The Swedish YouTuber, Felix Avrid Ulf Kjellberg, and his YouTube channel PewDiePie remain on the top of the 2016 highest paid YouTube Star ranking. He has turned silly snippets of himself playing video games for his 50 million subscribers into a $15 million paycheck.
Forbes ranked PewDiePie as the YouTube highest-earning star with the annual income of $15M USD this December 2016. This is 20 percent up from the previous year. According to Nielsen Bookscan, it is largely due to his YouTube Red series "Scare PewDiePie" and his book "This Book Loves You," which sold over 112,000 copies.
The Wall Street Journal reported in 2014 that PewDiePie earned $4 million in the year 2013. The latter confirmed on a site that the figures were roughly around what he actually earned. Also in 2014, the Swedish newspaper reported that PewDiePie's production company reported earnings of $7.5M USD in 2014.
Although outlets agreed that PewDiePie's income was sizable and even remarkable, PewDiePie appeared at the top of Forbes' October 2015 list of the richest YouTube stars with a reported $12 million earned in 2015. Relating to the earnings, Forbes commented that the $7 million may well seem like an astronomical figure to a 25 year-old who just wants to make friends and play video games, but it's a wildly insubstantial figure for the size of his audience and influence.
Most YouTube stars boast similarly varied revenue streams. They monetize their videos by integrating sponsors into their content and through advertisements. They tour, sell merchandise and make cameos on more traditional forms of media. A few have their own products, be it a lip-gloss like comedian Lilly Singh, or a mobile game like PewDiePie.
PewDiePie and other YouTubers earnings were measured before subtracting taxes, management fees and other related fees. The figures are based on data from IMDB, Nielsen and other sources, as well as on interviews with managers,agents, lawyers, industry insiders and the stars themselves.