Top 20 Most Popular and Highest Paid YouTubers

YouTube minted more millionaires in the last five years than Hollywood did in the last fifty. The top of the platform no longer looks like scrappy creators filming in bedrooms. It looks like media companies with production crews, merchandise empires, consumer brands, and Netflix deals, all built on the back of a single channel. Some of the biggest YouTubers today are worth more than the TV stars they grew up watching.

I’ve been tracking creator economies and YouTube channel growth since 2016, mostly for clients who want to understand where influencer marketing is actually going. Net worth numbers are notoriously hard to pin down because most creators fold business revenue, investment stakes, and brand equity into their public figures. The ranges in this article are based on Forbes’ annual Top Creators list, industry reporting from Tubefilter and Variety, and publicly disclosed business valuations. Treat them as informed estimates, not audited accounts.

The list below is ordered by estimated net worth, from highest to lowest. MrBeast is now in a category of his own, pulling further ahead of every other creator on the platform. Several big names from a few years ago (PewDiePie, Lilly Singh, David Dobrik, Emma Chamberlain) have either stepped back from daily uploads, rebranded into other industries, or pivoted off YouTube entirely. A few have rebuilt from scandal. One has been removed from the group he co-founded. Here’s where everyone actually stands in 2026.

Top 20 Highest-Paid YouTubers in 2026, Ranked by Net Worth

The creators below span most of the content categories on YouTube: challenge content, beauty, children’s media, gaming, music curation, vlogging, comedy, sports entertainment, and food. This ranking is based on the highest credible public estimate of each creator’s total net worth as of 2026, including business holdings, investments, and brand equity where known. Where a channel is run by a duo or a group, I’ve listed the combined figure and flagged it.

1. MrBeast

Estimated net worth: $700 million to $1 billion
Subscribers: 320+ million (main channel)

Jimmy Donaldson, known as MrBeast, is in a category of one. In 2024 his main channel overtook T-Series to become the most-subscribed channel in the world, and the gap has only widened since. The formula (high-concept challenge videos, escalating prize money, philanthropy content, cinematic production values) is now the dominant template for the entire English-speaking side of YouTube.

MrBeast’s business empire goes well beyond the channel. Feastables (his chocolate and snack brand) reportedly did nine figures in revenue in 2024. MrBeast Burger came and went. Beast Philanthropy runs full-scale charitable operations, not just stunt donations. And in December 2024, Amazon launched Beast Games, a 1,000-player real-world competition series on Prime Video, on what was reported to be the largest reality TV production budget in history.

Net worth estimates have climbed accordingly. Forbes valued his combined business interests at north of $700 million in late 2024, and Bloomberg pegged the ceiling closer to $1 billion when factoring in Feastables and a reported $100 million+ fundraise at a multi-billion-dollar valuation. Whatever the exact figure, Jimmy Donaldson is now the highest-paid YouTuber by a wide margin, and the first creator to credibly enter the same revenue conversation as traditional media companies.

2. Paul Brothers

Estimated net worth: ~$330 million combined (Logan Paul ~$250M, Jake Paul ~$80M)
Subscribers: ~44 million combined

The Paul brothers remain two of the most polarizing figures on YouTube, and also two of the most financially successful. Jake Paul pivoted almost entirely out of YouTube content into professional boxing, culminating in his November 2024 fight against Mike Tyson on Netflix. The fight drew an estimated 108 million global live viewers and paid Jake a reported $40 million purse, the largest single payday of any creator’s career.

Logan Paul’s bigger play is Prime Hydration, the sports drink brand he co-founded with KSI in 2022. By 2024, Prime was reportedly generating over $1.2 billion in annual retail sales and had become one of the fastest-growing beverage launches in US history. Logan has also continued with WWE, boxing, and his Impaulsive podcast. Both brothers are now media-and-business entities with YouTube channels attached, rather than YouTubers who dabble in other things.

