The highest earning YouTube stars of 2016 raked in a combined $70.5M

By Saqib Shah December 5, 2016

YouTube’s biggest stars witnessed another blockbuster year thanks to their success online and offline.

The 12 internet celebs behind some of the video platform’s biggest channels amassed a combined $70.5 million in the 12 months ending in June, according to Forbes — a 23 percent increase from total revenue in 2015.

A lot has changed since last year for the proactive vloggers. Although the highest earning star remains the same (Felix Kjellberg, better known as PewDiePie, earned $15 million to nab the top spot), four newcomers made it on to the list. The debutants include video game commentator Mark Fischbach, aka Markiplier ($5.5 million), Latin-America’s biggest YouTube star German Garmendia ($5.5 million), comedian Colleen Ballinger ($5 million).

However, the type of content being produced is the conventional fare that tends to attract the most eyeballs on Google’s video service: gaming, comedy, and cooking. That’s not to say these big guns are one-trick ponies.

YouTube’s enterprising stars also found success outside of the platform. The likes of Kjellberg, Lilly Singh, and Tyler Oakley released hit books, cosmetic products, and mobile games — proving that their legions of fans are willing to follow their every move. And that’s before you count their nationwide tours, film productions, and YouTube Red deals. Ballinger, for example, was recently tapped to star in a Netflix original series based on her fictional character Miranda Sings. Meanwhile, DIY baker Rosanna Pansino (who earned a cool $6 million) released a cookbook based on her YouTube series that reportedly sold over 120,000 copies. Not bad for a vlogger who started off shooting videos on an $80 dollar camera.

Online, the popular creators amassed their fortunes from traditional sponsorship methods, such as preroll ads before their videos and brand tie-ins for entire clips.

Forbes compiled its list by measuring earnings, before subtracting management fees and taxes. It drew its data from Nielsen and IMDb, as well as interviews with agents, managers, lawyers, and the stars themselves.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Saqib Shah is a Twitter addict and film fan with an obsessive interest in pop culture trends. In his spare time he can be…

Audio / Video

YouTube TV tips and tricks: how to get the most out Google’s live TV service

YouTube TV app icon on Apple TV.

There’s a reason YouTube TV has found itself the leader in live-streaming video. In fact, it has about twice as many subscribers to its cable-TV replacement as the next biggest platform. And. among other reasons like price, reliability, and abundance of channels, it is just packed with features.
In fact, YouTube TV has so many features tucked away in there that you’ll be forgiven if you don’t spot them all at first. But we’ve done the legwork. We’ve watched hours and hours of YouTube TV. Weeks and months, really. We’ve flipped all the buttons. We’ve pressed all the switches. (Wait — reverse that.) And we’ve put together a list of what we think are the most important — if not always obvious — YouTube TV tips and tricks. And we're not just talking about NFL Sunday Ticket.
This isn’t everything. There are still a few other places to explore in the settings menu, as well as when you’re watching shows and movies. But these are the YouTube TV tips and tricks we absolutely think you must know.

Record a show to watch later

Audio / Video

This long-awaited YouTube TV feature is a channel-flipper’s dream

The previous channel feature on YouTube TV on a TV.

The move from cable to streaming for live TV changed a lot of things. Choice, for one. (We have more.) Price, for another. (You're likely paying less.) But not all changes were great. If you're of the channel-surfing variety — or love to flip back and forth between two channels — you've likely been missing that feature.

YouTube TV — the most popular streaming service in the U.S. with more than 8 million subscribers — has addressed the latter. After having been teased in some A/B testing for a while now (that is, some folks saw it, and most didn't), it looks like the ability to hop back and forth between two channels is now rolling out more broadly.

Audio / Video

If you don’t see CBS in 4K on YouTube TV, try this

Super Bowl in 4K on CBS on YouTube TV.

A quick heads up if you have the 4K add-on for YouTube TV but aren't seeing the option to watch Super Bowl 2024 in 4K on CBS: It's likely because you're using a custom sort on your live channel listings. (Which is something you might have done if you want to hide YouTube TV channels that you never watch.) That'a bad enough for the game itself, and it also means you won't be able to enjoy the Super Bowl Halftime Show in 4K.

This is a known problem — and has been for years — anytime YouTube TV adds a new channel to the listing. If you're not using the default sort on the live channel listings, a new channel will appear at the bottom of the listings, which is bad enough. But worse is that it's hidden by default until you actively go in and unhide it.