, which can be evidenced by my "channel"... Heck, like 90% of my videos are unlisted.

This - to me - is what YouTube is for. Nothing else. I don't want to see any professionally produced content at all on YouTube.
 
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WhoMe

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Darunion said:
I searched that on youtube and there were tons of links of people already doing this....
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any of them "Stars?" I could actually see this working if you are good at it and can figure out how to tap into the dog lovers crowd (and have a photogenic dog)..like a lot of things not as simple as it sounds...wouldn't doubt that that kids parents are doing a lot of marketing in forums and such (or did at the start) to get views.
 
Darunion

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Zarathustra[H] said:
It still blows my mind that enough people actually watch these clowns that they can make a living at it at all, let alone this kind of killing.

The streamers are the ones who blow my mind the most. I have never once in my life felt even the most remote desire to watch someone else play a video game, either local or via the internet.

To me, YouTube is for cat videos, short clips of "look what I saw today" and instructional videos for how to repair your car and/or house. You know, I want to share a video with friends or family or a forum I'm posting on in order to show them something quick. That's the only thing I use it for, which can be evidenced by my "channel"... Heck, like 90% of my videos are unlisted.

This - to me - is what YouTube is for. Nothing else. I don't want to see any professionally produced content at all on YouTube.
Click to expand...

I use it for music a lot, but yea mostly instructionals or sharing a video with friends lol. I have a few videos on my channel and maybe 30 views.
 
Zarathustra[H]

Zarathustra[H]

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Motley said:
THIS IS BULLSHIT! You're not going to believe this, but I only found out about the "youtube stars" making millions, just 1 yr ago. I had no idea these guys make that much.

Its all the 8 yr olds watching this crap, and parents would rather have Pewdiepie babysit their kids than, by god, spend any time with their children.

What I don't get is all the crap TV watchers get from people who watch youtube. Paid professional actors, versus just some idiot that can think of the most stupid crap, gets rave reviews, subs, and money.

With just as much adverts youtube versus TV. And I am muther of god so sick of "if you like my channel, please like and subscribe, and brought to you by Secure VPN, its the greatest VPN ever made!"

Hypocrisy I tell ya.
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I have never liked a video or subscribed to a channel on Youtube. It is against my religion.

edit:
Apparently I lied. I subscribed to HardOCP at some point. Don't even remember doing it. Don't know why I did though, because whenever the H puts something on you tube, it's on the front page anyway, so why subscribe?
 
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Draax

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... and I thought professional athletes were overpaid ... but a “YouTube star” making as much or more than a star QB? Something is wrong here, really fucking wrong.
 
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TordanGow

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Zarathustra[H] said:
To me, YouTube is for cat videos, short clips of "look what I saw today" and instructional videos for how to repair your car and/or house. You know, I want to share a video with friends or family or a forum I'm posting on in order to show them something quick. That's the only thing I use it for, which can be evidenced by my "channel"... Heck, like 90% of my videos are unlisted.

This - to me - is what YouTube is for. Nothing else. I don't want to see any professionally produced content at all on YouTube.
Click to expand...

I'm in the same boat with how I feel about my attraction (or lack thereof) to YouTube, but have you ever considered that maybe YouTube isn't targeted to your usage profile? I don't wear or care about Air Jordan sneakers, but there is a very lucrative market for them.
 
Master_shake_

Master_shake_

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Ecelebs are like half a step above actual celebs because they do not pretend for a living.

But it's still a damn low bar
 
Zarathustra[H]

Zarathustra[H]

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TordanGow said:
I'm in the same boat with how I feel about my attraction (or lack thereof) to YouTube, but have you ever considered that maybe YouTube isn't targeted to your usage profile? I don't wear or care about Air Jordan sneakers, but there is a very lucrative market for them.
Click to expand...

I used to like YouTube e back in the day before they added as revenue sharing so users could make money.

Ever since there is money involved, it has gone to shit.
 
Zarathustra[H]

Zarathustra[H]

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Screenshot_20181204-172940~2.png
 
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J3RK

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It's going to keep happening. The more we automate, the more kids growing up with a phone in their hand and a camera in front of their face continue on, the more of this we'll see. It's like a weird version of a renaissance. There will be less and less manual labor, and more and more entertainment and creative pursuits. Which also means a lot more crap along with anything that could be considered good. We just have to get better at filtering out the noise. We'll have to find new things to occupy our time.

Then of course it'll all go back to the way it was when the machines rise up and kill most of us off. Then we'll have to revert toward survival, subsistence, and driving weird vehicles in the wastes.
 
The Mad Atheist

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Haven't watched, subbed, or heard of any of them, maybe watched part of 1 video of Pewdie, whatever his name is and never looked back.

Motley said:
..... by god,

spend any time with their children.
.....
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Well, if you ever read the Bible, then I wouldn't either, that's one sick murderous SOB. :p
As for the parents, their too busy looking at their phones.

BoiseTech said:
That highest earner 22 million. He's a kid, and he "reviews toys." Basically he plays with them and his parents record it. Its quite sad, he was sick one day, and the parents took his temp, gave him some Tylenol then threw a toy in front of him and started recording.... My wife stumbled on a "this is child abuse" thread about him one day...
Click to expand...

That's F'ed up, hopefully the kid getting a pretty penny from all that money.

Motley said:
HOLY SHIT? So let me get this straight, the parents make money by filming their kids? WTF this is just outta control.
Click to expand...

Oh come on, everyone knows the only reason to have kids is for them to do the household choirs, especially picking the dog's waste......
 
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RobCalleg

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Didn’t know there was so many socialist commies on this forum who decided on how much they think people should make and think people shouldn’t chase after business opportunities.

Who will be the first to suggedt that their wealth be redistributed?

I am not out of touch, it’s the kids that are wrong!
 
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