We all know that gaming is big money, Call of Duty smashes the billion dollar mark hours after the game is released every year. Grand Theft Auto has already surpassed 30 million sales and the PS4 is flying off shelves at record breaking pace.
But it’s not only the mainstream industry where the money lies. No there are some people making, possibly, millions by playing games and I’m not talking about eSports stars. In fact most of these guys aren’t very good at games but what they are good at is making it entertaining for their niche markets.
So in reverse order by subscriber numbers let’s take a look at the top 10 gaming YouTubers as of right now.
10: VEGETTA777 – 5,047,192 subscribers
Vegetta777, or rather Samuel de Luque, is a Madrid based Spanish YouTuber who is incredibly popular in Spain and Latin America. He uploads around 2-3 videos daily and covers a wide variety of games including Minecraft, Saint’s Row, Garry’s Mod, inFamous, Castlevania and more.
If you speak Spanish then maybe this South Park video will interest you.
9: KSI – 5,440,498 Subscribers
In 9th place we have KSI, Olajide Olatunji, who has nearly 5.5 million subscribers who tune in every two days to watch him mainly play FIFA. KSI is based in London and is currently touring the country going to universities and making videos of his experience.
At least this one speaks English so we can understand him
Here is one of his most popular videos, KSI is 20 years old.
8: League of Legends – 5,681,508
n 8th spot we have the only official gaming channel in the top 10. I was going to skip it and include the next independent on the list but I thought it was interesting that out of all the games in the world the only one that makes it into the top 10 is League of Legends.
7: speedyw03 – 5,837,444
In 7th spot we have the first American on the list with nearly 6 million subscribers. Speedy is most well known for Grand Theft Auto and Call of Duty videos and he’s made his money by being humorous and just making ridiculous videos.
Check this video where he and his friends try race an RPG in Grand Theft Auto V
6: TobyGames – 6,502,651
Toby is the very first gaming YouTuber I found and it’s nice to see him still doing well with 6 1/2 million subscribers.
Toby is more famous than most as he has numerous channels with his vlog channel hitting over 1.5 million subscribers and his Tobuscus channel having 4.2 million users.
Here is Toby playing the goat simulator.
5: VanossGaming – 6,583,936
A mere 80k subscribers ahead of Toby is VanossGaming who I am struggling to find much information about. He appears to cover a few different games but is most prolific with his GTA V videos which he blends with other games.
Like Minecraft GTA V
4: TheSyndicateProject – 7,237,731
In 4th spot we have The Syndicate Project which is a channel run by 20 year old Tom Cassell from Manchester in the United Kingdom.
Tom came to prominence in Call of Duty: Black Ops Zombies and has then successfully pivoted over to Minecraft to continue growing. He also covers games like DayZ and GTA V.
3: CaptainSparklez – 7,276,207
Squeaking ahead of Syndicate into 3rd spot is CaptainSparklez who keeps his 7.2 million subscribers happy by posting around 2 minecraft videos a day.
CaptainSparklez is more formally known as Jordan Maron and is 22 years old right now and based in America, Santa Barbara.
Jordan’s currently popular videos are based around the Hunger Game mod for Minecraft
2: SkyDoesMinecraft – 9,585,449
And my kids favourite YouTuber comes in at number 2 on the top 10 list, SkyDoesMinecraft whose parents called him Adam Dahlberg has over 9.5 million subscribers.
As you can tell from his name he mainly dabbles in Minecraft and honestly is really well known for calling gold “butter” in the game. Adam resides in Washington, USA.
Adam does some very clever little parody videos of currently popular songs such as this one of Coldplay’s Paradise.
1: PewDiePie – 25,790,975
And the unchallenged champion of YouTube channels you get PewDiePie. Felix Arvid Ulf Kjellberg is a 25 year old Swedish YouTuber who has blitzed even the official YouTube channels.
Now I have to admit I’m not a fan of this one. Not because I think there is anything wrong with him but I just don’t quite get why he is so incredibly popular and definitely makes me suspicious. Here is one of his more popular video’s, Shrek Simulator – Shrek Goat.
So that’s our top 10 but what does it really mean in terms of income and ability to do this full time?