3. Like Nastya

Estimated net worth: $250 million
Subscribers: ~130 million (main channel)

Like Nastya is the rare non-English-language creator to crack the global top ten by subscribers, and for several years running she’s been one of the highest-earning YouTubers in the world, full stop. Anastasia Radzinskaya, born in Russia and now based in the US, built the channel with her parents when she was a toddler. The content (bright, multilingual, kid-friendly playacting and song videos) has consistently been translated into multiple languages including English, Spanish, Portuguese, Hindi, Arabic, and Russian.

The main channel alone is somewhere around 130 million subscribers in 2026, and the broader Nastya network has more than 50 billion total views. Forbes has repeatedly estimated her annual earnings at $25 million or more, putting her career total comfortably into nine figures. It’s a reminder that kids’ content on YouTube is still one of the most reliably monetizable categories on the platform, despite COPPA restrictions tightening the ad environment.

4. Jeffree Star

Estimated net worth: $200 million
Subscribers: ~15 million

Jeffree Star is the rare beauty YouTuber whose fortune was built almost entirely off YouTube. Jeffree Star Cosmetics, launched in 2014, is the real asset. The YouTube channel is the marketing engine. At its peak in 2018, Forbes estimated Jeffree was pulling $18 million a year from the channel alone, before counting cosmetics revenue.

Since then, Jeffree has scaled back from YouTube’s drama-heavy beauty community and relocated most of his business operations to a ranch in Wyoming, where he also runs a yak farm (yes, really) and a cosmetics fulfillment warehouse. The channel still publishes, but the upload cadence is down to a handful of videos a year. Even so, his net worth estimate has stayed in the $200 million range thanks to the durability of the cosmetics business.

5. Dude Perfect

Estimated net worth: $100 million
Subscribers: ~60 million

Dude Perfect is the trick-shot collective that turned five ex-college roommates in Frisco, Texas into one of the most valuable independent media brands on YouTube. Their signature format (basketball shots, ping-pong trick shots, stereotype comedy sketches) hasn’t changed much in over a decade, and that’s exactly why it still works. Families watch Dude Perfect the way they used to watch cable sports highlights.

In 2023, Dude Perfect took a ~$100 million investment from private equity firm Highmount Capital, one of the first major outside investments into a pure-play YouTube creator brand. That deal validated what long-time viewers already knew: Dude Perfect is a media company, not a channel. They now run multiple production studios, a live tour business, a kids’ TV show on Nickelodeon, and a merchandise operation. The main YouTube channel sits at roughly 60 million subscribers and continues to pull tens of millions of views per video.

6. Ryan Kaji

Estimated net worth: $100 million
Subscribers: ~38 million

Ryan’s World (formerly Ryan Toy Reviews) remains the most lucrative kids’ channel in the history of YouTube. Ryan Kaji, now in his early teens, has been on Forbes’ highest-paid YouTubers list nearly every year since 2018. His family’s production company, Sunlight Entertainment, has built out a complete children’s media brand: toys at Walmart and Target, a Nickelodeon show, a mobile game, apparel, bedding, back-to-school supplies, the works.

Forbes has estimated Ryan’s annual earnings between $25 million and $35 million in recent years, and the cumulative figure has pushed the Kaji family’s net worth into nine figures. As Ryan ages out of the traditional unboxing format, the brand has expanded into gaming, science content, and light animated series to keep the audience. Whether he’s the top-earning YouTuber or not in any given year, he’s consistently been in the top five since elementary school.

7. PewDiePie

Estimated net worth: $60 million
Subscribers: ~110 million

Felix Kjellberg, better known as PewDiePie, was the face of YouTube for most of the 2010s. At one point his channel held the title of most-subscribed on the entire platform, a crown he held through the T-Series race of 2019. The 110 million subscriber count is still there, but Felix himself is mostly not.

In 2022 he moved his family to Japan, and in the years since the channel has shifted from gaming and edgy humor to a much calmer content mix: vlogs about life in Japan, book reviews, woodworking, family updates with his wife Marzia and their son Björn. Upload frequency is a fraction of what it used to be. The pivot cost him relevance among younger viewers, but his back catalog and YouTube’s residual revenue keep the net worth estimate parked around $60 million. He’s the clearest example of a creator who successfully exited the hustle without deleting the channel.

