The 22 Richest YouTube Stars In The World

YouTube has created an entirely new class of celebrity entrepreneur.

For the platform's biggest stars, the real money no longer comes from simply uploading videos and collecting a share of advertising revenue. YouTube audiences have become launchpads for cosmetics companies, snack brands, beverage empires, production studios, toy lines, clothing companies, subscription businesses, boxing promotions, podcasts, and global licensing operations.

For this ranking, we're looking at wealth, not simply what a creator earns in a given year. This is not a list of the highest-paid YouTubers in a particular year. Net worth measures the accumulated value of a person's assets and business interests after taking into account taxes, spending, investments, liabilities, and other factors.

For our purposes, a creator still qualifies as a YouTube star even if most of their money now comes from businesses they built off the platform. Jake Paul may now make enormous sums from boxing. Jeffree Star built a cosmetics company. Mark Rober sells science kits. Logan Paul and KSI co-founded Prime. Those businesses would almost certainly never have reached their current scale without the audiences their creators first built online.

Because five creators are tied at $35 million at the bottom of the ranking, this list contains 22 people. With that methodology in mind, here are the 22 richest YouTube stars in the world.

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#18 (tie): Anastasia Radzinskaya AKA Like Nastya — $35 Million

Anastasia Radzinskaya became a global YouTube phenomenon while she was still a small child. Better known as Like Nastya, she stars in brightly produced family-friendly videos involving toys, travel, games, songs, and everyday adventures.

Her parents turned that enormous audience into a much broader entertainment business. The Like Nastya brand expanded into multiple languages, merchandise, licensing agreements, and other commercial partnerships. The family also entered into a major deal involving the monetization rights to Nastya's existing YouTube catalog, converting a portion of the future income from older videos into an upfront payment.

Those ventures have pushed Anastasia Radzinskaya's net worth to $35 million, making her one of the wealthiest children's entertainers to emerge from YouTube.

#18 (tie): DanTDM — $35 Million

Daniel Middleton, better known as DanTDM, was one of the creators who proved just how lucrative gaming content could become.

He built his enormous audience primarily around "Minecraft," though his channel eventually expanded to cover a wide variety of games and entertainment. DanTDM supplemented YouTube advertising revenue with sponsorships, merchandise, books, and live appearances.

While some creators on this list became extraordinarily rich through a single blockbuster business venture, Middleton accumulated his fortune through more than a decade near the top of the gaming world. Today, DanTDM's net worth is $35 million.

#18 (tie): IShowSpeed — $35 Million

Darren Watkins Jr., better known as IShowSpeed, became one of the world's biggest livestream personalities through a deliberately chaotic mixture of gaming, comedy, travel, sports fandom, and interaction with viewers.

His obsession with soccer, particularly Cristiano Ronaldo, helped transform Speed from a popular gaming streamer into an international celebrity. His appearances around the world can attract crowds that look more like those surrounding a professional athlete or pop star than a traditional YouTuber.

Advertising, sponsorships, merchandise, livestream revenue, music, and appearance fees have produced enormous income in a remarkably short amount of time. At $35 million, IShowSpeed's net worth already rivals creators who have been working on YouTube for more than a decade.

#18 (tie): Link Neal — $35 Million

Link Neal and Rhett McLaughlin were friends and creative collaborators long before YouTube existed. They eventually quit careers in engineering to pursue entertainment full-time, a decision that resulted in one of the most durable businesses in online media.

Their flagship show, "Good Mythical Morning," became a YouTube institution. Rather than simply taking home the profits, Rhett and Link built Mythical Entertainment into a larger production company with employees, podcasts, merchandise, food programming, live events, and investments in other creator-led businesses.

Mythical even acquired Smosh after the collapse of its former parent company. Smosh's founders later reacquired majority control, with Mythical retaining an ownership interest. The value of the business, combined with years of creator earnings, has helped push Link Neal's net worth to $35 million.

#18 (tie): Rhett McLaughlin — $35 Million

Rhett McLaughlin built his fortune alongside longtime creative partner Link Neal, transforming a quirky online comedy operation into an independent entertainment company.

The pair's longevity is particularly impressive. Many YouTube stars enjoy several years of explosive popularity and then fade. Rhett and Link instead turned their audience into a business capable of generating revenue from numerous shows, podcasts, sponsorships, merchandise, live events, and investments.

That ownership makes Rhett more than simply a highly paid host. He owns a stake in the company producing and monetizing the broader Mythical ecosystem, and today Rhett McLaughlin's net worth is $35 million.

