YouTubers Who Make A Ton Of Money

When YouTube was launched in 2005, nobody could have predicted it would become a breeding ground for a new generation of millionaires. For most contributors, YouTube is little more than a place to share fun videos or a soapbox to stand on for hot topics, but for a select few, it's a full-time job. 

Advertising and sponsorship deals allow content creators with big audiences to turn a profit, and we're not talking loose change. The platform's elite are earning seven-figure salaries, and new influencers are popping up all the time. YouTube has even become a talent mine for mainstream media with stars of the streaming site crossing over to TV and even movies thanks to some seriously lucrative development deals. 

Scrambling around to find a webcam and a basic video editing program right now? We don't blame you. In the meantime, let's take a look at some YouTube superstars who are raking in millions.

Smosh founders Ian Hecox and Anthony Padilla made their debut on YouTube in November 2005, and their comedy channel gradually built a huge audience during the decade that followed. According to Forbes, the Smosh guys made a whopping $8.5 million in 2015, having maximized profits through extra YouTube channels: Smosh Games has proven particularly popular, exceeding 7 million subscribers in 2017.

Their profits were actually down in the financial year 2016, though they still raked in more than your average YouTuber could ever dream of earning. Forbes reported an annual intake of $7 million for Smosh, which was "in part thanks to an entire video series paid for by Schick razors." Their main channel has still been performing well in 2017, with views in the tens of millions every month, according to Social Blade. At the time of this writing, Smosh is considered the fourth most profitable name on YouTube.

All that could change in 2018 because Padilla has retired. "I'm so sad to see this chapter of my life coming to a close, but I will continue to support Ian and wish nothing but the best for him and the brand we created together," he said in a statement. "As I begin this adventure, I am excited to return to a feeling that I felt many years ago: a rush of adrenaline following a new and exciting idea." 

Violinist Lindsey Stirling managed to launch a career in the music industry via her YouTube channel, which she created in 2007. Her unique, intricately choreographed performances soon earned her a dedicated online following, and in 2010, she won a spot in the fifth season of America's Got Talent. She exited the show at the quarter-final stage, but the TV exposure allowed her to return to YouTube with an even bigger fan base.

Her 2012 song "Crystallize" (which has been viewed a mind-blowing 181 million times today) became one of the most watched videos on YouTube that year, and in 2013, her collaboration with Pentatonix on a cover of the Imagine Dragons song "Radioactive" won the response of the year award at the first-ever YouTube Music Awards. Forbes estimated that Stirling pulled in a cool $6 million in 2015, with her album, Shatter Me, named the second best dance/electronic release of the year by Billboard (via LA Weekly), outperforming many well-established artists.

The Mormon musician sat down for an interview with The Telegraph in 2017 to discuss her YouTube journey. "My first video attracted 1,000 views, but soon my posts were getting hundreds of thousands of hits," she said. "My song "Crystallise," which is about creating a beauty within yourself, got a million hits in one day. Now I have more than nine million YouTube followers and sold 500,000 concert tickets around the world." As of 2017, her net worth is estimated at $20 million.

In 2013, gamer and rapper Olajide Olatunji (better known by his alias KSI) was featured in a gaming edition of Guinness World Records for achieving the "highest margin of victory against the computer on FIFA13," scoring an incredible 190 goals during a single match. His rise to the big leagues hasn't been without controversy, however. Due to alleged sexual harassment at a Eurogamer event in 2012, KSI was banned from attending and was dropped by Microsoft as an Xbox promoter.

The YouTuber's agent responded to the controversy with a statement insisting KSI was "actively working to address any negative impression he has given people with previous content in the past and hopes the industry will see this." 

The Brit (who was a millionaire by the age of 21) was estimated to have made a total of $4.5 million in 2015, and he's still making bank in 2017 from his main channel alone. "KSI is able to get an average of 6 million views per day across all his videos cumulatively," NailBuzz reported. "This should be able to generate an estimated revenue of around $11,000 per day ($4 million a year) from advertisements on YouTube." His 2017 net worth is estimated at $12 million.

Roman Atwood has been walking the fine line between bravery and stupidity on his YouTube channel since 2009. Some of his most popular viral videos are pranks Atwood has pulled on his unsuspecting partner, including a fake cheating confession and a stunt in which he pretends to kill their son by dropping a mannequin dressed in kids' clothing from a balcony. The latter clip was watched 6 million times in just two days in 2014. Viewers were split over whether he'd crossed the line, but the controversy didn't slow him down.

Atwood made an estimated $2.5 million in 2015. That's not exactly chump change, but it's less than half of what he's earning today. According to Forbes, the prankster was the second highest earning YouTuber of 2016 with an income of $8 million. "Atwood's income grew 70% since last year thanks to increased video views, a tour with fellow YouTuber Yousef Erakat, the feature film Natural Born Pranksters, a hefty advance for his upcoming book and a thriving online store selling beanies, pens, sunglasses and more," Forbes reported, adding that he also "banks about $1.5 million for commercials and brand deals—he sealed a big deal to promote Scott Tube-Free Toilet Paper last year." 

He is on course to earn a comparable amount in 2017, according to ValueWalk, which ranked Atwood the No. 2 earner PewDiePie.

YouTuber Markiplier (real name Mark Fischbach) started his gaming channel in 2012 when he was flat broke and in a really bad place. "I'd had a bad breakup, I was fired, I had a tumor in my adrenal gland," he told Forbes. "It was a series of unfortunate events. As I was recovering, I was so desperate to have something that was under my control." YouTube became that something, and despite an early setback (his AdSense account was banned, forcing him to start a new channel from scratch) he became a star in the online gaming community.

