Forbes has published a ranking of the Russian YouTube channels with the highest ad revenues. The first place was taken by the comedians' channel   LABELCOM, its income for the period from September 1, 2019 to August 31, 2020 was estimated at $ 3,550,000.

Top 10 YouTube Channels with the Highest Advertising Revenue:

LABELCOM, $ 3,550,000, 4.5 million subscribers. The most popular humorous show of the channel is “What happened next?”. It is hosted by Nurlan Sabyrov, participant of the Stand Up show on TNT channel.

Wylsacom, $ 3.41 million, 9.6 million subscribers. The channel was created by blogger Valentin Petukhov. It is dedicated to gadgets and technologies.

Chicken Curry, $ 1,130,000, 2.5 million subscribers. Comic channel by Alexander Gudkov. The most popular show on the channel is "Comment Out".

vDud, $ 980,000, 8.2 million subscribers. Channel of the former Sports.ru editor-in-chief Yuri Dud with interviews with celebrities.

Lapenko, $ 980,000, 2.8 million subscribers. Humorous videos by actor Anton Lapenko.



Redakciya, $ 920,000, 1.6 million subscribers. The channel of the journalist Alexei Pivovarov, he shoots stories and films on socio-political topics.

Dima Gordey, $ 850,000, 5.5 million subscribers. Blogger’s channel dedicated to car reviews.

Ksenia Sobchak, $ 840,000, 1.8 million subscribers. TV presenter Ksenia Sobchak shoots interviews and news stories.



Dima Maslennikov, $ 780,000, 8.6 million subscribers. Blogger Dmitry Maslennikov shoots entertaining videos.

AcademeG, $ 660,000, 4.8 million subscribers. The channel of the blogger Konstantin Zarutsky, he shoots car reviews.

Forbes has compiled a rating of the Russian YouTube bloggers for the first time. The rating studied the markets of Russia and the CIS countries. Video monetization revenue and subscriber donations were not included in the calculations. 

Television professionals came to YouTube in the wake of the demand for quality content. If earlier most of the videos in the most popular video service were filmed cheaply and artisanally, now there are more and more full-fledged shows, the production costs of which are comparable to the costs of content for television. “Today bloggers are divided into two camps: producers of professional content and those who try to continue doing everything practically on their own,” Lev Grunin, CEO of the WhoIsBlogger research company says. 

The emergence of new formats and the arrival of celebrities on YouTube attract advertisers who want to get not just a “talking head” integrated into the video, but a promotional video created by the blogger himself, which they can use on other platforms. When choosing a star influencer, companies look to match their target audience with the brand's target audience. “The blogger is actually becoming the face of the brand,” Anna Puzakova, Head of Brands at HypeFactory says.

To determine an adequate price for placement on a particular channel, advertisers use the CPV (Cost Per View) indicator. CPV ranges from 50 kopecks to 2 rubles per transition. The main advertisers for youtubers are FMCG companies, banks and mobile game makers.  

YouTube's appeal is growing due to new formats. Today, the site is actively developing the format of live broadcasts, and in the near future it plans, for example, to introduce the sale of goods directly from the video, that is, to use YouTube as a marketplace. 

Forbes interlocutors noted that YouTube today is pulling influencers and users from the Instagram and TikTok networks and, due to this, is growing even faster. The coronavirus pandemic is indirectly contributing to this, Grunin explains: in the context of a lockdown, people stopped commuting to work, they now do not have a lot of micro-breaks to quickly watch Instagram and TikTok, but there is an opportunity to spend more time watching long videos with professional content.