It seemed like an Internet hoax to the parents of Laine Gleason when he signed a contract to make gaming videos on YouTube.

He was, after all, staying up to 5 a.m. at his parent’s house on Vancouver Island, playing Call of Duty and making Internet videos about it. How was a second-year university drop-out ever going to make money, especially on the Internet?

“Career wise, it’s going from just playing video games with your friends, uploading some silly vides to YouTube to, you know, a career. It’s definitely been a mind-blowing experience for me,” said Gleason, 23.

The top 1,000 YouTube channel makers are pulling in an average six-figure salary, earning an average $23,000 a month, according to data compiled by MDG Advertising. Those same top-tier channels are generating a massive amount of activity online: 25 million comments and 55 million “like” ratings each month.

Gleason’s channel, IAmTheAttack, boasts more than 170,000 subscribers. Many of his video game videos have more than 200,000 views. Online success aside, how much of that traffic is translated into real cash?

“To give you an idea, I’ve been supporting myself and my finance for the last two and a half years, just from YouTube alone,” Gleason said.

His channel just barely cracks the top-100 list of YouTube channels in Canada by subscribers. Further up the list are a number of channels with make-up and fashion tips, workouts, recipes, gaming reviews and recording artists.

Justin Bieber’s account comes in second to the internet-sensations, Epic Meal Time, who now takes their over-the-top cooking show on the road and sells their own merchandise.

Other data compiled on MGD’s infographic show the impact of some of YouTube’s most successful acts and advertising campaigns stretch beyond ad dollars.

Old Spice’s The Man Your Man Could Smell Like campaign netted the company 80,000 new followers on Twitter in two days, as well as a 107 per cent increase in sales.

Gleason just recently started work for a YouTube “network,” Vancouver-based BroadbandTV. Even though ad revenue has kept him independent and living on his own in downtown Vancouver, Gleason has yet to crack the six-figure salary mark.

“I’m not at that level yet, but with all these upcoming projects I could definitely foresee that in the near future,” Gleason said.