PewDiePie named top earning YouTube web celeb after trousering a HUGE pay packet
The controversial icon has made millions with his flamboyant video game commentary, publishing a book and even launching his own novelty sock line
THE world's richest YouTube stars have been revealed with the top spot going to Swedish gamer PewDiePie, who made an estimated $15 million last year.
The 27-year-old web celeb - real name Felix Kjellberg - topped of the highest-paid Youtube stars for the second year running, with his channel racking up 13 billion views.
The digital star has 49million subscribers to his flamboyant commentary on video games, with 65 million views of his most watched video "A Funny Montage".
But the gamer, whose paycheck has surged from last year when he made $12 million, shocked his fans this week when he declared he would delete his channel when he hits 50 million subscribers.
The love-him-or-loathe-him comedian claims changes to the sharing site have ruined it, with his videos being buried.
Since launching his channel of “Let’s Play” videos, which show gamers playing alongside footage of their narration and reactions, PewDiePie has diversified.
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His book This Book Loves You made the New York Times bestseller list, and his YouTube Red series Scare PewDiePie was renewed for a second season.
Video game PewDiePie’s Tuber Simulator was downloaded more than a million times within 24 hours of its release.
And the YouTuber even has his own range of novelty socks.
The Forbes list does not account for management fees and taxes and are based on Nielsen data, IMDB, interviews with agents, managers, lawyers, industry insiders and the stars.
Overall, YouTube stars made even more money this year than they did last year, bringing in a combined $70.5 million in the 12 months up to June 2016 - a 23 per cent increase from last year’s total.
The list includes prankster Roman Atwood, nerdy baker Rosanna Pansino and several gamers, who all made more than $5 million last year.
Four newcomers to the list were fellow videogame commentator Mark Fischbach, or Markiplier, ($5.5 million), Latin America’s biggest YouTuber German Garmendia, comedian Colleen Ballinger, or Miranda Sings, ($5 million) and Tyler Oakley, who creates diary-like videos.