- A new ranking has revealed which of the most popular Scottish gaming YouTubers made the most last year – with Calfreezy named the highest-earner
- The average CPM advertisers pay for sponsored YouTube videos for popular channels stands at £6.39 per 1,000 views, based on the latest figures
- With more than 112 million views reported on his main channel last year, Calfreezy made at least £718k from his 2022 uploads
- Across the top 10 highest-earning gamers, the average income last year was £149,309 – almost five times the typical Scottish salary
A NEW ranking has revealed which popular Scottish gaming YouTubers have made the most last year based on views – with Calfreezy crowned the highest-earner.
The findings, pulled together by casino reviewer casinoalpha, compared the views gained for each channel since December last year and applied the going rate for sponsored content on YouTube, to name the gamer that produced the most valuable content.
The calculations were based on the latest CPM (cost per thousand views) rates that advertisers currently pay for sponsored videos on YouTube – which, for the most popular channels, averages out at £6.39 or £0.0063 per view.
With 112,419,020 views reported since last December, according to socialblade data, Calfreezy made a staggering £718,358 from his main channel alone – making him the highest-earning Scottish gamer.
Born in London to a Scottish mother and English father, Calfreezy – real name Callum Leighton Airey – is best known for uploading FIFA commentaries, and has over 4.08 million subscribers on YouTube.
His actual earnings are actually considerably higher, as this sum doesn’t take into account any sponsored content he’s shown in his videos (just the ads that YouTube shows before/during videos) and any money he’s made from his Sidemen collabs.
The second highest-earning Scottish gamer came out as Razzbowski, real name Rhys Williams, who primarily uploads content on jumpscare game Five Nights at Freddy’s.
Rounding out the top three highest-earners is McSloth – a Scottish-Canadian YouTuber – who makes Roblox content, having started his channel back in December 2011.
10 highest-earning Scottish gaming YouTubers
YouTuber | 2022 Views | 2022 Earnings |
Calfreezy | 112,419,020 | £718,358 |
Razzbowski | 73,220,137 | £467,877 |
McSloth | 17,262,432 | £110,307 |
bigMooney06 | 8,762,540 | £55,993 |
TARGET | 8,022,145 | £51,262 |
Hyrule Gamer | 4,940,015 | £31,567 |
Volound | 3,544,247 | £22,648 |
Dangthatsalongname | 2,763,356 | £17,658 |
Suzy Lu | 1,737,052 | £11,100 |
VideoGamerTV | 989,895 | £6,325 |
Across the top ten highest-earning Scottish gamers, the average income last year was £149,309, with each channel landing around 23,366,084 views each.
When scaled against the average Scottish annual salary of £31,605 (as reported by the Scottish Parliament), each channel earnt almost five times more (4.7 times) that figure.
Speaking on the findings, a casinoalpha spokesperson said: “Many people have predicted the earnings of the most popular YouTubers, but it’s interesting to see how this translates to each channel’s output – especially in the highly-competitive gaming sphere.
“Calfreezy is having a good year both in terms of channel popularity and earnings through his constant collaborations with the Sidemen – and he definitely has the potential to earn more this year, particularly if he continues to participate in projects alongside other creators.”
“It just goes to show that anyone can make a killing online if they’re passionate about what they do and are consistent in their content, especially if they have a good sense of humour too. To go from earning nothing to exceeding thousands online is amazing.”