The rising stars on social media channels may spend most of their time in the digital world. While they may not walk down the red carpet, but they are celebrities on their own.
Nearly half of those internet celebrities are gamers, and they are collecting millions of dollars. Beside gamers, others include entertainers with stunt videos, children unwrapping toys, Minecraft streams and more.
The data was taken from YouTube, Social Blade and Captiv8, between June 1, 2016 and June 1, 2017, as well as interviews with agents, managers, publicists, producers and lawyers.
"For gamers, it's two fold," said Krishna Subramanian, the co-founder of branded content platform Captiv8. "Their audience is constantly growing as they look for tips and tricks, and gaming companies look to them as a way to advertise in a space with less competition and a lot more authenticity."
One of the newcomer, is a six-year-old Ryan of Ryan ToysRevie. He counted over 8 billion views and earned about $11 million in the time period. Gamers like Evan Fong and Mark Fischbach are each having over 2 billion views.
Combined, the world’s 10 highest-paid online stars earned $127 million before management fees and taxes. The cumulative earnings of $127 million is an increase of 80 percent from the $70.5 million in 2016.
Additionally, as those celebs mature, they become more experienced themselves in marketing their channels and brands.
This translates to even bigger earning from bigger tours, lucrative branded content deals and higher merchandise sales.
"What's cool about YouTube, unlike TV, is that there isn't that competition element. I mean, you could make it into that, as there’s obviously numbers involved, but people are free to watch whoever they want," said Daniel Middleton.
One gamer who hasn’t been treated as kindly in 2017 is PewDiePie. His earnings dipped 20 percent from $15 million in 2016.
