Ryan is your average six-year-old. Just like any other kid, he likes playing with toy cars, riding tricycles, and going down water slides. His mom, like most parents, loves to capture and share these moments. What’s different about Ryan is that these everyday events are watched around the world by hundreds of millions of other kids.
The family’s channel, Ryan ToysReview, was created in March of 2015, and initially, didn’t get many views. But last year,the channel published a video, and views started doubling with every passing month. Ryan’s mom left her job as a high school chemistry teacher to work on the YouTube channel full time. When the channel launched, Ryan was just three years old.
For the past one year Ryan ToysReview has been the most popular channel on YouTube in the US, and the second largest in the world. Moreover,it has become a bigger attraction than household names like The Tonight Show, and the WWE. That viewership translates to around $1 million a month in advertising revenue alone.
The genre skyrocketed once kids became the hosts. In March of last year, just as Ryan’s family was launching their channel, media outlets were reporting on another family. This family struck rich by sharing videos of their children simply playing with toys. According to a report from The Guardian, 20 of the top 100 channels on YouTube are focused on toys. It further reported that these channels are collecting upwards of 4.5 billion views a month which have generated millions. That means that even before Ryan stepped in front of the camera, he was a viewer.
But while Ryan’s channel is part of a broader trend, it has achieved a scale unlike anything that came before it. Just at 6 years, Ryan ToysReview already has 9 million subscribers, more than the channels that inspired it. Produced by his mother, Ryan’s channel has perfected the art of this strange new genre. This genre has introduced innocent childhood antics and relentless, often overwhelming consumerism.
Lets just talk about biting more than one can chew,this kid is making money way beyond his age.