A short five years after he turned to YouTube for an outlet, Markiplier was named the most influential gamer by Forbes, beating YouTube's richest content creator, PewDiePie, for the top spot in 2017. This comes on the back of getting signed by Hollywood agency William Morris Endeavor, who arranged Fischbach's 2017 summer tour. The internet star went on the road with a show that was based on improv comedy rather than gaming, and he recently branched out into scripted content with his four-part mystery series Who Killed Markiplier?

"I never have an end goal," he said. "I don't want to be a movie star. I just want to live every day making another cool thing I'm proud of... I get paid way more than I deserve and frankly I'd probably do it for free." Forbes estimated that Fischbach nets around $5.5 million annually.

Jenna Marbles joined YouTube in 2010, and an early viral video entitled "How to Trick People into Thinking You're Good Looking" quickly propelled her to the forefront of the platform, with more than 5 million views in its first week. At the time, she was working a number of jobs (bartender, go-go dancer, tanning salon) to make rent on her apartment in Massachusetts. "My life was a hot, hot, hot mess," she told The New York Times.

By 2013, she was living in a luxury townhouse in Santa Monica, Calif. worth $1.1 million, funded by the huge cash flow coming from her channel. "I make more money than I need, ever," she said. Marbles, whose real name is Jenna Mourey (Marbles is her dog's name) has potentially earned as much as $6 million to date, according to StatSheep.

Some of that money has come from other ventures, but one that didn't go as Marbles planned was her involvement with the 2016 adaptation of James Patterson's YA novel Maximum Ride. The YouTuber was an executive producer on the low-budget production, which was dubbed "an instantly forgettable affair" by The Hollywood Reporter. Her channel is still going strong, however, with more than 17.5 million subscribers and almost 2.5 billion total views.

Colleen Ballinger is best-known for her character, Miranda Sings, who she's been playing on YouTube for the better part of a decade. Miranda was described as "a delusional, narcissistic, yet oddly endearing young woman embarking on a mission to fame" by Elle, who interviewed Ballinger in 2016. She explained that Miranda—who believes she's destined for fame, despite a painfully obvious lack of talent—evolved on YouTube based on comments left by haters. "Whatever haters didn't like, I would do more of it in the next video," Ballinger said.

That tactic worked. By 2016, she was generating around $5 million a year by Forbes estimates, placing her in the upper echelons of YouTube earners. Her stock went up considerably when Netflix announced that it signed a deal with Ballinger to develop the first scripted series created by a YouTube star. All eight episodes of Haters Back Off! (which delves into Miranda Sings' family life as well as her quest for the spotlight) dropped in October 2016, and the show was renewed for a second season before the year was out.

Response to the first season of her Netflix show was mixed, with a respectable average audience score of 69 percent versus a critical approval rating of only 49 percent on Rotten Tomatoes. Reports about her current net worth vary, with NailBuzz claiming it's around $3 million while Gazette Review estimates she's worth as much as $8 million in 2017.

Logan Paul's little bro, Jake, is also making a name and a small fortune for himself via his action packed YouTube channel. Like his older sibling, JP rose to prominence through his antics on Vine, attracting more than 5 million followers on the now defunct video sharing service. That was enough for Disney to take notice. Jake landed a part on Disney Channel sitcom Bizaardvark in 2015, which not only secured him a generous payday, but helped to increase his influence across the entire social media spectrum.

"As you get more and more popular and start to build a brand name for yourself in the space, you start working with big Fortune 500 companies, merchandising deals, you can tour," he told CNBC. "There are lots of ways to monetize. But if you have millions of fans, and you can convert even five percent of them to pay for something of yours, you are in the seven-figure range."

His net worth took a big hit when the Mouse House cut him loose following some questionable behavior—Jake filled the swimming pool of his $18,000 per month Hollywood rental with furniture and set it ablaze, then mocked the female journalist who came to report on the incident. "Looking back, I can see why everyone was like, 'Yo, this kid sucks,'" he later told The Hollywood Reporter. Despite the damage his antics might have done to his reputation, he's still worth between $3 and $4 million as of 2017.

Youtubers Roi Fabito and Alex Burriss grew up in the same North Carolina neighborhood and started making videos together when they were still in school. They registered a joint YouTube channel in 2006, eventually deciding on the name Wassabi Productions for their brand of comedy, which involved lip-sync parodies and wacky dance numbers. They became increasingly popular in the years that followed and were known to pull in huge viewer numbers on occasion—their version of Carly Rae Jepsen's "Call Me Maybe" has been watched more than 125 million times.

In early 2016, Fabito decided to quit Wassabi Productions to take some down time and focus more on his solo stuff, leaving Burriss in charge. The channel continued to grow in his absence, and Wassabi Productions is closing in on 10 millions subscribers as 2018 approaches. Burriss even branched out into movies, with a cameo role in high school comedy The Duff (2015) and an appearance in Tyler Perry's Boo 2! A Madea Halloween (2017).

According to NailBuzz, Burriss (whose known as Alex Wassabi to his fans) had a net worth in 2017 of about $5 million, and the Wassabi Productions channel (of which he's now the sole beneficiary) is growing by an average of 6,000 subscribers daily and pulling in as much as $5,400 every 24 hours. 

Fabito's channel, Guava Juice, has become pretty successful too. NailBuzz reports his personal net worth in 2017 in the region of $3 million.