Felix Arvid Ulf Kjellberg, best known to the YouTubingportion of the world as the inimitable PewDiePie, is most definitely pulling in more money than you or anyone you know. PewDiePie, with an industry-affirming $12 million haul, tops Forbes’ first-ever list of the highest-paid YouTube stars on the planet for the year ending June 1, 2015.
With the bulk of his money stemming from increasingly lucrative advertising opportunities, the Swedishicon regularly puts his 40 million subscribers to good profitable use without abandoning the genuineness of his brand. In fact, that trait is remarkably shared by all the stars on the list, including the competing duos of Smosh and the Fine Brothers, who were tied runner-ups with a life-changing $8.5 million:
1. PewDiePie: $12 million
This reinvention of the mainstream, and its noticeable shift in advertising dollars, became strikingly apparent to even more of the world earlier this year when PewDiePie made his U.S. television debut on Stephen Colbert's Late Show. "I want to thank the internet for allowing their emperor to be here for the evening," Colbert joked during the interview, perhaps not even realizing that he had actually just predicted the future:
Emperor crowned.
