Top 10 Highest-Paid YouTubers in the World [2023]
The world of YouTube has exploded in recent years, with creators earning millions of dollars from their content. From gamers to beauty gurus, comedians to musicians, there’s a YouTube channel for every interest. But who are the highest-earning YouTubers in the world? In this article, we’ll take a closer look at the top 10 creators who have managed to turn their passion into a lucrative career, earning millions of dollars through their videos, sponsorships, and merchandise.
These creators have built massive audiences, with millions of subscribers tuning in to watch their content each week. So, let’s dive in and discover who the top earners on YouTube are, and how they managed to turn their channels into a money-making machine.
1. MrBeast
MrBeast (Jimmy Donaldson) is the highest-paid YouTubers In the world for 2022. He is the leading and fastest-growing YouTube star in the world, as well as the fourth most subscribed YouTube channel and the first most subscribed YouTube channel individual in the world. His record-breaking earnings represent a massive increase over the previous year’s list topper, Ryan’s World (who reportedly made USD$29.5 million in 2020).
Mr. Beast started YouTube in early 2012 at the early age of 13, but he went viral in 2017 after his “counting to 100,000” video earned tens of thousands of views in just a few days and has become increasingly popular ever since, each of his videos gaining tens of millions of views.
Apart from YouTube, he has an attention-grabbing project from 2021: MrBeast Burger, an app and menu that lets fans order MrBeast-branded meals from 1,600 restaurants across the country that have partnered with him to fulfill the orders. MrBeast handles the marketing, pushing the burgers at his nearly 139 million YouTube subscribers. He and the restaurants then split the profits from the orders. So far, the operation has sold more than 5 million sandwiches.
Estimated earnings: USD$54 million
Number of subscribers (main channel): 139 million
YouTube Channel: MrBeast
2. Jake Paul
Jake Paul is the richest YouTuber with estimated earnings USD$45 million. He is a YouTube star, social media personality, and professional boxer Jake Paul. He last made it in 2018 with $21.5 million in earnings largely on the strength of his boxing earnings. He had been one of YouTube’s most popular names until his brother Logan posted a December 2017 video filmed in a Japanese forest grimly famous as a suicide spot.
The fans hated it and the backlash hit both Paul brothers. Their sponsors cut them down and YouTube demonetized their YouTube channel. Now, they can earn again with YouTube ads, but Jake posts less frequently than before, using the site primarily to promote his boxing career, which now accounts for almost 90% of his earnings.
Estimated earnings: USD$45 million
Number of subscribers (main channel): 20.3 million
YouTube Channel: Jake Paul
3. Markiplier
Mark Edward Fischbach professionally known as Markiplier remains the third richest YouTuber with earnings USD$38 million, having first cemented his fame by recording himself playing things like Five Nights at Freddy’s, a video game about a haunted pizza place.
Markiplier is also the co-founder of the clothing company Cloak, along with fellow YouTuber Jacksepticeye, and the co-host of the now-defunct Unus Annus channel. They sell T-shirts, hoodies, and other items tied to his Unus Annus series, the main reason his earnings have nearly doubled from our previous list.
In 2021, he filmed a television adaptation of The Edge of Sleep, a post-apocalyptic thriller he initially dramatized as a podcast in 2019; the TV project still needs a home, and he hopes to sell the series to a company like Netflix or Hulu later this year.
Estimated earnings: USD$38 million
Number of subscribers (main channel): 34.6 million
YouTube Channel: Markiplier
4. Rhett and Link
Rhett & Link are an American comedy duo consisting of Rhett (Rhett James McLaughlin) and Link (Charles Lincoln Neal III) they are known for creating and hosting the YouTube series Good Mythical Morning.
They earned approximately $30 million and have multiple YouTube channels and millions of subscribers including 18.2 million subscribers on the Good Mythical Morning YouTube channel.
