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Nine year-old Ryan Kaji leads YouTube’s top earners for 2020

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Ryan Kaji, nine, has once again topped the charts of YouTube’s biggest earners, with toy unboxing and games review videos raking in close to $30 million for the child influencer.

It’s time for our annual reminder that children are earning way more than us, and having more fun doing it too. Once you’re all done grinding your teeth and/or pondering your career choices, reconvene with us below and let’s get on with celebrating the next generation of icons already.

Courtesy of Forbes, the list of YouTube’s top earners has just dropped and, for the third time running, nine year-old Ryan Kaji sits atop the 10 star shortlist as the biggest earner, boasting a cool $29.5 million. Based on data from social analytics firms like SocialBlade, Captiv8, and Pollstar, as well as interviews with industry insiders, Kaji’s YouTube revenue appears to be on a steady rise of around $4 million every year. Safe to say, the lad is a big deal.

YouTube buffs among you may be thinking ‘I know all this already,’ but chances are if you’re reading Thred, you probably aren’t part of Ryan’s target demographic. Each to their own though, the floor is lava is a blast for all age groups.

The young Texan’s channel, Ryan’s World, is an absolute monetisation machine consisting of 41.7 million subscribers. In terms of content, his nine channels are mostly comprised of toy unboxings, reviews, light hearted story clips, and challenges – of which, his most popular video dubbed the ‘Huge Eggs Surprise Toys Challenge’ sits amongst the 60 most-watched videos ever on YouTube with upwards of 2 billion plays.

Kaji, who is often referred to as the first self-made ‘child influencer,’ isn’t solely about YouTube though. His family estate of over $200 million is also built on licensing deals including branded toys, merch, and purportedly a multi-million dollar coup for his own TV series on Nickelodeon. Kaji, as you’d expect, makes up the talent side of the business. The strategy behind this immense fortune, you’d have to assume, isn’t completely masterminded by a child and there’s definitely some comfort to be had in that.

Talking of young talent, Kaji isn’t the only YouTuber in the single digit age category to make the top 10 either. In the seventh spot sits six-year-old Russian starlet Nastya ($18.5 million), whose channel features reading with her father, playing with Legos, and sprucing up household chores. Beyond this, other notable runners up include, Mr. Beast ($24 million), Dude Perfect ($23 million), Markiplier ($19.5 million), and Jeffree Star ($15 million). Check the full list here.

The concept of kids becoming multi-millionaires way before even reaching high-school is odd and impressive in almost equal measure, but when you consider the fact that Gen Z are proclaimed as ‘digital natives,’ you’d have to say having one of our own atop the podium is only fitting. Gen Z are a cohort of DIY entrepreneurs, consistently adapting to make creative use of the free platforms available to us, and during the pandemic the gig economy has only spurred this movement further.

Whether we’re talking design on Snapchat and Instagram, or video streaming on Twitch or YouTube, young people are consistently harnessing online spaces to build their legacies. It just so happens this one is founded on children’s toys.

Tech Editor London, UK

I’m Jamie (He/Him), the Editor in Chief at Thred. Keeping up with gaming and revolutionary technology is my forte, but when away from my keyboard, you’ll probably find me wrapped around a large Tango ice blast at the latest mediocre horror flick. Follow me on Twitter, LinkedIn and drop me some ideas/feedback via email.

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