Man reveals how much YouTube paid him for viral videos that got 1,300,000,000 views
We imagine that when most of you grew up, you might've dreamed of becoming an astronaut or movie star before settling on more realistic goals like doctor or vet. The world has changed a lot in 2025, and according to a 2023 survey by KidZania that asked 2,000 children aged between 6 and 14 years, 20% of them wanted to be a YouTuber. With the rise of big names like Jimmy "MrBeast" Donaldson and KSI alongside TikTok taking over our phones, it's no surprise that 'content creator' and 'influencer' are becoming popular career paths among younger generations.
Sadly, for every SSSniperWolf and PewDiePie, there are another million wannabe Mr or MrsBeasts who never make it big.
Over on YouTube, Kai Nemzer explained how much he earned from a series of viral videos that clocked up an impressive 1.3 billion views.
While 1.3 billion is far from “Baby Shark" hitting 15.5 billion alone, you might expect it to still be a big slice of the YouTube pie.
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In the video, Nemzer goes through his top three long-form videos, top three short-form videos, his all-time revenue, and then explains why he quit his channel.
Nemzer reveals how an eight-minute long-form video clocked up 4.8 million views and made $9,000 but then got an extra $4,000 from a sponsor. His most-viewed long-from video is only 76 seconds long and also includes a $4,000 sponsor, but only earned him $4,400 from its 6.3 million views.
Over to short-form, one video with 82.6 million views got Nemzer another 134,500 followers but only earned him $4,112.20 in revenue. Another has 86.5 million views, and although it saw his subscriber count soar by 255,000, he earned $2,925.78.
As for the juggernaut short that came in with 94.9 million views, the YouTuber made $3,395.65.
Crunching the numbers on the 1.3 billion views he's received on his channel, Nemzer confirms he's made a grand total of $157,386.45 across 16 million hours of watch time.
He went on to confirm that he gave up on the channel because he didn't want to make gaming content anymore. Instead, he wanted to focus on helping entrepreneurs grow their YouTube and personal brands.
While Nemzer admits that his $157,000 earnings is "not bad", he has his sights set on a different niche. In a follow-up video, Nemzer claims he 'tricked' YouTube into giving him 1.3 billion views by making 'curiosity gap' videos that lure in viewers.
Responding to his original video on the 1.3 billion views, the comments were full of praise for his transparency on how YouTube's revenue works. One fan wrote: "Wow, Kai! How transparent! One of my all-time favorite YouTube videos. Creators talk constantly about their success and ‘how to get there’ but they don’t actually pull back the curtain, they just pretend they do. You’re different for this one. Thank you very much."
Another added: "Finally we have a video on YouTube that gets directly to the point. Before your video was recommended to me, I watched 7-8 different videos each 8-10 minutes long that ‘were talking a lot but saying nothing’."
Someone else concluded: "From zero to 1.3 BILLION? Pure inspiration! Keep shining! ✨🔥."