On Tuesday, FORBES unveiled its annual list ranking the top YouTube stars with the highest earnings for 2015/2016 year ending in June.
Announcing: the Highest-Paid YouTube Stars of 2016
1. PewDiePie $15M
2. Roman Atwood $8.5M
3. Lilly Singh $7.5Mhttps://t.co/oa98UcnQO9 pic.twitter.com/xXPmhXeibj— Forbes (@Forbes) December 5, 2016
These 12 YouTube stars total earnings amassed to $72,5 million in one year, which according to FORBES, is a 23% increase from the previous year.
10. Rhett and Link ($5 million)
9. Colleen Ballinger ($5 million)
8. German Garmandia ($5.5 million)
7. Markiplier ($5.5 million)
6. Rosanna Pansino ($7 million)
5. Tyler Oakley ($7 million)
4. SMOSH ($7 million)
3. Lilly Singh ($7.5 million)
2. Roman Atwood ($8 million)
1. PewDiePie ($15 million)
The list also showed diversity in fields they covered – from prank shows, gaming, music and comedy – all finding popularity within their niche.
PewDiePie (real name Felix Kjellberg) has topped the list once again, bringing in a cool $15m partially due to his series on YouTube Red and his book “this Book Loves You” which has already sold 112 000 units.
But for the Swede, this is his finest moment.
In a video posted to his YouTube account four days ago, he announced that he will be deleting his account once he reaches 50m subscribers (to date he’s on 49 791 221 subscribers). He further explained his reasons behind his decision, citing that the video sharing service has been sabotaging his channel because he’s white.
“YouTube is trying to kill my channel. It is clear. It is happening if you watch my analytics. It is all going down,” stated PewDiePie.
“I’ve decided the only way to stop my channel from dying – I know you are going to think I am joking – but I am going to delete my channel.”
He mentioned that other YouTubers have brought up similar issues to him, which he explained in the video.
View the full video here:
However, he has stated that YouTube has responded to his video and are working to resolve issues that he highlighted.
YouTube has responded and are digging into the issues.
???— pewdiepie (@pewdiepie) December 5, 2016
While PewDiePie continues to churn out over-the-top videos and showcase hilarious rants, we’ll have to wait and see what will happen when he reaches 50 million subscribers.