Well unfortunately that’s very hard to work out as they get paid on a CPM (Cost per thousand impressions) basis which are kept secret by Google. They also sell merchandise and possibly endorse products. However if you imagine a relatively low CPM of $1 then we can make some very vague guesses.
A million hit video will earn someone $1 000. So I’ve rounded up their hits and given you an income total below. Remember these are lifetime earnings excluding any merchandise or endorsement deals. Also these are based at the low end of the CPM rate. It can be up to 7 times higher.
- PewDiePie – $4,700,000
- SkyDoesMinecraft – $1,780,000
- CaptainSparklez – $1,360,000
- TheSyndicateProject – $1,210,000
- VanossGaming – $626,000 (Quite a new channel)
- TobyGames – $1,660,000
- speedyw03 – $782,600
- League of Legends – $696,100 (However they don’t seem to be moneytised)
- KSI – $782,700
- Vegetta777 – $676,000
In 11th spot you have IGN who has possibly earned $3,090,000 from their videos they upload. And then don’t forget we are in South Africa so PewDiePie has made over R47 000 000. Doing video alone.
So about that career choice you’ve made?
YouTube list of top subscribers found via vidstatsx
Last Updated: April 10, 2014
Jedi JJ
April 10, 2014 at 12:05
PewDiePie is awesome.
Aussious
April 10, 2014 at 12:07
Its a pity Angry Joe is not on this list coz the dude is awesome.
Jedi JJ
April 10, 2014 at 12:07
Agreed
Rince
April 10, 2014 at 12:20
Agreed. Guy is a legend. Also really like Jim Sterling.
Umar's Sin
April 10, 2014 at 12:08
Am I the only one that actually likes PewDiePie? I mean , He’s kinda cool, very screamy but cool. Does charity work as well. The fact the he’s so famous and he’s a gamer, is really awesome
Jedi JJ
April 10, 2014 at 12:14
His hits suggest that you’re not the only one.
Umar's Sin
April 10, 2014 at 12:21
True, but most people I personally speak to does not like him
Jedi JJ
April 10, 2014 at 12:27
Yea, know what you meant. I also only know one guy that really likes him.
Rince
April 10, 2014 at 12:29
Trevor? He likes most guys.
Jedi JJ
April 10, 2014 at 12:30
That’s true, but I think he prefers the gingers tbh.
Alien Emperor Trevor
April 10, 2014 at 12:36
Compared to diabetes, sure.
Rince
April 10, 2014 at 12:37
There is no thinking about it, it’s true. Oh is it true 0-o
Alien Emperor Trevor
April 10, 2014 at 12:42
…
VampyreSquirrel
April 10, 2014 at 13:35
That bunnie isn’t a ginger though.
Alien Emperor Trevor
April 10, 2014 at 13:45
That’s what happens after repeated rinsing. :/
VampyreSquirrel
April 10, 2014 at 13:48
LOL… where’s the bleach and Rince… hahahaha
Alien Emperor Trevor
April 10, 2014 at 12:35
…
Rince
April 10, 2014 at 12:44
HAHAHA!
Maxiviper117
April 10, 2014 at 17:03
I also dig Pewdiepie been watching him since he had a million subs, If people dont like him, then they are probably too old or just dont have this generations sense of humour.
Gerhard Davids
April 10, 2014 at 12:10
I have no problem with Pewds, I watch him often.
But to be perfectly honest until youtube removes him from the default sign-up sub suggestion list he will remain top by a large margin.
Maxiviper117
April 10, 2014 at 17:05
Well, no one is putting a gun to peoples heads and forcing them to subscribe. 😉
Rince
April 10, 2014 at 12:18
Where is Angry Joe? He has 1.3 mil so should be #7 on the list right?
Gavin Mannion
April 10, 2014 at 13:46
got a link?
Gavin Mannion
April 10, 2014 at 13:46
No Wait.. our number 7 is
speedyw03 with 5,837,444 subscribers.. you’re thinking cash
Rince
April 10, 2014 at 13:50
Confused now. Joe has 1.39 mil subscribers (https://www.youtube.com/user/AngryJoeShow) but if speedyw03 has 5.8 plus then yeah.
