Top YouTubers are as big as any A-list celebrity. They have adoring and fiercely loyal fanbases, a God-like status online, and, let’s not forget, a bulging bank account too. Here is a list of the top 15 famous YouTubers right now.
Despite reaching meteoric levels of fame, YouTube stars remain relatable and personable to their viewers. This is because they haven’t got where they are due to status or privilege. YouTube stars achieve their success through sheer hard work and by producing content that resonates with their audience.
The key point here is that anyone can become a YouTube star, and that’s why this form of content appeals to so many people.
But how much do the top YouTubers actually earn? And are they all millionaires? Let’s find out.
The Top 15 Famous YouTubers in 2024
Before we start on the list, I want to point out that there are other higher-ranking channels that I haven’t included. This is because they are either a large company or an already famous celebrity.
For example, T-Series is the world’s most subscribed YouTube channel. However, it’s an Indian music and film corporation. CocoMelon is second on the list and is a kid’s animation company.
We also have Justin Bieber and the K-pop band BlackPink ranking highly, but this is largely due to the music videos they release on the platform.
Instead, I’ve focused on individuals or small groups of people that began on YouTube and achieved their fame organically.
1. MrBeast
- Channel started: 2012
- Subscribers: 133 million
- Views: Over 22 billion
- Videos: 730+
- Approximate Net worth: $100 million dollars
- Earns per month: $3–5 million dollars
MrBeast, AKA Jimmy Donaldson, has become a master of YouTube and, in just ten short years, has managed to become the world’s top YouTuber.
He started his channel at the tender age of 13 and initially focused on computer games – chiefly Minecraft. After struggling to gain traction on his channel, he decided to change direction and uploaded what would become his first viral video in 2017.
The video that set him on his path to success was him literally counting from 1–100,000. Then, it wasn’t long after that he scored his first brand deal, and instead of pocketing the $10,000, he gave it away to a homeless person. And MrBeast, as we know him today, was born.
Jimmy is famous for reinvesting most of what he earns back into his videos. He creates lavish scenes and stunts and gives away incredible amounts of cash and prizes. He also does a great deal for charity, and his philanthropic efforts have been legendary.
Alongside his four YouTube channels, Jimmy regularly releases merch that sells out instantly. He also has a line of chocolate bars, and in 2020, he opened the MrBeast Burger restaurant in North Carolina.
Even though Jimmy leads a modest life himself and reinvests everything back into his channels, he is still tipped to become the first YouTube billionaire.
2. PewDiePie
- Channel started: 2006 and 2010
- Subscribers: 111 million
- Views: Almost 29 billion
- Videos: 4,700+
- Approximate Net Worth: $40 million dollars
Felix “PewDiePie” Kjellberg hails from Sweden and, for years, dominated YouTube as the most-subscribed channel. He started his original YouTube channel in 2006 and was, therefore, one of the early adopters of video content creation.
His channel was based on gaming, and he focused on Minecraft and horror-themed games. Felix is credited with popularising the “let’s play” video style – a (now widely used) format where an individual films themselves gaming and provides commentary as they play.
Felix quickly became known for his humor and wit while playing games, and it was this quality that allowed him to branch out from gaming into comedy sketches, parody videos, viral challenges, and humorous news updates.
After a very public battle with rival Indian-based T-Series and losing to them for the most-subscribed channel, Felix backed away somewhat from YouTube and chose to only upload videos for fun rather than treating it like a job.
Despite taking frequent breaks to enjoy his personal life, Felix still ranks as one of the world’s most famous YouTubers. He has also released several video games, written a book, and has a clothing line in collaboration with his wife.
3. Kids Diana Show
- Channel started: 2015
- Subscribers: 108 million
- Views: Over 87 billion
- Videos: 1,000+
- Approximate Net Worth: $100 million dollars
Diana and Roma Kidisyuk are the Ukrainian stars of this family-run YouTube channel. Diana’s parents started uploading videos of their daughter when she was just one year old.
The channel’s very first video features Diana sitting in her stroller and playing with a leaf. Nowadays. Diana is eight years old and is undoubtedly a huge YouTube star. She now appears in most videos alongside her older brother – ten-year-old Roma.
Although Kids Diana Show is their biggest channel, the family actually runs an incredible twelve different channels, although eight of them are the original channel dubbed into different languages.
Diana’s content is largely based on role-playing, vlogging, unboxing, kids’ songs, and educational content. The family also has a clothing line available in Walmart.
Although the family claims they try to keep life as normal as possible for Diana and Roma, the parents have come under fire for failing to safeguard their children from mental health issues and extreme working pressures.
They are also regularly accused of exploiting their children. Despite this controversy, the family has no plans to stop what they are doing.
4. Like Nastya
- Channel started: 2016
- Subscribers: 104 million
- Views: Over 87 billion
- Videos: 760+
- Approximate Net Worth: $20 million dollars
Anastasia Radzinskaya is an eight-year-old Russian-American girl with a massive YouTube following. Her channel is dubbed into multiple languages, and she also has two spin-off channels that focus on vlogging and storytelling.
