Seven-year-old boy tops list of YouTube's highest earners

A seven-year-old boy has been named YouTube’s highest-earning star after raking in almost $30m in the last financial year.

US primary school student Ryan stars on the channel Ryan ToysReview.

The pint-sized mogul, who now has his own range of toys at US store Walmart, has doubled his earnings in last the 12 months to June.

The short, simple videos of Ryan playing and giggling over toys have won over millions around the world. Ryan’s channel was set up by his parents in March 2015 and its videos have had almost 26 billion views and amassed 17.3 million followers.

“I’m entertaining and I’m funny,” Ryan recently told NBC interview, explaining his appeal.

Coming in a close second on the list was former Disney actor Jake Paul, who earned a cool $29.3m during the same period.

Jake Paul’s brother Logan meanwhile, dropped to 10th place in the rankings.

Logan was forced to apologise in January after accidently showing the body of an apparent suicide victim in Japan in one of his videos.

But he still earned almost $20m, three million more than in 2017.

Last year’s top earner, Minecraft gamer Daniel Middleton, slipped to fourth place this year with $22.4m.

According to Forbes, all but $1.36m of the $29.9m earned by Ryan’s channel comes from advertising shown before his videos, with the remainder earned from sponsored posts.

The figures are calculated before tax, and do not include amounts paid to lawyers and agents, Forbes said.

Ryan’s parents are reportedly putting 15 percent of his earnings away into a bank account until he is a legal adult.