Prepare to question your career choices.
A 9-year-old boy who reviews new toys online has been named the highest-paid YouTube star of 2020 by Forbes.
The media company says the boy, Ryan Kaji, raked in $29.5 million over the course of a year, from June 2019 to June 2020.
According to Forbes, Kaji has amassed about 41.7 million subscribers on his YouTube channels, including more than 27.7 subscribers on his main channel Ryan’s World.
The young entrepreneur draws kids from around the world to his videos. Along with reviewing toys, he records DIY science experiments and shares stories with his family.
Not all of Kaji’s money comes from YouTube though. Forbes says a bulk of the boy’s business comes from licensing deals for thousands of Ryan’s World products, which range from bedroom décor to toys.
Behind Kaji in the list of top YouTube earners were Mr. Beast (Jimmy Donaldson) at $24 million, Dude Perfect at $23 million, Rhett and Link at $20 million, and Markiplier (Mark Fischbach) at $19.5 million.
Forbes says it estimated the earning of the YouTubers based on data from Captiv8, SocialBlade and Pollstar, as well as interviews with industry insiders. The amounts are pretax and don’t include deductions for agents, managers, lawyers, etc.