When Nastya was born, she was diagnosed with cerebral palsy. In light of this diagnosis, her parents decided to start a YouTube channel to document and share her progress and help with her therapy.
Later down the line, this diagnosis proved to be wrong, and Nastya progressed well and developed into a healthy child.
Despite the wrongful diagnosis, Nastya’s channel thrived thanks to the universally appealing content of stories, role-playing, unboxing videos, and more. She also appears with her father in most videos.
Alongside her YouTube channel, Nastya also has her own mobile app and a toy line and is partnered with many leading brands.
5. Vlad and Niki
- Channel started: 2018
- Subscribers: 93.3 million
- Views: Almost 73 billion
- Videos: 530+
- Approximate Net Worth: $80 million dollars
Vlad and Niki is the leading YouTube channel among young boys and features the Russian-American brothers Vladislav (10 years old) and Nikita Vashketov (seven years old). More recently, the duo has been joined by their younger brother Chris.
Their Mum, Victoria, also appears in most of their videos, providing a fun but adult presence.
The channel was started at Vlad’s request, who enjoyed watching YouTube videos and wanted to start uploading his own funny videos. The videos quickly gained in popularity, and Vlad was soon starring in videos alongside his younger brother.
The family still has heavy involvement in video production and chooses only to focus on topics that the boys are interested in. Whether it’s storytelling, toy reviews, or comedy sketches, the content is always authentic.
The family doesn’t actively pursue brand deals, but the boys do have several toy lines available with different manufacturers.
6. Dude Perfect
- Channel started: 2009
- Subscribers: 58.8 million
- Views: Over 15 billion
- Videos: 370+
- Approximate Net Worth: $50 million collectively
Dude Perfect is a five-strong team of lads based in Dallas, Texas. Tyler Toney, Garrett Hilbert, Cody Jones, Coby, and Cory Cotton started their channel by uploading basketball trick-shot videos.
The channel primarily focuses on trick-shot videos across various sports as well as competitive challenges and funny attempts at playing kids’ games. They also have a knack for mixing different sports to create new games with their own set of unique rules.
Thanks to their antics, Dude Perfect is the proud owner of 14 Guinness World Records. They have also made numerous appearances on news outlets such as ESPN, ABC, and CBS and worked alongside a long list of professional sports stars.
As if the YouTube channel didn’t keep them busy enough, Dude Perfect has also released a mobile game and a TV series and has held a live tour.
7. JuegaGerman
- Channel started: 2013
- Subscribers: 47.2 million
- Views: Over 14 billion
- Videos: 2,000+
- Approximate Net Worth: $9 million dollars
Germán Alejandro Garmendia Aranis is a Chilean YouTuber, singer, songwriter, and comedian. Germán actually started his YouTube career in 2011 with his other channel HolaSoyGerman featuring monologue-based content. It amassed 43.5 million subscribers before he abandoned it six years ago.
His current channel is doing just as well and chiefly features videos of Germán gaming alongside other content. He also performs in a band and enjoys singing and songwriting.
Notably, Germán’s channel is the second most subscribed Spanish-language channel on YouTube after the kids’ channel El Reino Infantil.
8. Fernanfloo
- Channel started: 2011
- Subscribers: 45.6 million
- Views: Over 10 billion
- Videos: 540+
- Approximate Net Worth: $7 million dollars
Luis Fernando Flores Alvarado is another Spanish-language YouTuber from El Salvador. He started his channel when he was 18 years old and focused on uploading tutorials and action scenes featuring special effects.
As his channel matured, he moved into video gaming and uploaded videos of himself playing COD, God of War, and Mortal Kombat.
Since becoming a top Spanish-language channel and the most subscribed channel in El Salvador, Luis has gone on to enjoy success in other areas, including releasing his own app, appearing in a film, and releasing a music video. He has also collaborated with gaming brands such as Capcom.
9. Felipe Neto
- Channel started: 2006
- Subscribers: 44.8 million
- Views: Over 16 billion
- Videos: 4,000+
- Approximate Net Worth: $30 million dollars
Felipe Neto Rodrigues Vieira is a Brazilian YouTube personality whose channel focuses on general entertainment. He was also the first YouTuber in Brazil to reach 1 million subscribers.
In 2012 Felipe founded Paramaker, a company that manages over 5,000 YouTube channels. Filipe’s goal was to change the Brazilian entertainment landscape.
More recently, he was one of ex-Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro’s loudest and most outspoken critics, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic. This prompted a fierce backlash from Bolsonaro supporters, and Filipe became the target of many defamation attempts and fake news stories.
Since then, the backlash has died out, and Felipe remains one of YouTube’s top channels.
10. Você Sabia?
- Channel started: 2013
- Subscribers: 44.2 million
- Views: Over 7.5 billion
- Videos: 1,450+
- Approximate Net Worth: $13 million collectively
Lukas Marques and Daniel Mologni are the faces of “Você Sabia?” A Brazilian channel that translates as “did you know?” The duo regularly posts videos containing interesting facts, trivia, theories, and mysteries.
Lukas and Daniel also have another channel called Você Sabia GAMES which boasts just under 5 million subscribers and features videos about gaming and vlogging.
