7-year-old boy becomes 2018’s highest paid YouTube star for reviewing toys

You must have heard people reviewing mobile phones and various other gadgets online and earning millions. But have you heard people reviewing kids’ toys and becoming multi-millionaire? Well, this 7-year-old boy has become 2018’s highest paid YouTube star just for reviewing toys. American business magazine Forbes has revealed its list of the world’s highest-paid YouTube stars in 2018, which is headed by a 7-year-old named Ryan who reviews toys.

Ryan’s channel is named as Ryan Toys Review and it reportedly pulled in $22 million (about Rs. 154.84 crore) during the 12-month period ending June 1, 2018. That is exactly double what Ryan made in the previous year, according to Forbes, when he was placed eighth in the 2017 list. Surprised? Yes, he is the smallest one to do that.

The videos he makes show him playing with and reacting to all sorts of toys, from Play-Doh to jumping castles, often accompanied by his parents. But many also show him “unboxing” new toys, a fad that has proven especially lucrative for other YouTubers as well. “I wonder what’s inside,” he exclaims, as he runs around playing with Disney Cars toys in his latest review. But Ryan doesn’t just review toys, his YouTube career has also led to his own line of merchandise being sold in Walmart, including tubs of slime, figurines and stuffed animals. The deal was negotiated by the children’s media company, pocket.watch, which has secured licensing deals for a number of young YouTube stars.

Talking about the rest of the Forbes’ list, it is made up of much older people. The list includes the likes of brothers Jake and Logan Paul, five-man sports crew Dude Perfect, makeup artist-beauty mogul Jeffree Star, and five gamers: Daniel “DanTDM” Middleton, Mark “Markiplier” Fischbach, Evan “VanossGaming” Fong, Seán “Jacksepticeye” McLoughlin, and Felix “PewDiePie” Kjellberg. In total, the top 10 grossed $180.5 million (about Rs. 1,270.26 crore) by Forbes’ calculations, which is up 42 percent from last year.

Except for Jeffree Star and Jacksepticeye, the other eight were also part of Forbes’ 2017 list of highest-paid YouTube stars, albeit in a different arrangement.