Who are YouTube’s top 10 highest-paid stars? Ryan’s World’s nine-year-old Ryan Kaji tops the list but Markiplier, MrBeast and Jeffree Star aren’t far behind

Jan 19 , 2021

YouTubers Blippi, Jeffree Star and Preston Arsement are some of the highest-earning YouTubers in the world. Photos: Luxurylaunches

As Covid-19 closed businesses and confined everyone indoors, Netflix and YouTube thrived – these 10 stars in particular, from Ryan Kaji, the first YouTuber featured in Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, to Minecraft streamer Preston Arsement

Who runs the world? YouTubers!

Everyone is glued to their channels, scrolling through their content. And with Covid-19 confining people indoors with only YouTube and Netflix to entertain themselves with, viewership has soared, with top-earning stars garnering millions of views per video.

Even as other sectors struggle, business on YouTube is booming. Forbes noted that its list of top 10 highest-paid YouTubers secured an estimated US$211 million from June 2019 to June 2020 – a whopping 30 per cent jump from the year before.

But some stars would rather things go back to normal, despite Covid-19 making them a mint: “I just can’t wait until we can go back outside,” said nine-year-old Ryan Kaji to Forbes, who topped the magazine’s list for the third year in a row.

Let’s take a look at exactly how much these stars banked in 2020.

American YouTuber Jeffree Starr. Photo: Luxurylaunches

10. Jeffree Star (Jeffrey Lynn Steininger Jr), US$15 million, 16.9 million subscribers

Eccentricities, controversies and a heap of talent – that’s Jeffree Star for you. First a singer, make-up artist and YouTuber, and now the owner of a make-up line that he sells direct-to-consumer, the beauty star is making loads of money through his business venture; his earnings through the make-up line are more than what the artist makes on YouTube. The popular Conspiracy Collection, launched last year, reportedly sold one million eye shadow palettes in 30 minutes.

9. David Dobrik, US$15.5 million, 18 million subscribers