Ryan Kaji, an eight-year-old YouTuber who reviews toys on his Ryan’s World YouTube channel, topped the list of the platform’s highest earners in 2019, according to Forbes.
Kaji topped the list of YouTube’s top 10 highest earners with an estimated pre-tax income of $26 million in 2019 alone. The income came from advertisements, sponsored content, and merchandise sales, according to CNN Business.
Ryan Kaji’s YouTube channel, Ryan’s World, has about 22.9 million subscribers. Monsters and Critics reported that Kaji’s channel, Ryan’s World (formerly Ryan ToysReview), was also the highest-earning on YouTube in 2018, with an estimated revenue of $22 million.
Ryan’s father Shion Guan and mother Kieu-loan Guan manage his YouTube channel. His mom Kieu-loan Guan was previously a high school teacher while Ryan’s father, Shion, is an engineer.
Ryan is regarded as one of the top influencers in the toy industry, and his videos receive millions of views on YouTube. Some of his videos have received more than a billion views.
The video posted below, titled “HUGE EGGS Surprise Toys Challenge with Inflatable water slide,” has received nearly 2 billion views.
Ryan topped a list of heavy hitters on YouTube in 2019, including Dude Perfect ($20 million) and Anastasia Radzinskaya ($18 million).
Ryan Kaji is not the only youngster who is raking in millions on YouTube. Anastasia Radzinskaya is another YouTube child star on the top 10 list.
Radzinskaya, a Russian child with cerebral palsy, has more than 107 million YouTube subscribers across multiple YouTube channels, according to Forbes. She appears in her YouTube videos with her father. Her videos have been viewed about 42 billion times, according to CNN Business.
Others on the top 10 YouTube highest earners list include Rhett and Link ($17.5 million), and Jeffree Star ($17 million).
PewDiePie ranked 7th with $13 million in earnings.
We reported that Ryan’s parents faced investigation by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in 2018 for allegedly failing to disclose paid advertisements in their YouTube videos. The investigation was prompted by a complaint by the consumer watchdog group Truth in Advertising.
The latest report comes after Google-owned YouTube announced that the platform would stop serving targeted ads on children’s content.
Google recently agreed to a $170 million settlement over a lawsuit accusing the online giant of violating children’s privacy laws by tracking children and selling ads targeted at them.