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There is a lot of money in YouTube if you can build a big enough audience.
It's been some time since folks had to be stars in traditional media — like TV, film, and music — to rake in the big bucks. Influencers and YouTubers, especially, can make millions upon millions of dollars creating content. That's because YouTube has a direct correlation between views earned and dollars made and provides a platform to build a loyal fanbase.
Here are 10 of the highest-earners in the YouTube space, in no defined order, and how they're making their money.
MrBeastThere can hardly be a list of rich YouTubers without mentioning MrBeast, whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson. His main schtick is giving away tons of money while also, you know, making tons of money. Forbes estimated he made $82 million in 2023.
SEE ALSO: MrBeast breaks the ultimate YouTube recordTo be clear, the MrBeast brand is hardly limited to YouTube. He's launched snack foods and burger restaurants and inked a deal with Amazon Prime Video. But still, his bread and butter is his YouTube channel, which has a record 317 million subscribers.
Jake PaulThe Paul brothers have long been stalwarts of the internet, having first garnered an audience on Vine and then on YouTube. Jake Paul certainly hasn't slowed down in popularity. Forbes estimated he made $34 million last year. Paul has reinvented himself more than a few times, though recently, he's focused on a career in the ring. As a professional boxer, he's scheduled to fight Mike Tyson—yes, the Mike Tyson—live on Netflix in November.
Tweet may have been deleted Rhett and LinkWhile YouTube — and being online, in general — often thrives on controversy, lifelong friends Rhett and Link have thrived on a more wholesome image. Rhett James McLaughlin and Charles Lincoln "Link" Neal III are comedians who've basically created a mini-empire. Their company, Mythical, puts out their shows Good Mythical Morning and Mythical Kitchen and a number of podcasts. Forbes estimated they made $35 million last year.
Tweet may have been deleted Ms. RachelIf you have young children — or even if you have friends with toddlers — then Ms. Rachel is a household name. The former teacher makes educational videos for young kids that captivate their attention. Ask any parent, and they'll espouse their love for Ms. Rachel's work. Her videos rack up hundreds of millions of views since toddlers often watch the same thing over and over. Social Blade estimated she could make up to $16.5 million yearly on her videos.
Ryan KajiAs we said for Ms. Rachel, there is money to be made in making content geared toward kids. Kaji is a child creator who gained popularity testing out toys. His channel, Ryan's World, has nearly 38 million subscribers. His videos rack-up millions of views, but he also makes money via endorsements, brand deals, and his own game/toy company. Forbes estimated the 12-year-old made $35 million last year.
Vlad & NikiAgain: Kids' content makes bank on YouTube. Vladislav "Vlad" Vashketov and Nikita "Niki" Vashketov have a channel with 125 million subscribers. Their videos, obviously, focus on kids activities, typically playing games or trying out toys. They even have a toy line at Walmart. Parents noted they make $54 million per year, though even for YouTubers, that seems like it could be on the high end of what's possible.
Logan PaulJust like his younger brother, Logan Paul remains a stalwart online. His YouTube channel has nearly 24 million followers, but he also got into fighting in the ring and beverages with the uber-popular PRIME — a line of sports and energy drinks. Forbes estimated he made $21 million last year.
MarkiplierMarkiplier, real name Mark Edward Fischbach, has a super-popular YouTube channel with 37 million subscribers that focuses mainly on gaming and tech. But, as Forbes noted, he also makes a lot of money running his Cloak clothing brand and via his podcast deal with Spotify. The outlet estimated he made $30 million last year.
Dude PerfectWhat started as a bunch of bros doing trick-shots has turned into a major business. The college roommates began posting videos in 2009 and, more than a decade later, have more than 60 million subscribers. Axios reported they'd bring in around $50 million in revenue in 2024, while also receiving a $100 million investment from the firm Highmount Capital.
Marques BrownleeBrownlee is perhaps the leading tech reviewer online. His videos are widely respected and his views can help shape public opinion on products — if you like tech, you've probably seen him at every major event. Decades of doing it has paid off, with his channel garnering nearly 20 million subscribers. Forbes estimated he made $8.5 million last year.
When astronomers pointed the James Webb Space Telescope at the early universe, they found an ancient galaxy with an unusual light signature.
After a thorough study of the data, scientists determined stars within that galaxy aren't the direct culprit of its extraordinary brightness. It's space gas.
This finding, published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, could provide a missing link in cosmic history, revealing a previously unknown phase of galaxy evolution — one in which superheated gas clouds can actually outshine their stars.
"It looks like these stars must be much hotter and more massive than what we see in the local universe," Harley Katz, an astrophysicist at the universities of Oxford in the United Kingdom and Chicago in the United States, said in a statement, "which makes sense because the early universe was a very different environment."
SEE ALSO: Webb telescope is about to home in on these 2 exoplanets. Here's why. The James Webb Space Telescope found a galaxy in the early universe with brighter gas than stars. Credit: NASA / ESA / CSA / STScI / Alex CameronIn astronomy, looking farther translates into observing the past because light and other forms of radiation take longer to reach us. Webb, a collaboration of NASA and its European and Canadian counterparts, was built to study an extremely early period of the cosmos, detecting invisible light at infrared wavelengths. In short, a lot of dust and gas in space obscures the view to extremely distant and inherently dim light sources, but infrared waves can penetrate through the clouds.
Webb has been able to observe some of the oldest, faintest light in existence, including this strange galaxy, GS-NDG-9422, as it existed 1 billion years after the Big Bang. For perspective, the universe’s age is estimated to be somewhere in the neighborhood of 13.8 billion years.
Scientists think the galaxy is undergoing intense star formation within a cocoon of dense gas that is churning out massive, hot stars. A barrage of light particles from the starlight could be bombarding the gas, causing it to shine extremely bright.
Tweet may have been deletedAstronomers used computer models of hot, massive stars heating up clouds of gas. Not only did they demonstrate that the gas could be more luminous, but that the results closely replicated the recent telescope observations of galaxy GS-NDG-9422.
In the Milky Way’s neck of the universe, hot, massive stars generally have temperatures between 70,000 to 90,000 degrees Fahrenheit. But this galaxy has stars upward of 144,000 degrees Fahrenheit, the researchers said.
Cosmologists have predicted that gas could outshine stars in the environments of the universe’s first generation of stars, known as so-called Population III stars. Finding these pristine, pure-bred stars is one of the top priorities of modern astrophysics.
Given that most of the chemicals in the universe are thought to have come from exploded stars, scientists have rationalized that the firstborn must have been composed almost entirely of hydrogen and helium, the primitive material that emerged from the Big Bang. Over time, as stars died and enriched the universe with heavier chemical elements, subsequent generations of stars formed with more diverse ingredients.
Though the studied galaxy does not appear to have those highly-sought-after Population III stars — their light is too chemically complex — they seem to be something in between the universe’s first primitive stars and the kind that would likely inhabit more-established galaxies. Now the team wonders whether this is a common phenomenon among galaxies of this period.
"My first thought in looking at the galaxy’s [light] spectrum was, 'that’s weird,' which is exactly what the Webb telescope was designed to reveal," said lead author Alex Cameron of Oxford in a statement. It’s discovering "totally new phenomena in the early universe that will help us understand how the cosmic story began."