South Africa's Top YouTube Channels and Their Earnings

Social media influencers are the in-thing right now and you have lots of people claiming to be making a living off of these platforms but the reality is a little different. 

While you can make money from having lots of followers and subscribers, when it comes to YouTube in South Africa, companies are the ones pulling the big bucks. 

It is important to note that what YouTubers made in South African financially is way lower than their counterparts overseas. 

Below are figures I pulled from user analytics provided for May 2017. It is important to note that these figures are constantly changing. A channel can gain or lose thousands of subscribers in a short period of time. This figures stand based on the day they were captured.  

Top 10 Youtube Channels by Views


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	NAME	VIEWS
1	Kruger Sightings	494,599,143
2	Die Antwoord	385,019,246
3	Disney Channel Africa	292,345,629
4	Cobus Potgieter	209,739,639
5	Sixpackfactory.com	167,455,426
6	Rob The Ranger Wildlife	136,655,777
7	Earth Touch	119,062,115
8	morecaspar	110,174,522
9	TheSupaStrikas	105,419,009
10	SABC Digital News	97,375,738

Top 10 YouTube Channels By Subscribers

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	NAME	SUBSCRIBERS
1	morecaspar	1,986,509
2	Die Antwoord	1,363,113
3	Sixpackfactory.com	955,889
4	Cobus Potgieter	699,394
5	Kruger Sightings	472,260
6	Trevor Noah	402,988
7	Disney Channel Africa	268,355
8	Theodora Lee	238,434
9	MCPEMike	234,225
10	Earth Touch	193,298

How much do the top YouTube channels earn?

There two ways Youtubers make money; one they get money directly from Youtube for their monetized videos. This means that YouTube pays you for those ads (only when the ad isn’t skipped by the viewer) and the total amount of views that your video gets. 

The second revenue source is through campaign they do with brands based on their engagement pull and clout. Sponsored campaigns is when companies pay you to promote their products or services.

For these figure I am about to share, the amounts are solely based on estimates made according to their direct YouTube earnings not campaign fees. 

Top YouTube channel by subscribers MoreCaspar earns an estimates R117k - R1.9-million per year and R9,798 - R156k per month. The channel is owned by Caspar Lee who has an estimated networth of $2-million — which is about R26-million today. However as stated above, his revue stream comes from different source and he has more than 1 channel on YouTube. 

With R810k - R13-million estimated yearly earning and R67k - R1-million monthly, Kruger Sightings is the biggest money making YouTube channel in Mzansi. 

Many of South African channels are owned by companies and not individuals so it is always tricky to pin down individuals who are making good many on the platform. Even Caspar is South African but doesn't really live in the country and most of his content is not about this country. 

Take Mziiki Tube for instance. It is currently valued at R450k annual earning but there are few people attached to the site and is claimed for ownership by SpaceDigitalZA. 

The only personal channel I can pin down on the lists is Cobus Potgieter, which I assume is owned by the guy and annual earnings are estimated at R626k today. 

Die Atwoord channel is owned by a company named AwalUKLimited, which has nine channels on YouTube. For the Antwoord channel, their estimated yearly earning is set at R567K - R905k.