#14 (tie): Blippi — $40 Million

Stevin John created Blippi in 2014 after noticing what he believed was a lack of high-quality educational video content for young children.

Wearing an instantly recognizable blue-and-orange outfit, John began producing energetic videos about vehicles, animals, museums, playgrounds, and other topics aimed at preschool viewers. Blippi became one of the largest children's brands ever created on YouTube.

The business eventually expanded well beyond John's original videos. Blippi became a global intellectual property franchise encompassing toys, books, live performances, streaming programming, and licensed consumer products. The property ultimately became part of children's media giant Moonbug Entertainment.

The success of the character transformed its creator into a multimillionaire. Today, Blippi creator Stevin John's net worth is $40 million.

#14 (tie): Jacksepticeye — $40 Million

Seán McLoughlin, better known as Jacksepticeye, became one of YouTube's most successful gaming personalities through his energetic commentary and distinctive sense of humor.

The Irish creator eventually expanded far beyond the standard gaming-advertising model. In addition to sponsorships and merchandise, Jacksepticeye co-founded the Cloak apparel company with Markiplier and later created Top of the Mornin' Coffee.

Those businesses allowed McLoughlin to monetize the audience he built through YouTube without depending entirely on views from new videos. More than a decade of creator income and entrepreneurship has brought Jacksepticeye's net worth to $40 million.

#14 (tie): Preston Arsement — $40 Million

Preston Arsement has built a remarkably large YouTube operation around gaming, challenges, and family-friendly entertainment.

Rather than relying on a single channel, Preston developed a network of channels targeting different audiences, including enormous followings for "Minecraft" and other gaming content. That scale has produced significant advertising and sponsorship revenue while supporting merchandise, gaming-related businesses, and other ventures.

At his strongest, Preston has generated tens of millions of dollars in gross annual income. After years of accumulating profits from that content empire, Preston Arsement's net worth is $40 million.

#14 (tie): Unspeakable — $40 Million

Nathan Graham, better known as Unspeakable, built an enormous audience through "Minecraft" videos before expanding into increasingly elaborate challenges, stunts, and family-friendly entertainment.

One of the most important financial moments of his career came through a transaction with Spotter. The company paid creators upfront in exchange for the monetization rights to portions of their existing YouTube catalogs. The deal helped Unspeakable generate $28.5 million in income in a single year.

He did not simply cash out and disappear. His channels continued attracting massive viewership afterward while the Unspeakable brand expanded through merchandise and content-licensing arrangements. Between years of YouTube profits and the major catalog monetization deal, Unspeakable's net worth has grown to $40 million.

#13: PewDiePie — $45 Million

Few people played a larger role in establishing the idea of the professional YouTube celebrity than Felix Kjellberg.

Better known as PewDiePie, the Swedish creator became famous through gaming videos before evolving into comedy, commentary, and broader entertainment. For years, he operated the most-subscribed individual channel on YouTube and became one of the most recognizable internet personalities in the world.

PewDiePie's enormous audience generated millions through advertising, sponsorships, merchandise, books, and other ventures. He has reduced the frantic pace that characterized his peak YouTube years, but the money accumulated during that extraordinary run remains substantial. PewDiePie's net worth is $45 million.

#9 (tie): Dhar Mann — $50 Million

Dhar Mann turned short inspirational dramas into one of the largest independent content-production businesses on YouTube.

His videos generally revolve around a moral lesson, often showing a character behaving badly before experiencing consequences or learning an important lesson. The formula proved extraordinarily effective with viewers.

Dhar Mann Studios eventually grew from relatively simple online productions into a substantial operation employing writers, actors, directors, and production workers. Instead of functioning like a traditional creator filming videos at home, Mann effectively built his own digital television studio.

That scale has generated substantial advertising revenue while opening opportunities in sponsorships, licensing, and other forms of distribution. The result is a $50 million fortune, with Dhar Mann's net worth placing him firmly among YouTube's richest creators.

#9 (tie): Mark Rober — $50 Million

Mark Rober spent years working as an engineer, including at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, before becoming one of YouTube's most popular science personalities.

His channel combines engineering, large-scale experiments, and elaborate inventions with the pacing of mainstream entertainment. Viral projects ranging from glitter-bomb traps to enormous science demonstrations have attracted tens of millions of viewers.

Rober then transformed that audience into a business through CrunchLabs, which sells subscription science and engineering kits. That recurring-revenue operation means his financial success is no longer dependent solely on advertising generated by individual videos.