8. Rhett & Link

Estimated net worth: $40 million (combined)
Subscribers: ~20 million across all channels

Rhett McLaughlin and Link Neal are the longest-running daily talk show on YouTube. Good Mythical Morning has aired roughly every weekday since 2012, and the format (two best friends, a tasting or game segment, mild absurdity) has barely changed. Reliability is the business here. If you post a 20-minute show every weekday for 14 years, you build an audience that shows up regardless of the algorithm.

Their parent company, Mythical Entertainment, is now a full production studio with more than 80 employees, a podcast network, multiple spinoff shows, and the Mythical Kitchen franchise built around Josh Scherer. The combined subscriber count across all Mythical channels is north of 20 million. They remain the clearest proof that a YouTube channel can become a real media business without either creator chasing virality.

9. Mark Edward Fischbach

Estimated net worth: $40 million
Subscribers: ~36 million

Markiplier is the most senior of the horror-game Let’s Play creators who broke out in the mid-2010s. His channel is built on long-form playthroughs of indie horror titles (Five Nights at Freddy’s, Outlast, and countless others), commentary videos, and occasional sketch comedy. What separates him from the rest of the gaming-vlogger cohort is that he actually finished projects outside the channel.

In 2024 he directed and starred in Iron Lung, a feature-length horror film adaptation of the indie game, which released in theaters as a genuine studio distribution play rather than a YouTube one-off. He also continues to run his podcast Distractible with Bob Muyskens and Wade Barnes, and the Cloak streetwear brand he co-founded with Jacksepticeye. The main channel sits at roughly 36 million subscribers and keeps uploading, which is more than can be said for most of his 2014-era peers.

10. TrapNation

Estimated net worth: $40 million
Subscribers: ~30 million across all channels

TrapNation is the blueprint for what a music curation channel on YouTube can become. Andre Benz founded it in 2012 as a single channel uploading trap music with custom visualizers, and it has since grown into Lowly Palace, Bass Nation, House Nation, Chill Nation, and several other sub-brands that collectively make up one of the biggest independent music discovery networks on YouTube.

The business model is clever. TrapNation doesn’t produce music itself. It licenses, curates, and platforms other artists’ tracks, often helping smaller producers break into the mainstream. Revenue comes from ad share, sponsorships, and music licensing deals. Combined across all channels, the network has more than 30 million subscribers and over 15 billion lifetime views.

11. Lilly Singh

Estimated net worth: $25 million
Subscribers: ~14 million

Lilly Singh, the Canadian YouTuber formerly known as Superwoman, built her audience over the 2010s on sketch comedy about being a first-generation Indian-Canadian daughter. By 2019, that audience was large enough to land her a late-night talk show on NBC, A Little Late with Lilly Singh, making her the first woman of color to host a Big 4 late-night show.

The NBC show ended in 2021, and Lilly has since shifted most of her creative energy into producing, acting, and her Unicorn Island Productions company rather than new YouTube content. The main channel still has around 14 million subscribers but uploads slowed dramatically after 2022. Her current work sits closer to traditional entertainment than creator-economy content, which is the path several of YouTube’s biggest names from a decade ago have taken.

12. David Dobrik

Estimated net worth: $25 million
Subscribers: ~19 million

David Dobrik defined the 4-minute vlog format. His Vlog Squad videos (fast-cut, high-energy, ending on a sponsor read) were copied by thousands of smaller creators. Then, in March 2021, a Business Insider report detailed serious allegations against one of the Vlog Squad members from 2018, and David’s brand collapsed almost overnight. Sponsors pulled out, HBO Max dropped his show, and Dispo (his photo-sharing app) lost its lead investor.

Since then, David has been slowly rebuilding. The vlog format came back in a scaled-down version, the pizza chain Doughbrik’s has expanded to multiple locations, and he’s still drawing millions of views per video. The pre-2021 fame and the $100 million+ trajectory he was on didn’t come back, but he’s still one of the most-subscribed vloggers on the platform. It’s a cautionary case study about how quickly the creator economy can unmake someone, and about how hard it is to fully come back.

