MrBeast ranks first among the highest-earning YouTube creators in Forbes’ 2026 Top Creators list, with an estimated $300 million in gross earnings for March 2025 to March 2026. That is an earnings measure, not a net-worth ranking. Forbes does not publish a personal net-worth comparison for these five creators, so “richest” and “highest-paid” are different questions, and this article keeps them separate.
The top five in the 2026 Forbes ranking
Forbes ranks the following creators by estimated gross earnings. The figures come from Forbes’ 2026 Top Creators list as reported by Forbes Australia, published June 24, 2026.
| Rank | Creator | Estimated gross earnings | Businesses Forbes describes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | MrBeast (Jimmy Donaldson) | $300 million | Media production and a business portfolio including Feastables, Lunchly, Viewstats, toy and clothing licensing, and Beast Games |
| 2 | Dhar Mann | $65 million | A large scripted-content studio, brand partnerships, and a deal with Fox Entertainment |
| 3 | Steven Bartlett | $52 million | Diary of a CEO, podcasts, books, live events, investments, and a media holding company |
| 4 | Markiplier (Mark Edward Fischbach) | $38 million | A self-funded feature film, Iron Lung, and podcasts |
| 5 | Rhett & Link | $37 million | Good Mythical Morning, Mythical Kitchen, and distribution beyond YouTube |
Every figure above is an estimate for the same window, March 2025 to March 2026. Because the measure and period are shared, the numbers can be compared with each other. They should not be compared with company valuations or with personal net-worth estimates from other sources.
What the figures measure
- Gross earnings across activities. The estimates cover creator activity and the businesses attached to it, not only advertising income from YouTube.
- Multiple platforms. The list spans YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, and other platforms.
- Not audited. These are Forbes estimates, not figures the creators have disclosed in audited accounts.
- Not take-home pay. Gross earnings are before costs such as production, staff, taxes, and business expenses, so they should not be read as income each creator keeps.
- Excludes equity. Forbes states that it counts earnings rather than the equity creators hold in public and private companies.
Richest and highest-paid are different questions
Net worth is a stock: the total value of assets a person owns minus what they owe, at one point in time. Earnings are a flow: money received over a set period. A creator can earn heavily in one year and still hold less accumulated wealth than someone with a long record of investments or equity, and this list cannot show which situation applies to any of the five names.
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For that reason, “highest-earning in the 2026 Forbes ranking” is the accurate description. “Richest YouTuber” would require a net-worth source that measures holdings, and the Forbes list does not supply one.
Audience size is a separate measure
Subscriber counts show reach, not income. YouTube’s official blog reported on June 12, 2026 that Jimmy Donaldson, known as MrBeast, became the first individual creator to reach 500 million YouTube subscribers. The same post notes that YouTube had earlier recorded him as the most-subscribed individual creator in November 2022 and as the most-subscribed channel overall in June 2024, according to the YouTube Official Blog post on the 500 million subscriber milestone. These are platform milestones, not financial disclosures, and they should not be used to estimate earnings.
Rank #2
Creator-led studios and storytelling
Several entries on the list, especially Dhar Mann’s studio and Markiplier’s feature film, show creators moving into production. Forbes Australia’s coverage quotes Jeffrey Katzenberg, identified there as a DreamWorks cofounder and former chairman of Walt Disney Studios, describing MrBeast’s approach: “It’s a 21st-century studio,” and “He’s taken every old-school aspect of great storytelling and reconceived it for a new audience on a new platform.” The same article quotes Dhar Mann: “The greatest thing that happened to me was that I had no traditional studio or filmmaking experience.”
These remarks speak to how creator-led studios are built. They do not address how Forbes calculated the earnings estimates, so they should not be cited as support for the ranking’s methodology.
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How to cite the ranking accurately
- Name the source and year: “Forbes’ 2026 Top Creators list.”
- Call the numbers “estimated gross earnings” for March 2025 to March 2026.
- Use “highest-earning,” not “richest,” unless you are citing a separate net-worth source.
- Do not divide the estimates by time to produce an annual salary, and do not subtract costs to produce take-home pay.
- Report subscriber counts as audience figures, with their own date and source.
What the evidence does not establish
The Forbes list is a single snapshot for one 12-month window. It does not show how earnings changed in earlier years, and it does not break out how much of each creator’s total came from YouTube alone. It also does not give audited personal net worth for any of the five creators, so no statement about who is richest in the accumulated sense can be drawn from it.
Readers who need a wealth comparison should look for a source that measures assets and liabilities, and should check its date and method before comparing it with these earnings figures.
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