8-Year-Old YouTuber Still the Highest Paid After Making $26 Million in 2019

The 8-year-old boy, whose real name is Ryan Guan, has regained the top spot in Forbes’ 2019 list of highest earners on YouTube thanks to his highly successful toy review channel, Ryan’s World.

Initially called Ryan ToysReview, Kaji’s YouTube channel dominated last year’s list after generating $22 million in 2018. Launched by his parents in 2015 when he was only 3 years old, the channel earned $26 million this year, according to the list published by Forbes magazine on Wednesday.

The family-run YouTube channel mainly consists of “unboxing” videos, in which Kaji starts by opening boxes of toys before commenting and playing with them. The channel now boasts nearly 23 million subscribers.

According to Forbes, Kaji is among the elite group of YouTubers who brought in a total of $162 million between June 1, 2018 and June 1, 2019.

 

Since its launch four years ago, the channel has received almost 35 billion views, with several of the videos racking up over 1 billion views each.

However, the channel was not without controversies. It was renamed after consumer advocacy group Truth in Advertising filed a complaint with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC), accusing the channel of not clearly denoting which videos had been paid for the video to feature their products.

In Forbes’ list, Dude Perfect, a channel run by a group of friends from Texas who attempt incredible feats of skills, came in second. The channel jumped a slot higher from its third spot ranking last year after earning $20 million between June 1, 2018 and June 1, 2019.

Meanwhile, Russian 5-year-old Anastasia Radzinskaya ranked number three after earning $18 million in the same period.

In 2020, YouTube is set to stop personalized advertisements on children’s content after accusations emerged that the platform broke the law by tracking and selling ads targeted to children.

Feature Image via Ryan’s World