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The Highest Earners On YouTube In 2021 | See How Much These Content Creators Earn In A Year

Date: 18th Jan 2022
Author: Tom @ Wealthmack Team
Last Updated: 9th Feb 2022
man in black jacket holding camera during daytime
  • Some Are Still Only Children And They Earn Millions From The Platform
  • These Creators Get Paid Huge Amounts Of Money For Their YouTube Content
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The Top Earners On YouTube Collect Huge Sums In 2021

Not many people know that YouTube is the second biggest social media platform in the world and is second only to Mark Zuckerberg's Facebook/Meta.

The Google owned tech company has over 2.2 billion monthly active users and rakes in just under $20 billion per year thanks to the great content from their top users.

But YouTube doesn't keep all the revenue and in fact they pay channel owners considerably for their top content.

Let's see how well they pay their top 10 creators.

10Preston Arsement

2021 Earnings: $16 million

Nationality: American

Date Joined YouTube: July 4, 2012

Main Channel: Preston

Subscribers: 18.8 million (at Jan 2022)

27-year-old Preston runs a number of YouTube channels but he mostly known for PrestonPlayz and Preston.

As the name suggests the YouTuber is known for his streaming of a number of video games and predominantly the world's most popular game, Minecraft.

He has just under 12 million subscribers for a channel that started in March, 2018.

One of the reasons for his success is that he stays on top of current trends and he recently built a playable Minecraft version of the challenges from Squid Game.

9Logan Paul

2021 Earnings: $18 million

Nationality: American

Date Joined YouTube: October 18, 2013

Main Channel: Logan Paul

Subscribers: 23.3 million (at Jan 2022)

One half of the famous YouTube brothers, Logan and Jake Paul, Logan returns to the top 10 after a scandal back in 2017 pushed both of the brothers out of the top earners list.

Since his worldwide controversy in 2017, Logan has made a remarkable recovery. In 2018, he made his debut in amateur boxing against fellow popular YouTuber KSI which attracted millions of views online.

In 2021, Logan fought undefeated boxer Floyd Mayweather in an exhibition bout which had over a million pay-per-views.

In addition to his main channel, Logan has launched his own podcast, Impaulsive, which has generated over 100 million views over the past year.

8Dude Perfect

2021 Earnings: $20 million

Nationality: American

Date Joined YouTube: Mar 17, 2009

Main Channel: Dude Perfect

Subscribers: 57 million (at Jan 2022)

For those who have seen them, it is undoubtedly one of the most addictive channels on YouTube.

Dude Perfect are a group of five best friends who complete the most outrageous types of stunts and trick shots for our entertainment.

Twins Coby and Cory Cotton, Garrett Hilbert, Cody Jones and Tyler Toney make up the group whose content consists of crazy real life trick shots and daring feats like bench pressing 405 lbs underwater.

Admit it you're intrigued with that last one.

The group of friends have become so popular that they are even doing a summer tour of 24 cities in 2022 and have even published an instruction manual for their stunts.

7Ryan Kaji

2021 Earnings: $27 million

Nationality: American

Date Joined YouTube: March 17, 2015

Main Channel: Ryan's World

Subscribers: 31.4 million (at Jan 2022)

World famous toy reviewer and previous number 1 has dropped to number 7 for 2021.

Ryan Kaji started his YouTube channel, Ryan's World, at just 4 years old in 2015, where he would review and play with the latest toys that the big toy brands would send him.

A simple business model that has had mind blowing results.

Ryan is now 10 and owns and runs a multi-million dollar empire.

Obviously Ryan doesn't manage the business - he leaves that to his parents and other investors (including former Disney executive Chris Williams).

As Ryan gets older and starts to grow out of playing with toys designed for toddlers the channel still hopes to continue and have introduced animated characters that costar with Ryan.

6Nastya

2021 Earnings: $28 million

Nationality: Russian

Date Joined YouTube: Nov 14, 2017

Main Channel: Like Nastya

Subscribers: 85.8 million (at Jan 2022)

It's surprising how many kids are the highest paid on YouTube!

This time it's Russian born 7-year-old Nastya who has raked in $28 million last year alone for her kids based content.

Some of the best performing videos for 2021 included how to decorate Halloween cupcakes and spending time with her best friends, Evelyn and Adrian.

In addition to her YouTube earnings Nastya sold the rights to her old YouTiube videos to Spotter for cash upfront without having to pay them for any of her new content.

The youngster also has her own merchandise and even an NFT collection.

