YouTube Work-From-Home Millionaires Ranked

Forbes published its first top ten list for YouTube‘s highest-earning stars. The income was based on pre-Tax income so judging from some of these countries they are in you may just split that in half. The point is they are doing quite well out of their parent’s homes, basements, and bedrooms working from home.

Forbes estimated the income from data Nielsen and IMDb data, as well as interviews with agents/managers, industry insiders and the YouTube stars themselves. The Revenue for YouTubers comes mostly from advertising through Google’s Adsense Network which shows ads on Youtube. Just like Television, radio or other forms of advertising the more subscribers and views a YouTube channel’s owners have, the more they can charge for the ads that are running. They can also plug their own product endorsements and make more money such as book deals and product placement in videos.

1. PewDiePie – $12m
2. Smosh – $8.5m
3. Fine Brothers – $8.5m
4. Lindsey Stirling – $6m
5. Rhett & Link – $4.5m
6. KSI – $4.5m
7. Michelle Phan – $3m
8. Lilly Singh – $2.5m
9. Roman Atwood – $2.5m
10. Rosanna Pansino – $2.5m

You can see from above that a few of the channels are duos. PewDiePie comes in alone at the top. The Sweden Heartthrob has often had to defend the fact that he makes so much due to the negative comments on his Youtube. They claim he gets paid more than people “Fighting for our country” although he does not live in the United States so the person who commented that was obviously not up on the facts. He had a great response video to that comment in that wars are a waste of money basically and he has a point. If you can sit around and make goofy videos from the comfort of your own home making the world a better, happier place then that is a peace mission in itself. With 9 Billion Viewers on his Youtube Channel PewDiePie says- “The whole world care more about how much money I make then I do myself”.

Do you think you can do better videos with something sillier, more adventurous, more entertaining, or more educational for people? Try it. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain in experience.