YouTube has come a long way since "Me at the zoo," the first video ever uploaded to the website way back in 2005. Ten years later, 100 hours of content is uploaded to Google's video-sharing service every minute, and over 6 billion hours of video are watched each month. That's almost an hour for every person on the planet.
While those numbers are high, there's another set of numbers that you might wish you never knew about: the crazy amount of money YouTubers are raking in. It's no secret that if you're popular on social media, there's cash coming your way sooner or later. A lot of that money is generated by those annoying ads that pop up just before a video—and Google reportedly takes a 45 percent cut of YouTube users' revenue before handing it over. It's a hefty slice, and means users' views will need to reach the hundreds of thousands, or even millions, before the money gets serious. Even then, there's a lot of other factors to take into account.
The number of subscribers, views, the length a video is watched, and how many in a row are viewed all affect how much a user makes in the end. (Plus, a ton of people block ads, and users might already be spending a lot in production, which means actual profit takes a big hit.) A few top YouTubers have spoken publicly about how much they're making, and others are more lowkey about it. But the analytics website Social Blade, which monitors YouTube channels, estimates how much money users should at least be making considering their views, subscribers, and assuming every video they have is monetized.
So in honor of YouTube's 10th anniversary this weekend, here are the numbers behind some top YouTubers: