The highest paid YouTuber of 2020 is a nine-year-old!

When you think of popular YouTubers, the names that tend to pop up are David Dobrik, Jeffree Star, Jojo Siwa, or the person who has taken the title of "most subscribed channel" multiple times - PewDiePie.

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And you would think someone like Jeffree Star, who lives in a $14.6 million (R217 million) mansion, or David Dobrik, who regularly hands out free cars to friends, family, and total strangers, would then be at the top of the YouTuber money list.

But funnily enough, these two stars are at the bottom of the top 10 list of YouTube's highest earners, with two child stars raking in more moola this past year.

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It's no surprise that these channels were still making money during one of the economy's toughest years because while every other industry was learning how to adapt to working from home, the YouTuber community has been doing it for years.

And when we realised we had worked our way through the entire Netflix catalogue, YouTube was the other entertainment, educational, and informative platform we turned to.

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But considering all these factors it's still completely shocking that the highest-paid YouTuber for the year 2020 was a nine-year-old.

Most of us at that age didn't even know what YouTube was (or it was just non-existent).

Here is the complete list of the highest-paid YouTube stars of 2020:

10. Jeffree Star: $15 Million

Total Subscribers: 16.9 Million

Known for: Being a beauty guru which involves all things beauty, make-up and fashion.

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9. David Dobrik: $15.5 million

Subscribers: 18 million

Known for: Vlogging his everyday life, his crazy friends and getting up to pretty crazy pranks.

8. Blippi (Stevin John): $17 million

Subscribers: 27.4 million

Known for: Creating content for kids and educating kids through video

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7. Like Nastya (Anastasia Radzinskaya): $18.5 million

Subscribers: 190.6 million

The youngest person on this list, but not the only kid.

Known for: Playing games, telling stories and playing pretend.

6. Preston Arsement: $19 million 

Subscribers: 33.4 million

Known for: Playing Minecraft videos, branched to multiple gaming-focused channels

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5. Markiplier (Mark Fischbach): $19.5 million

Subscribers: 27.8 million

Known for: Breaking down and explaining video games (like his 31-part series examining 'Cry of Fear').

4. Rhett and Link: $20 million 

Subscribers: 41.8 million

Known for: Being one of YouTube's longest-running channels, 'Good Mythical Morning', a talk-show style channel.

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3. Dude Perfect: $23 million

Subscribers: 57.5 million 

Known for: Popular and crazy stunts, playing with lightsabers, paintballs and more.

2. Mr Beast (Jimmy Donaldson): $24 million

Subscribers: 47.8 million

Known for: A mix of stunts and humor (like freezing himself in ice).

1. Ryan Kaji: $29.5 million

Subscribers: 41.7 million

Known for: DIY science experiments, new toy reviews, family storytime and more kid content.

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It's refreshing seeing such a variety and diversity in the channels on the top 10, showing that just about anyone can fit into the YouTube world and make it their own.

Who knows what fun and entertaining new YouTubers could be popping up in the next year?!

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Main image courtesy of Ryan's World YouTube