13. James Charles

Estimated net worth: $22 million
Subscribers: ~24 million

James Charles was the first male CoverGirl ambassador in 2016 and spent most of the late 2010s at the center of beauty YouTube. His career has been punctuated by a long list of public controversies, including a high-profile 2019 feud with fellow beauty creator Tati Westbrook and a 2021 scandal that cost him several brand partnerships. Despite all of it, the subscriber base has stayed relatively intact.

James continues to upload makeup tutorials, collaborations, and vlogs to a channel that now sits at roughly 24 million subscribers. He also runs Sisters Apparel and has tried his hand at reality TV with Instant Influencer. The beauty community has moved on to newer faces, but the back catalog and the remaining audience keep the business going.

14. Emma Chamberlain

Estimated net worth: $20 million
Subscribers: ~12 million

Emma Chamberlain redefined vlogging around 2018 with a style so distinct it now has its own name: the Emma Chamberlain cut. Long handheld takes, deadpan voiceovers, vintage camcorder aesthetics, and ambient footage of her drinking coffee or walking around Los Angeles. A generation of lifestyle YouTubers copied it.

Her real career is now built around Chamberlain Coffee, the direct-to-consumer coffee brand she launched in 2019. By 2024 Chamberlain Coffee had raised over $30 million in outside funding, expanded into Walmart and Target nationally, and was being covered as a legitimate threat in the specialty coffee space. Emma has since scaled back her YouTube uploads dramatically, appears in Vogue, hosts the Anything Goes podcast, and regularly makes best-dressed lists at the Met Gala. Her trajectory is a preview of what many of the top vloggers will eventually do: turn the audience into a consumer brand, then let the channel slow down.

15. Rosanna Pansino

Estimated net worth: $20 million
Subscribers: ~14 million

Rosanna Pansino’s Nerdy Nummies is one of the longest-running baking shows on YouTube. The format (themed baking tutorials built around video games, movies, and pop culture) has barely changed since 2011, and that consistency has built one of the most loyal audiences in the food category. She’s sold multiple cookbooks, launched a line of baking tools in retail, and become a regular on Forbes’ food-influencer lists.

Where a lot of her peers in the early-2010s YouTube class have either burned out or rebranded, Rosanna has kept uploading for over a decade with remarkably stable numbers. The channel sits around 14 million subscribers and the Nerdy Nummies brand identity has held up across that entire stretch.

16. Hi-5 Studios

Estimated net worth: $20 million
Subscribers: ~40 million across all channels

Matthias Fredrick built Hi-5 Studios out of his original daily vlog channel and grew it into one of the more interesting independent production networks on YouTube. The flagship is Team Edge, a challenge-and-games channel he co-created with his brother and brother-in-law, but the studio also runs Battle Universe, Get Good Gaming, Matthias Vlogs, and several other channels under the same roof.

The combined network pulls over 40 million subscribers and consistently lands in the top-tier family-friendly channel rankings. The Hi-5 model (multiple channels sharing talent, crew, and production facilities) is closer to how a traditional TV studio operates than how most solo YouTubers work, and it’s one of the reasons the business has been durable through changes in the algorithm and ad rates.

17. Zalfie

Estimated net worth: $15 million (combined)
Subscribers: ~18 million across all channels

Zoe Sugg (Zoella) and Alfie Deyes were one of the first YouTube power couples to turn channel fame into lasting brand businesses. Zoe built her audience around lifestyle and beauty content in the early 2010s, then launched the Zoella beauty brand, multiple bestselling books, and a homewares line. Alfie runs the PointlessBlog channels plus a gaming channel.

Both have significantly slowed their uploads since becoming parents in 2021 and 2023 respectively. Zoe now primarily focuses on her homeware brand, podcast, and occasional lifestyle videos. The back catalog of books and products continues to generate revenue whether they upload or not, which is the long-tail reality for any creator who built a real business off the audience.

