Ryan, a seven-year-old boy, is not very different from another child his own age – he likes playing with Lego blocks, clay and other toys. The only thing that sets him apart is that he does it on camera and has earned $22 million for his reviews.
Ryan, from Ryan ToysReview, topped the list of the highest-earning YouTube stars, named by Forbes magazine, with his simple reviews of the toys he plays with and several unboxing videos.
Ryan has become a major influencer with 17.3 million followers and nearly 26 billion views, since his channel was launched in March 2015. Some of his more recent videos have also incorporated animation to teach morals and life skills.
According to Forbes, most of the revenue was generated by advertisements shown before videos while the remainder was from sponsored posts. Ryan explained why his reviews were so famous in an interview with NBC: “Because I’m entertaining and I’m funny.”
His status as a YouTuber expanded in October when it was announced that content from his channel would be repackaged and distributed on Hulu and Amazon. A few months before that, in August, he launched collection of toys and apparel sold at Walmart.
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