Yep, you read that correctly. Some of the top YouTubers are now earning more than Fortune 500 CEO’s. How much is that to be exact? Well on average a Fortune 500 CEO can expect to take home a whopping $3.5 million plus bonuses a year.

So how much more do YouTubers earn over their counterparts? The minimum take home earnings for a YouTuber in the top 10 list is $5 million and it only goes up from there.

You may have to hold onto something for this one. In 2016 a YouTuber started a company through their passion which is now valued at $500 Million (see down below).

If this isn’t a sign of the change of tide when it comes to business power, then i don’t know what is.

No. 5: Smosh – $7 Million

YouTube veterans Ian Andrew Hecox and Daniel Anthony Padilla run the uber successful channel Smosh which has accumulated over 6 billions views and 20 millions subscribers.

What started as short flash animations in 2005 has now led these 2 friends to become one of the most successful comedy duos on YouTube. Currently they run 7 different channels that cover a wide range of content from comedy/ parody videos to cartoon segments.

In recent years they have created their own movie Smosh: The Movie and featured in other films such as The Angry Bird Movie.

No. 4: Lilly Sing a.k.a IISuperWomanII – $7 Million

Lilly Singh is one of the most recognised and top earning YouTubers out there. With her career spanning into vlogging, acting, comedy and of course being a YouTube superstar.

The Canadian YouTuber started her debut in 2010 and has moved on to gain 1.6 billions views and 10 million subscribers. Outside of YouTube, Lilliy Singh has been awarded two Teen Choice Awards, MTV Fandom Award and People’s Choice Award.

Lilly has recently released her feature film: A Trip to Unicorn Island which is huge leaps and bounds from uploading YouTube videos. Add these successes together and you get one of the top earning YouTubers.

No. 3: RomanAtwoodVlogs – $8.5 million

When it comes to YouTube, Roman Atwood is considered the king of vlogging which he does on a daily basis. As a daily vlogger he has connected with a hardcore audience that watch his videos by the millions every day.

One of Roman Atwood’s videos which tipped the 80 million view mark has gained multiple sponsorships including Nissan and was even sponsored in the Super Bowl.

With amazing prank videos, daily vlogging and his own merchandise range has led Roman to become a multi millionaire YouTuber.

No. 2: PewDiePie – $15 million

Even if you’re not a YouTube watcher, odds are you have heard of Swedish YouTuber PewDiePie, with his channel reaching 53 million subscribers and over 14 billions view and counting.

He is without a doubt the biggest YouTuber in history and was named by Time as one of the “100 most influential people in the world”. PewDiePie’s self proclaimed fanbase a.k.a “Bro Army” tune in every video to watch his charismatic game play and rants.

Being the biggest YouTuber in the world and bringing in a cool $15 million a year you may be surprised that he isn’t number one on this list. Lets move onto the the one and only Michelle Phan.

No. 1: Michelle Phan – $3 Million – $500 Million

Michelle Phan is considered the pioneer of the YouTube beauty guru category in which she would upload makeup and beauty tutorials. According to Forbes, Michelle Phan earns $3 million alone from her YouTube channel which is impressive all by its own.

What really makes Michelle Phan stand out from other YouTubers is that she had the business savvy to start her own beauty subscription service which was recently valued at $500 million!

This in insanely impressive considering the grass roots beginnings of recording a simple video that grew into a multi million dollar company.

In essence what makes YouTube so fantastic is that anyone can make, produce and upload their own content. However that doesn’t go without saying that there is a lot, i mean a lot of hard work that goes into being a YouTuber rockstar.