This 7-year-old YouTube toy reviewer earned $22 million in 1 year
This year's highest-paid YouTube star is just 7 years old, making millions off of videos showing him opening boxes and playing with toys.
Ryan of the Ryan ToysReview channel stopped year's Forbes list, released Monday. After looking at data and talking with industry experts, Forbes estimates that from June 1, 2017, to June 1, 2018, Ryan earned $22 million. His parents launched Ryan ToysReview in March 2015, and he now has 17.3 million subscriber and nearly 26 billion views. He told NBC News he credits his success with being "entertaining" and "funny."
Ryan made an estimated $21 million from advertising on two accounts, Ryan ToysReview and Ryan's Family Review, and $1 million in sponsored posts, Forbes reports. A train, car, Disney, and Lego connoisseur, he's also now the creative director of his own toy and clothing line, Ryan's World, sold at Walmart. That's not his only new revenue source; in October, it was announced that his YouTube content will soon be distributed through Hulu and Amazon. These deals were not counted in this year's estimate, meaning next year, he'll pull in even more money. Catherine Garcia
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
-
Farage’s £9m windfall: will it smooth his path to power?In Depth The record donation has come amidst rumours of collaboration with the Conservatives and allegations of racism in Farage's school days
-
The issue dividing Israel: ultra-Orthodox draft dodgersIn the Spotlight A new bill has solidified the community’s ‘draft evasion’ stance, with this issue becoming the country’s ‘greatest internal security threat’
-
Codeword: December 13, 2025The daily codeword puzzle from The Week
-
Australia’s teen social media ban takes effectSpeed Read Kids under age 16 are now barred from platforms including YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat and Reddit
-
Google avoids the worst in antitrust rulingSpeed Read A federal judge rejected the government's request to break up Google
-
Supreme Court allows social media age check lawSpeed Read The court refused to intervene in a decision that affirmed a Mississippi law requiring social media users to verify their ages
-
Nvidia hits $4 trillion milestoneSpeed Read The success of the chipmaker has been buoyed by demand for artificial intelligence
-
X CEO Yaccarino quits after two yearsSpeed Read Elon Musk hired Linda Yaccarino to run X in 2023
-
Musk chatbot Grok praises Hitler on XSpeed Read Grok made antisemitic comments and referred to itself as 'MechaHitler'
-
Disney, Universal sue AI firm over 'plagiarism'Speed Read The studios say that Midjourney copied characters from their most famous franchises
-
Amazon launches 1st Kuiper internet satellitesSpeed Read The battle of billionaires continues in space
