By: Paul Fogarty
Meet YouTube’s highest-earning star, he’s just nine years old.
Thanks to the mass adoption of the internet and sites such as YouTube, the way the world works is changing faster than many people can keep up with.
Celebrities have gone from exclusively being film and TV actors, sports stars and politicians to just about anyone with an internet connection, a camera and the luck of the YouTube algorithm on their side.
As a result, the youth of today have far different role models than those born 30 or 40 years ago.
One such YouTube star, who has amassed an enormous following and is now YouTube’s highest earner, is Ryan Kaji who is little more than eight years old.
MEET RYAN KAJI
Nine-year-old Ryan Kaji is one of YouTube’s fastest-growing content creators.
Ryan’s channel, Ryan’s World, was set up by his parents, back in March 2015 when their son was just three years old.
The content on the channel is very much child-orientated with videos often consisting of toy reviews and educational videos.
Incredibly, in the five-and-a-half years since its birth, Ryan’s World has amassed a whopping 27.6 million subscribers and boasts over 43 billion views as of December 2020. The channel’s follower count was 22 million and he had 34 billion views in December 2019.
On top of that, Ryan’s online fame has also translated itself into the world of TV with the nine-year-old now starring in his very own TV show on Nick Jr.
RYAN IS YOUTUBE’S HIGHEST EARNER
As a result of Ryan’s huge online following and the advertising and sponsorship money that has come alongside his YouTube channel, the nine-year-old is the highest earner across all of YouTube, beating other stars like Mr. Beast.
The Guardian reports that in 2020, Ryan Kaji has made a remarkable $29.5m (£22 million) thanks to his YouTube fame.
In 2019, it was estimated that Ryan has earned a total of $59 million (£45 million) from his YouTube work.
HE HAS HIS PARENTS TO THANK
Ryan’s incredible success would not have been possible without the work done by his parents, mother Loann and father Shion.
In 2015, when Ryan enquired why other kids were on YouTube and he wasn’t, his parents decided to help him set up a YouTube channel and they began creating videos.
Ryan’s first-ever video, which just shows him playing with a Lego train, kick-started what would become an internet phenomenon. The video in question now has almost 50 million views since it was posted in 2015.
Source: hitc.com
Monday, April 20, 2026