18. Fine Bros Entertainment (FBE)

Estimated net worth: $15 million
Subscribers: ~30 million across networks

The React series built by Benny and Rafi Fine (Kids React, Teens React, Elders React) basically invented the reaction video as a format. FBE grew into one of the largest production companies on YouTube by the late 2010s, with a staff of dozens and a sprawling multi-channel network. Then, in 2020, a series of labor controversies and former employee complaints led to the Fine brothers stepping away from their own company and rebranding everything to REACT Media.

The channels still exist, still produce reaction content, and still pull reasonable numbers, but the brand never fully recovered from the 2020 crisis. Like several entries on this list, it’s a reminder that creator-driven businesses are only as durable as the relationship between the creators and their audience, and that relationship can break.

19. The Try Guys

Estimated net worth: $12 million (combined)
Subscribers: ~8 million

The Try Guys started at Buzzfeed in 2014, went independent in 2018 with their own company 2nd Try LLC, and quickly became one of the most respected mid-sized creator businesses in comedy. The format (four guys try something they don’t know how to do) worked across food, fashion, fatherhood, and fitness, and the channel was on a steady upward trajectory for most of the 2010s.

In September 2022, co-founder Ned Fulmer was removed from the group after revelations of an affair with an employee. The remaining three (Keith Habersberger, Zach Kornfeld, and Eugene Lee Yang) addressed the scandal directly, released an apology video that went viral, and kept running the business. They’ve since rebuilt around Keith’s food content, their subscription streaming platform 2nd Try TV, and live tours. It’s one of the healthier examples of a creator company surviving a public crisis with its core audience mostly intact.

20. Liza Koshy

Estimated net worth: $8 million
Subscribers: ~17 million

Liza Koshy moved from Vine to YouTube in 2016, went viral inside a year, and was interviewing Barack Obama by 2017. At peak she was one of the fastest-growing creators on the platform. Since 2020 she’s been a part-time YouTuber at best, spending most of her time on acting work: Netflix’s Work It, the live-action Players, and various hosting gigs.

The channel still has roughly 17 million subscribers, but uploads are sporadic. Her career has followed the same arc as several early vloggers of her generation: use YouTube to get a foot into Hollywood, then let the channel become a secondary platform once the acting roles start coming in. A net worth lower than her subscriber count might suggest, because unlike the creators higher up this list, Liza never built a major off-platform business to monetize the audience.

What the highest-paid YouTubers have in common

Look at the ranked list above and you’ll notice something: almost none of them are making most of their money directly from YouTube ad revenue. The top of the platform now runs on adjacent businesses. MrBeast has Feastables and Prime Video. Logan Paul has Prime Hydration. Jake Paul has boxing. Jeffree Star and James Charles have cosmetics. Emma Chamberlain has coffee. Rhett and Link have Mythical Entertainment. Dude Perfect has a private-equity-backed media company. Ryan Kaji has a Nickelodeon show and retail product lines. The channel is the audience acquisition layer. Everything else is where the real margin lives.

The other pattern worth noticing is that the creators who’ve lasted longest are the ones who built sustainable formats rather than viral ones. Rhett and Link uploading Good Mythical Morning every weekday since 2012. Rosanna Pansino baking for over a decade without major format changes. Markiplier still playing horror games twelve years later. The churn at the top of YouTube is real (four of the original entries on this list are now effectively retired from daily uploads) but the creators who treated the channel like a recurring television show rather than a personality-driven vlog have been the most resilient.

The bigger picture

YouTube is no longer an alternative to traditional media. It is traditional media for most people under 30, and the creators who figured out how to turn subscribers into customers are sitting on businesses that rival mid-sized legacy studios. MrBeast’s rise past a billion-dollar valuation is the clearest signal of how far the creator economy has come, but the story underneath is that a dozen of his peers are running profitable production companies, consumer brands, and media ventures that would have been unimaginable on this platform ten years ago.

For aspiring creators, the lesson isn’t “post more videos.” The lesson is to treat YouTube as a distribution channel, not a destination. The biggest paydays on this list came from the stuff that happened off the channel: a snack brand at Walmart, a sports drink at Target, a boxing match on Netflix, a private-equity investment into a media company, a Prime Video series. The channel built the audience. The business built the wealth. Every creator on this list figured that out, and the ones who didn’t are already fading from the rankings.