With creator earnings reaching tens of millions of dollars in strong years and CrunchLabs adding a valuable consumer business to the equation, Mark Rober's net worth is $50 million.

#9 (tie): Michelle Phan — $50 Million

Michelle Phan was building a creator-led business empire before the term "creator economy" had entered common use.

She became one of YouTube's earliest major beauty stars through makeup tutorials that accumulated hundreds of millions of views. Those videos led to major cosmetics opportunities, but Phan's most important business move came through Ipsy.

The beauty subscription company grew into a major enterprise and at one point raised capital at a $500 million valuation. Phan's ownership and entrepreneurial success transformed her wealth far beyond what she could have earned from YouTube advertising alone.

Her career provided an early blueprint for what many of today's biggest creators are trying to accomplish: use attention generated on a platform to build equity in something much more valuable. Today, Michelle Phan's net worth is $50 million.

#9 (tie): Ms. Rachel — $50 Million

Rachel Griffin Accurso, better known simply as Ms. Rachel, created educational videos aimed at helping babies and young children develop language skills.

Her combination of songs, repetition, speech techniques, and direct interaction with the camera proved enormously popular with parents. Ms. Rachel quickly grew from a homemade YouTube production into one of the largest children's entertainment brands in the world.

Her business subsequently expanded beyond advertising into consumer products, toys, music, licensing, and distribution through major entertainment platforms. That transformation from YouTube channel to valuable children's intellectual property has pushed Ms. Rachel's net worth to $50 million.

#8: Linus Sebastian — $60 Million

Linus Sebastian transformed videos about computers and technology into a substantial privately owned media company.

His flagship Linus Tech Tips channel became the foundation of Linus Media Group, which operates multiple channels and generates money through advertising, sponsorships, merchandise, and technology-focused businesses.

Unlike most celebrity fortunes, Sebastian's has an unusually revealing valuation benchmark. Sebastian disclosed that he and his wife, Yvonne Ho, were the sole shareholders of Linus Media Group when they rejected an acquisition offer worth $100 million. The proposed consideration consisted of $60 million in cash and $40 million in stock in the acquiring company.

Rejecting a $100 million offer does not make Sebastian personally worth $100 million, especially when ownership was shared with his wife. But it does provide unusually compelling evidence about the value of the company they created. Taking that business value and years of accumulated income into account, Linus Sebastian's net worth is $60 million.

#7: Markiplier — $95 Million

Mark Fischbach, better known as Markiplier, belongs to the relatively small group of YouTube gaming personalities who converted more than a decade of massive viewership into a fortune approaching $100 million.

Markiplier originally became famous through gaming commentary, particularly horror games, but his appeal eventually expanded far beyond "Let's Play" videos.

His income has included YouTube advertising, large sponsorship agreements, merchandise, and other creator ventures. He also co-founded the Cloak apparel company with Jacksepticeye and has pursued increasingly ambitious independent entertainment projects.

There was no single transaction responsible for his wealth. Instead, years of exceptionally high income have compounded into a substantial fortune. Today, Markiplier's net worth is $95 million.

#5 (tie): Ryan Kaji — $100 Million

Ryan Kaji became one of the world's highest-paid entertainers before he was old enough to fully understand just how large his business had become.

He first gained fame reviewing toys on the channel originally known as Ryan ToysReview. The simple concept attracted billions of views and eventually evolved into the much larger Ryan's World brand.

The Kaji family's business moved aggressively beyond YouTube advertising. Ryan's World became a licensing phenomenon encompassing toys, clothing, television programming, games, and other consumer products. Products bearing the Ryan's World name have generated hundreds of millions of dollars in retail sales.

Because Ryan became famous as a child, his wealth is closely intertwined with the family-run companies and structures controlling the Ryan's World business. Even with that unusual setup, the success of the franchise has pushed Ryan Kaji's net worth to $100 million.

#4 (tie): KSI — $150 Million

Olajide Olatunji, better known as KSI, has built one of the most diversified business careers to emerge from YouTube.

KSI initially became famous through gaming videos, particularly content related to the "FIFA" video game franchise. He went on to become a founding member of the Sidemen, whose enormous audience has supported merchandise, restaurants, and other businesses.

He then expanded into music and boxing, generating significant income in industries that had little to do with his original gaming channel. His highest-profile business venture is Prime, the beverage brand he co-founded with Logan Paul. Prime experienced explosive growth following its launch and became one of the most recognizable creator-backed consumer brands in the world.

Between YouTube, Sidemen-related ventures, music, boxing, and Prime, KSI's net worth has reached $150 million.

