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YouTube's Top-Earner For 2018 Is a 7-Year-Old (usatoday.com)

Posted by EditorDavid on from the better-than-a-lemonade-stand dept.

In 2018 the most-downloaded iPhone app was YouTube, reports USA Today, while Amazon's best-selling item was their Fire TV Stick for streaming video. "Sense a trend? We love to stream video." If you're thinking of quitting your day job this year and looking to strike it big in the world of online video, maybe this will inspire you. The No. 1 earner on YouTube this year is.....7-year-old Ryan from Ryan Toys Review. For all those unboxing videos and playing with toys -- and his own new line of toys at Walmart -- he and his family will pull in a cool $22 million, according to Forbes.
Ryan launched the channel in 2015 -- when he was four -- and now has 17.3 million followers.

One viral video of the 7-year-old even racked up 1.6 billion views, though apparently Ryan actually has fewer subscribers than several of the game streamers among YouTube's top-ten earners.

10 of 78 comments (clear)

  1. I watched a few minutes of his videos... by MikeDataLink · · Score: 2

    and I don't get why anyone would watch this. Period.

    --
    Mike @ The Geek Pub. Let's Make Stuff!
    1. Re:I watched a few minutes of his videos... by Sebby · · Score: 2

      and I don't get why anyone would watch this. Period.

      Still would've been novel for ./ to actually link to the YouTube channel, so some of us could easily check it now..... but no.

      --

      AC comments get piped to /dev/null
    2. Re:I watched a few minutes of his videos... by beheaderaswp · · Score: 2

      The internet is now inhabited by the "consumer class". They just want to be entertained.

      Eternal autumn is exactly that- but it's been extended to every human capable of using a phone.

      --
      Another consultant who stuck it out.

      "We are the Priests, of the Temples of Syrinx..."
    3. Re:I watched a few minutes of his videos... by The+Original+CDR · · Score: 4, Insightful

      It's toy porn for kiddies.

    4. Re:I watched a few minutes of his videos... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      People watch PewdiePie and made Justin Bieber famous so.... I don't know either.

  2. 7 y/o and already more important than Ken Doll by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    And already a better and more legitimate businessman than Trump too.

  3. Youtube censored everybody else. by walterbyrd · · Score: 4, Funny

    He won by default.

  4. Rise of the Influencers by mentil · · Score: 4, Informative

    I imagine he gets paid tons of money from toy companies to review toys they send him, and someone offscreen prompts him to talk about various bullet-points written up by said companies. Not sure if that's part of the $22 million figure, but ~$50k per paid review is typical for popular influencers.

    Pro boxers can get investigated for a paid endorsement for a cryptocurrency without saying they've been compensated, but randos can make videos on the Youtubes doing the same thing with impunity, and the same agency can only say they're looking into maybe requiring disclosures.

    --
    Corruption is convincing someone that the selfless ideal is the same as their selfish ideal.
  5. Re:Correction: by Hognoxious · · Score: 2

    Millennials cannot possibly be this thick. Can they?

    Who designed Gnome 3? Who let the certificates expire? Who invented codes of conduct for programming languages?

    They're that thick and then some.

    --
    Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
  6. Ryan didn't launch his channel when he was 4 by Cesare+Ferrari · · Score: 4, Insightful

    His parents did, and are monetising their son.