5Unspeakable

2021 Earnings: $28.5 million

Nationality: American

Date Joined YouTube: May 1, 2016

Main Channel: Unspeakable

Subscribers: 12.9 million (at Jan 2022)

A new entry into the top 10.

Minecraft is the biggest selling video game of all time having sold 238 million copies worldwide.

Nathan Graham aka Unspeakable is a channel that dedicates itself to this hugely succesful 3D open platform game that has taken over the world.

As his YouTube earnings have grown the Unspeakable channel has ventured into a number areas to create different content but gaming and streaming has played the biggest part in his success.

Graham sold his YouTube videos to Spotter last year who are now the largest Independent owners of YouTube content.

That Spotter money is why he is on the list for 2021.

4Rhett And Link

2021 Earnings: $30 million

Nationality: American

Date Joined YouTube: Jun 5, 2006

Main Channel: Good Mythical Morning

Subscribers: 17.4 million (at Jan 2022)

The story of Rhett James McLaughlin and Charles Lincoln 'Link' Neal III really does show the power of YouTube and the impact it can have on your life.

The former school buddies started the channel Good Mythical Morning on January 3, 2011 in North Carolina where the duo talked about their life and personal opinions on current affairs.

Since then the duo have added a lot of comedy to their shows and also started to branch out into other areas.

One of these areas was cooking where the channel Mythical Kitchen was created and hosted by Josh Scherer.

The two year old show already has 1.8 million subs.

In October the pair decided to drop their family-friendly show and hosted a two hour, R-rated livestream. The event sold 70,000 tickets for $50 per person.

Thats $3.5 million for two hours work. Nice!

3Markiplier

2021 Earnings: $38 million

Nationality: American

Date Joined YouTube: May 26, 2012

Main Channel: Markiplier

Subscribers: 31.6 million (at Jan 2022)

Markiplier (real name Mark Edward Fischbach) is a great example of how many opportunities can come your way if you become successful in one particular niche.

Like so many succesful YouTubers he started out streaming videos of him playing video games whilst giving his hilarious commentary.

But that's not why the 32-year-old is on the YouTube rich list.

Having built an audience from his YouTube channel the savvy gamer started to sell merch to his long time subscribers.

From T-shirts to hoodies the businessman has almost doubled his earnings over the previous year by selling huge amounts of his Unus Annus series.

After conquering YouTube, Markiplier hopes to become a TV star having created a series that he hopes to sell to the likes of Netflix or Hulu.

2Jake Paul

2021 Earnings: $45 million

Nationality: American

Date Joined YouTube: Sep 19, 2013

Main Channel: Jake Paul

Subscribers: 20.4 million (at Jan 2022)

He was never going to be out of the list for long and 2021 is where Jake Paul came back with a bang.

Paul had previously been on the YouTube richlist back in 2018 with earnings of $21.5 million but he caused controversy in 2017 with a video he filmed at a Japanese forest that was a suicide spot.

After a huge backlash YouTube demonetized his account.

Since then Paul has branched out in to the boxing world where he has taken on former UFC stars.

This has helped the YouTuber reach $45 million in 2021.

Paul remains undefeated in his young boxing career and has more fights planned for 2022. It would be no surprise if he tops the list next year.

1MrBeast (Jimmy Donaldson)

2021 Earnings: $54 million

Nationality: American

Date Joined YouTube:Feb 20, 2012

Main Channel: MrBeast

Subscribers: 88.3 million (at Jan 2022)

MrBeast aka Jimmy Donaldson earned more in 2021 than any YouTuber has ever earned from the platform in a single year.

With over 10 billion views, which is double from his channel in the previous year who knows what Donaldson may achieve in 2022.

The number one earner wows his audience by performing crazy stunts and pranks that delight his millions of subscribers.

In the last year he has recreated elements of the Netflix hit series Squid Game, played hide and seek in an 80,000-seater stadium and was even buried underground.

But not only has Donaldson made money from his YouTube content he has invested in a app, MrBeast Burger which lets fans order MrBeast branded meals in 1,600 restaurants across the country.

He has so far sold over 5 million sandwiches.

YouTube Keeps Growing

YouTube's revenue in 2010 was $800 million. In 2021 it was $19.7 billion.

And it shows no sign of stopping.

The platform's reach continues to grow all over the world as the second largest social media company continues to provide entertainment for anyone.

With this global dominance comes more opportunity for content creators and there is no doubt that more creators will make this top 10 in years to come.

What do you think of this YouTube highest earners article? Leave your thoughts in the comments section below.

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