YouTube Minecraft millionaires Ryan and Scott Fitzsimons have paid themselves €5 million over the past three years.
The bumper payout the 27-year-old Co Meath brothers have awarded themselves comes via their enormously popular channel.
Accounts filed with the companies office reveal the twins last year shared €1 million, comprising €968,424 in salaries and €70,000 pension payments. They paid themselves €4.1 million over 2016 and 2015.
The twins uploaded their first Minecraft video in June 2012. And now their LittleLizard & TinyTurtle Adventure channel boasts 3.8 million subscribers and has been viewed a staggering 2.3 billion times. At the end of last year, the brothers’ Little Lizard Ltd firm had accumulated profits of €444,610.
Their younger sister, 23-year-old Kelly, is also enjoying YouTube success with Little Kelly Minecraft, which has 2.65 million subscribers and 1.42 billion views. She paid herself almost €350,000 from the success of her channel.
Upward curve
After the brothers incurred a significant pay cut last year, the company’s cash pile soared from €4,421 to €295,846. It recorded a modest profit of €12,316 last year and this followed profits of €80,552 in 2016.
The brothers’ working lives involve playing modified versions of Minecraft with humorous voiceovers. It started out as a hobby for the two. Most of their income derives from advertising on the channel and direct payments from YouTube based on video views.
The rapid growth in popularity of the Fitzsimons’ channel shows no sign of dipping. In the past year they have added 617,000 subscribers.
After the channel debuted on YouTube in 2012, it took nine months for the venture to gain 10,000 subscribers. The brothers had just one laptop in the beginning.
Scott has previously said that “at the start, it was just a hobby ... [but] you could easily notice what people wanted to watch rather than just what you wanted to play, so if you got a good combination of both.”
