Last Updated on: March 13, 2024

KSI Net Worth – $150 Million

 

YouTube gamer Olajibe Olatunji, best known as KSI, became a millionaire at just the age of 21. He generated most of it from the comfort of his bedroom playing FIFA and cracking jokes.

KSI played EA Sport’s FIFA in his early years on YouTube and is now entertaining videos of him doing reactions and anything he finds entertaining. He started out in 2009 and in that year he got 7000 subscribers and this number tripled the next year. Currently, he has over 18 million subscribers in his channel, growing by 7000 new subs daily and at one point he was the second most-watched channel in the UK with over 3 billion views. In his videos, he chants, screams, talks trash to the opponent and leaps out of his seat in excitement. This is what keeps the fans coming back in millions. His content has evolved to mostly vlogging his day-to-day life showing various highlights of what is happening to him.

The main channel, KSI, now primarily hosts hit music videos. His other personal content is now posted on JJ Olatunji.

KSI (the channel) has over 25 million subscribers as of 2024 and has accumulated over 6.2 billion views so far. It is able to get an average of 200,000 views per day from different sources. This should generate an estimated revenue of around $1,200 per day ($440,000 a year) from the ads that appear on the videos.

KSI has a secondary channel by the name JJ Olatunji where he does other types of content besides FIFA to capture a different audience type. The channel has over 17 million subscribers and over 4.5 billion views so far. In a day it gets an average of 500,000 views which should generate around $4,000 per day ($1.4 million) a year.

YouTube content creators based in the US, UK, Canada and Australia generally get paid $2 – $12 per 1000 monetized views after YouTube takes its cut. Monetized views usually range from 40% – 80% of the total views. All these are influenced by several factors like the device played on, time of the year, the location of the viewer, ad inventory, how many ads there are on a video, how many people skip the ads, type of advertisement, ad engagement, type of content, etc.

The cost of an ad view is based on an auction between advertisers based on views. Advertisers have to bid a minimum of $0.01 per view. There is also a program known as Google Preferred where deep-pocketed companies can target ads on the top 5% most popular content. The ad rates here are higher than normal.

 

Apart from ads, YouTube content creators also generate extra income from other methods such as YouTube Premium, Superchats & Superstickers, Super Thanks, Channel Membership and Shopping.

YouTube Premium viewers pay a monthly fee to view premium content on YouTube and watch videos without ads. Here, content creators get paid based on watch time on their videos. The longer the viewers watch their videos, the more money they earn.

Super Chat and Super Sticker are used by fans to connect with creators during live streams and premiers. When one buys a Super Chat, their comment is highlighted within the live chat while the Super Stickers get an animated image that surfaces in live chat. Super Thanks lets creators earn revenue from viewers who want to show extra gratitude for their videos. Fans can buy a one-time animation and get to post a distinct, colorful, and customizable comment in the video’s comment section.

Shopping allows eligible creators to connect their stores to YouTube to feature their own products.

YouTube Shorts generate revenue in a different way as compared to traditional videos. The revenue from ads appearing between Shorts will be pooled together then a portion of the total revenue will be allocated to a Creator Pool. Each country has its own Creator Pool. Eligible creators will be paid based on their share of total views. Shorts that use music make less money due to licensing costs.

General Expenses

Content creators incur a wide variety of expenses to create their content. These can include things like production costs, employee salaries, travel expenses, rent, buying new equipment, utilities, amenities, entertainment, subscription fees and other living expenses. One of the biggest expenses for most creators is taxes. Your tax brackets generally depend on your income. In a country like the United States, the highest tax rate is 37%. A combination of all these expenses determines one’s ability to save and invest, consequently how much one’s net worth grows.

 

Other Sources Of Income

i) Music

KSI has been able to grow his brand outside YouTube by doing music. In this industry, he makes money through active and passive methods. Passively, he gets paid when his music is licensed to be used on other platforms and also through royalties on streaming sites such as Spotify and Apple Music. Streaming royalties are calculated on a stream share basis, and the value per stream varies by the subscription plan and country of the listener. Rates can range between $0.007 – $0.001 per stream. In the active method, KSI gets paid to do live performances and also does music tours all over Europe. 

ii) Movies, TV and Writing

KSI is an actor and has done the movie Laid In America which has been received positively all over the world. He has done a documentary on Amazon Prime named KSI In Real Life. As an author, he has released KSI: I Am A Bellend, Sidemen: The Book and I Am A Tool: How to Be a YouTube Kingpin and Dominate the Internet.

iii) Boxing

KSI ventured into boxing in 2018 by fighting and beating Joe Weller. He then made a smart move of calling out American YouTubers Jake and Logan Paul. This led to two highly publicized boxing matches against Logan Paul. The purse for the fight was split 50/50 and sold 2 million PPV buys worldwide. They each had a guaranteed $900,000.

Three years later he faced British rapper Swarmz and Luis Alcarez Pineda. He then faced Faze Temperrr and knocked him out in the first round. It is reported that he was guaranteed a $1 million payment and 70% of the PPV shares hence would easily earn over $2 million from the fight.

iv) Sponsorship and Influencer Marketing

KSI also gets paid thousands of dollars through sponsorship deals from big companies like Microsoft, Huawei etc.

On January 2022, KSI teamed up with Logan Paul to create a new drinks company known as Prime Hydration which markets the sports drink Prime. Through their highly skilled marketing schemes, they were able to generate $250 million in retail sales within a year. They also secured partnerships with prominent organizations like UFC, Arsenal, GNC, MBM Motorsports and others. They currently own 20% of the company while the rest is owned by Congo Brands which oversees the operations.

v) Sidemen

The Sidemen is a YouTube group that consists of the following internet personalities: KSI, Miniminter, Zerkaa, TBJZL, Behzinga, Vikkstar123 and W2S. They have a very popular YouTube channel where they publish a variety of videos such as challenges, sketches and video game commentaries.