Seven-year-old revealed as YouTube’s highest paid star

A seven-year-old US boy has been revealed as the highest earning star on YouTube, pocketing an estimated £17.3 million in the 12 months between June 2017 and 2018.

The young star of Ryan Toysreview has “amassed more than 17 million followers and close to 26 billion views”, The Guardian says, making him one of the most bankable stars on the video sharing platform.

According to Forbes magazine, seven-year-old Ryan topped the list of YouTube’s biggest earners, followed by internet prankster Jake Paul in second, with a five-man sports crew channel called Dude Perfect coming in third.

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Last year’s top earner, British gamer Daniel Middleton who is better known to his fans as DanTDM, slipped from first to fourth on the list, despite increasing his earnings from £13 million to £14.5 million.

In tenth place on the Forbes list is disgraced YouTuber Logan Paul, who drew international criticism when he released a video purporting to show “the body of a suicide victim” in a forest in Japan earlier this year, the BBC says.