#4: Logan Paul — $150 Million

Logan Paul is a perfect example of how YouTube fame can become the foundation of something much larger than a YouTube career.

After initially gaining attention on Vine, Paul became one of the biggest personalities on YouTube. Advertising, sponsorships, and merchandise generated millions, but his career later expanded into podcasting, boxing, and professional wrestling.

His "Impaulsive" podcast developed into a major media property, while high-profile boxing matches demonstrated the enormous commercial power of his online audience.

Paul also co-founded Prime with KSI. The beverage company became an international phenomenon soon after its launch and represents one of the clearest examples of creators using their audiences to build a mainstream consumer brand.

Prime's performance has cooled considerably from its explosive early peak, so it would be a mistake to assign Paul's stake the kinds of enormous valuations that circulated during the brand's hottest period. Even so, years of creator income, boxing paydays, WWE earnings, investments, and his business holdings have taken Logan Paul's net worth to $150 million.

#3: Jeffree Star — $160 Million

Jeffree Star became wealthy through social media. He became extraordinarily wealthy through cosmetics.

Star initially developed a major online following during the MySpace era before becoming one of YouTube's most prominent beauty personalities. His videos gave him a direct connection to millions of cosmetics buyers, and he eventually turned that audience into Jeffree Star Cosmetics.

During the company's peak years, Jeffree Star Cosmetics generated more than $100 million in annual sales. Because Star maintained ownership rather than merely accepting a traditional endorsement deal, the company's success translated into substantial profits and business value. Jeffree also personally generated tens of millions of dollars in income during his strongest years.

Jeffree Star Cosmetics does not appear to operate at the extraordinary scale it enjoyed during the height of the YouTube beauty boom. But Star had already accumulated a major fortune by then and continues operating the company along with other businesses and investments. Today, Jeffree Star's net worth is $160 million.

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#2: Jake Paul — $200 Million

Jake Paul used YouTube to become famous. He used boxing to become vastly richer. Today, Jake Paul's net worth is $200 million.

Paul initially built an enormous audience through Vine and YouTube, where his aggressive mixture of pranks, stunts, controversy, and lifestyle content attracted millions of young viewers.

He eventually shifted his attention toward professional boxing. Critics initially dismissed the move as a stunt, but Paul recognized something important: His online following allowed him to generate enormous audiences for fights without following the traditional career path of an established boxing star.

Major bouts produced enormous purses and helped Paul build an increasingly serious business around the sport. He also co-founded Most Valuable Promotions, giving him an ownership interest in the promotion side of boxing rather than merely collecting checks as a fighter.

Paul has pursued numerous additional investments and businesses, but boxing has been the financial accelerant that separated him from nearly every other creator of his generation.

#1: MrBeast — $2.6 Billion

There is MrBeast, and then there is everyone else.

Jimmy Donaldson spent years following a strategy that seemed almost irrational from the outside: Every time his YouTube channels generated more money, he spent more money making the next video.

As his audience grew, the prizes became larger, the productions became more elaborate, and the videos became increasingly expensive. Instead of maximizing short-term personal income, Donaldson relentlessly reinvested in growth.

That approach produced an audience numbering in the hundreds of millions and gave Donaldson the ability to launch businesses directly to his fans. By June 2024, the value of those businesses and Donaldson's ownership interests had grown to the point that MrBeast was officially a billionaire.

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The resulting corporate empire is centered around Beast Industries. One of its most important businesses is Feastables, the snack and chocolate company Donaldson launched in 2022. Feastables became so successful that MrBeast now makes more money from chocolate than YouTube, an extraordinary development for someone whose entire business empire began with online videos.

The key to MrBeast's wealth is not simply how much cash his channels generate in a year. It is ownership.

In February 2025, reports emerged that MrBeast was looking to raise money at an utterly insane multibillion-dollar valuation. What sounded astonishing at the time eventually became reality.

Beast Industries later raised outside capital at a $5.2 billion valuation while Donaldson retained majority ownership. That financing caused MrBeast's net worth to soar to at least $2.6 billion.

Today, MrBeast's net worth is $2.6 billion.

That does not mean Donaldson has $2.6 billion sitting in cash. The vast majority of his fortune is tied to his ownership stake in privately held Beast Industries. The ultimate value of that stake will depend on how the company performs, whether it raises additional capital, and what happens if Donaldson eventually sells shares or takes the company public.

But the gap between MrBeast and every other YouTube star is already extraordinary. Jake Paul, who ranks second on this list, is worth $200 million.

MrBeast is worth thirteen times more.