A 7-Year-Old Boy Is Making $22 Million a Year on YouTube Reviewing Toys

If you were flabbergasted upon hearing that 20-year-old Kylie Jenner is on pace to become the world’s youngest “self-made” (ahem, quotations intended) billionaire, chances are you haven’t seen this story. It’s not every day that you hear about a 7-year-old earning $22,000,000 – yes, 22-million dollars – in a single year.

There was a time when only child actors could dream of seeing numbers like that – Judy Garland, Shirley Temple, Macaulay Culkin, the Olsen twins… But thanks to social media platforms like YouTube, the playing field has definitely leveled out a bit! So much so that a humble, family-run YouTube account has blossomed into a multi-million-dollar toy review channel called “Ryan ToysReview.”

The Birth of Ryan ToysReview

Inspired by watching other toy review videos on YouTube, Ryan asked his parents to set up a channel so he could start reviewing his own toys. Recognizing his interest and excitement, his parents didn’t hesitate for a second and set up an account shortly after.

“Ryan was watching a lot of toy review channels – some of his favorites are EvanTubeHD and Hulyan Maya – because they used to make a lot of videos about Thomas the Tank Engine, and Ryan was super into Thomas,” said his Mother. [1]

Ryan’s parents, who started to film him opening and playing with toys from the age of 3, probably never expected their home videos to go viral. There was actually a time that they didn’t. On March 16, 2015, then-3-year-old Ryan’s first video was a mediocre 15-minute video of him playing with a Lego Duplo Number Train set.

“Why do you want this?” asks Ryan’s mom in their first video.

“Because I like it,” he says with an eager smile.

Do you need a reason better than that one? Nope, but it wasn’t until their July 1, 2015 video “GIANT Lightning McQueen Egg Surprise with 100+ Disney Cars Toys” came out that the channel took off! Today, it has over 903.5 MILLION views and definitely catapulted Ryan ToysReview into the spotlight for parents with children, especially between the ages of 3 and 7. (You can watch the video below!)

Now, Ryan reviews new toys and even kids’ food products making his YouTube channel a sort of one-stop shop for every curious parent and/or child.

The Amazing Benefit of the Ryan ToysReview Channel

As fun as it looks, however, it is by no means an easy gig! Ryan’s father is a structural engineer and at a certain point, his mother made the choice to leave her career as a high school chemistry teacher to run the channel full time. [2]

“We post a new video every day and we typically film two to three videos at a time, two to three times per week. We try not to interfere with Ryan’s pre-pre-school schedule, so a majority of the filming takes place during the weekend and then we’ll edit while he’s in school.” [1]

Between June 1, 2016 and June 1, 2017, Ryan ToysReview brought in about $11,000,000 in before-tax revenue. [3,4] While it’s easy to get caught up in how much money his informative channel is generating, it’s important to recognize the less visible benefits loyal viewers are reaping. Just check out some of the incredible words below! [3]

“My son is autistic,” one parent wrote. “Your videos are helping him to speak, use his imagination, and properly use toys! He enjoys these videos several times a day and I would just love to say thank you!”

“Ryan, my boy loves your toy reviews, every day he watches your videos,” one mother posted. “Today he asked me ‘mom, when we gonna visit Ryan?’, I told him that is not possible because we live in different countries, maybe when you will grow :)”

“I wish Ryan would have like a toy signing or something! My 3yo daughter loves Ryan! She invites him over to play all the time on her pretend phone, aka, her hand.”

To top it all off…

Ryan and his family donate most of the toys to charity after he has reviewed them! How amazing is that? So, if you or someone you know has children or grandchildren, send them over to his YouTube channel! Who better to learn about kids toys from than a kid with over 15,748,000 loyal subscribers?