Estimated earnings: USD$30 million
Number of subscribers (Good Mythical Morning): 18.2 million
YouTube Channel: Good Mythical Morning
5. Unspeakable
In the list of highest-paid YouTubers, a master of Minecraft Nathan Graham aka Unspeakable ranked in the top 5 with his respectable earnings of USD$28.5 million in 2021.
More than 36 million people subscribe to his four YouTube channels, where he posts videos of himself playing Minecraft and other games. Last year, Unspeakable sold off his catalog of YouTube videos to Spotter and that money was at least enough to help Unspeakable debut here.
Estimated earnings: $28.5 Million
Number of subscribers (main channel): 15.3 million
YouTube Channel: Unspeakable
6. Nastya
Anastasia Radzinskaya better known as Nastya is a Russian-American YouTube star. She and her parents run 9 YouTube channels for children, including Like Nastya, Like Nastya Vlog, Like Nastya Show, and many others, and has a total of more than 300 million subscribers.
Nastya also did a Spotter deal last year, selling the monetization rights to her old YouTube videos to Spotter for cash upfront while retaining the rights to any new videos she puts up. Along with the Spotter money, she and her corporate minders have busily added other brand extensions, including a merchandise line and an NFT collection.
Estimated earnings: $28 Million
Number of subscribers (main channel): 105 million
YouTube Channel: Like Nastya
7. Ryan Kaji
Ryan Kaji is one of the most popular YouTubers, who has multiple YouTube channels and millions of subscribers, making an estimated $27 million. Ryan started on YouTube at the tender age of 4, reviewing and playing with toys.
Now 10 years old, he’s pursuing various opportunities as he outgrows his initial core audience, such as licensing out the animated co-stars that appear in his videos. Ryan’s World maintains 34.5 million subscribers and an enormous line of branded merchandise and toys sold at big-box retailers like Target and Walmart.
Estimated earnings: $27 Million
Number of subscribers (main channel): 34.5 million
YouTube Channel: Ryan’s World
8. Dude Perfect
Our 8th highest-earning YouTube content creator is Dude Perfect which has 59.1 million subscribers and brought in $20 million. There are five members (Coby Cotton, Cory Cotton, Garret Hilbert, Cody Jones, and Tyler Toney) all of whom are former college roommates at Texas A&M University.
This Texas-based comedy troupe rips pages out of the “Jackass” playbook by performing the kind of tricks and stunts that you simply shouldn’t try at home. Then again, they recently published a how-to book—complete with step-by-step instructions—so maybe you should try these tricks at home (their suggestion, not ours).
Estimated earnings: $20 Million
Number of subscribers (main channel): 59.1 million
YouTube Channel: Dude Perfect
9. Logan Paul
Logan Paul is an American popular YouTuber, professional boxer, and social media personality. However, viewers still remember the whole “suicide forest” scandal back in 2017. He had about last June against former world champion Floyd Mayweather, which, as an exhibition fight, had no official winner.
He had one of the first celebrity NFT releases with a $5 million sale last February, and run multiple channels.
Estimated earnings: $18 Million
Number of subscribers (main channel): 23.6 million
YouTube Channel: Logan Paul
10. Preston Arsement
Preston Arsement, professionally known as “Preston”, grew his digital YouTube brand into a full-time business, hiring 24 people to help him. His estimated earning is $16 million and has several YouTube channels with millions of subscribers including Preston with 23.3 million subscribers alone.
Preston plays a lot of video games, mostly Minecraft. Nearly 12 million people subscribe to that four-year-old channel.
Estimated earnings: $16 Million
Number of subscribers (Preston channel): 23.3 million
YouTube Channel: Preston
FAQs
Who is the #1 highest paid YouTuber?
MrBeast (Jimmy Donaldson) ranked first as the top-earning YouTuber worldwide with earnings of approximately $54 million.
Who is India’s highest paid YouTuber?
BB ki Vines (BhuvanBam) ranked first as the richest YouTuber with earnings of approximately $5 million.