Admiral Chief in Space
April 10, 2014 at 12:18
FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK, I need to change career
VampyreSquirrel
April 10, 2014 at 12:22
No one wants to see your ugly mug talking about Planet Side 2 and FTL constantly…
Rince
April 10, 2014 at 12:22
HAHAHA! Shame…
Skyblue
April 10, 2014 at 12:26
LOL!
Jedi JJ
April 10, 2014 at 12:28
That might be so, but the Admiral will be able to have a 12 episode season for FTL alone.
Admiral Chief in Space
April 10, 2014 at 12:39
Hmmmmm…..
Admiral Chief in Space
April 10, 2014 at 12:39
Then I’ll just put my mug on, and watch the $$$$$ roll in!
Norm the Horrible
April 10, 2014 at 12:25
Y NO Ray William Johnson!?
Stephen Snook
April 10, 2014 at 13:25
He doesn’t do games afaik
VampyreSquirrel
April 10, 2014 at 12:31
No RoosterTeeth? 😛
Stephen Snook
April 10, 2014 at 13:24
Was surprised RT wasn’t there.
Warren Leibbrandt
April 10, 2014 at 13:00
TheRadBrad should be there too man
JasonDK
April 10, 2014 at 14:11
Agreed, I’m not the type that watches Pewdie because I feel he portrays a character. The Brad is all real and very down to earth in all of his videos, not just vlogs. (Although he should do more of those.)
Warren Leibbrandt
April 10, 2014 at 14:21
Yeah man, and he tries to show you the important stuff, im loving his dark souls 2 series
JasonDK
April 10, 2014 at 14:25
Haha yeah. I hate watching walkthroughs of games I haven’t played yet. I started watching his vids because he did a lot of horror titles.
Guest
April 10, 2014 at 13:19
Sooo, if anyone wants to see my channel *cough
http://www.youtube.com/user/myth1221
Stephen Snook
April 10, 2014 at 13:24
So this is where I would plug my Youtube channel xD
Gerhard Davids
April 10, 2014 at 15:29
Indeed….
https://www.youtube.com/user/scavengefightbuild
kwa
April 10, 2014 at 16:38
soooo… who are the top gaming YouTubers in SA =p ?
elysium
April 10, 2014 at 16:58
Nobody watches JonTron? What are you all, plebs?
Spyda
April 10, 2014 at 17:37
Would have thought that LevelCap Gaming might feature.
Stan Smith
April 10, 2014 at 18:12
Pewdiepie is a bloody idiot. Can’t believe so many people watch his crap.
Matthew Holliday
April 11, 2014 at 10:28
im with you bro, his level of shit is too damn high.
Brandon Roberts
April 10, 2014 at 22:41
SSSniperwolf because she’s hot and awesome
Kusatta
June 28, 2014 at 11:18
Go vanoss 😀
Jleino
July 19, 2014 at 08:13
I believe markiplier should be up here
Justin Aaron Novosad
July 25, 2014 at 09:15
Screw Pewdiepie VanossGaming has Lui Calibre, I AM WILDCAT, H20 Delirious, Daithi de Nogla, Mini Ladd, Basicallyidowrk, Silent Droidd and many more.
Final
August 1, 2014 at 03:30
RoosterTeeth should be #3 on here.
lapsus23
August 25, 2014 at 09:53
ihatepink???
zVi Youtubers
October 22, 2014 at 15:07
Favij?
Tatsumi of night raid
January 14, 2015 at 04:26
god this list is garbage
asd
April 8, 2015 at 19:07
This list are shit. God this is awful.
Jabu Makhoba - Ultraist
April 21, 2015 at 21:30
Check out HikePlays.
Jabu Makhoba - Ultraist
April 21, 2015 at 21:30
HikePlays and Typical Gamer, are by far my favourites.
Jordan .Williams
August 15, 2015 at 17:09
agreed
Zachary Boddy
June 12, 2015 at 21:59
NerdCubed. Only Youtuber I’ll ever watch again (except Emma Blackery every now and then).
Thing Umop
July 25, 2015 at 17:27
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC68Z_tmGCJL77UPEsvoNFWw Hey I would really like it if you could give me a chance, I am a new YouTuber that mainly makes rocket league content 🙂