It’s hard to find any solid information about the duo, but they did release a book in 2017 titled “Você Sabia?”, which has a review score of 3.7 on GoodReads.
11. A4
- Channel started: 2014
- Subscribers: 44.2 million
- Views: Almost 20.5 billion
- Videos: 720+
- Approximate Net Worth: $5 million dollars
Vladislav Andreyevich Bumaga, or “Vlad,” is a YouTuber from Belarus. His channel is entirely in the Russian language, but he has two other channels where his content is translated into English and Spanish.
His channel features crazy challenges, contests, and stunts and has a striking resemblance to MrBeast’s content. In fact, many of his videos are outright copies of MrBeast videos, albeit poorly executed and cheaply produced.
Vlad was recently caught out as the Belarusian star was found to be stealing MrBeast’s video thumbnails and photocopying his face on top of them. This sparked outrage online as legions of MrBeast fans called him out publicly.
However, since most of Vlad’s fans are non-English speaking, this controversy did nothing to dent his popularity, although he does appear to have stopped directly copying MrBeast.
12. Whindersson Nunes
- Channel started: 2013
- Subscribers: 44 million
- Views: Over 4 billion
- Videos: 520+
- Approximate Net Worth: $5 million dollars
If you’re a fan of Logan Paul – a well-known American YouTuber – then you may have already heard about the Brazilian star Whindersson Nunes Batista. The pair famously agreed to duke it out in a boxing match after getting caught up in a disagreement online.
When he’s not busy getting into conflict with other YouTube stars, Whindersson uploads comedy sketches, vlogs, and funny videos to his channel. At one point, he was the most subscribed channel in Brazil, but that crown was taken away in 2018.
Initially, Whindersson struggled to get his channel off the ground and suffered several failed attempts until his parody video of “Alô vó, tô reprovado” went viral in 2012.
His original channel was hacked and subsequently deleted in 2013, so Whindersson promptly created a new one which is still going strong today.
13. Elrubius OMG
- Channel started: 2011
- Subscribers: 40.4 million
- Views: 7.5 billion
- Videos: 712
- Approximate Net Worth: $7 million dollars
Rubén Doblas Gundersen is the face behind the elrubiusOMG channel. The Spanish-Norwegian star’s channel is famous for its gameplay and vlogging videos.
He began his first YouTube channel in 2006 and featured gaming videos. However, Rubén had to abandon it in 2012 and start a new one because of a contract conflict with the company Machinima Network, Inc.
Thanks to his unique style, Rubén has been credited with being a pioneer in popularising video game montage and commentary videos within the Spanish-speaking community.
Rubén also released a book in 2014 titled “El Libro Troll,” which stayed atop no. 1 in sales for eight weeks in Spain.
The star is also an active Twitch streamer and commands large audiences.
14. Luisita Comunica
- Channel started: 2012
- Subscribers: 39.9 million
- Views: 8.2 billion
- Videos: 1,200+
- Approximate Net Worth: $10 million dollars
Luis Arturo Villar Sudek is another Spanish-speaking YouTuber hailing from Mexico and is the proud owner of the most subscribed channel within his home country.
Luis actually started on YouTube in 2006 with a channel named “Piano Para Gente Cool,” which featured piano tutorials, tips, and cover songs. In 2012 he joined the YouTube team No me Revientes and started his current channel at the same time.
Moving away from the piano, Luis’s channel features travel vlogs where he journeys to undiscovered and underrated destinations and covers interesting topics about the countries he visits.
In addition to his channel, Luis has a clothing line, has released two books, and has burger restaurants in Mexico, Peru, Colombia, and Spain.
15. Kimberly Loaiza
- Channel started: 2016
- Subscribers: 39.7 million
- Views: 5 billion
- Videos: 250+
- Approximate Net Worth: $8 million dollars
Wrapping up the list, we have Kimberly Guadalupe Loaiza Martinez, a Mexican singer and online influencer. Her channel became known for featuring tutorials, challenges, and tags.
The channel enabled Kimberly to launch her successful singing career, and she has enjoyed worldwide success with her hit single “Don’t Be Jealous,” which climbed to the number one spot in many Spanish-speaking countries.
Despite enjoying a successful singing career, Kimberly remains active on her YouTube channel and regularly posts vlogs about her life and family. She is also one of the top 15 TikTokers and has a huge following on the platform.
Questions & Answers
Wrap Up
Almost everyone on this list started from scratch and became famous entirely through YouTube. Thanks to their success on the platform, it has also enabled them to move on to other lucrative side projects.
However, it’s important to note that many of the stars initially struggled to gain traction on their channels for a number of years until something went viral.
But don’t let that put you off.
If you have an original idea or a unique perspective on a particular subject, you could be sitting on a potential goldmine.
There’s plenty of room on YouTube for the next MrBeast or PewDiePie. All you have to do is start posting videos to find out if it’s going to be you.
You should also check out:
- The most famous TikTokers and how much they earn
- The most famous Instagrammers and how much they earn
- The most famous podcasters and how much they earn
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