I have no issues with the guy. Try growing up around a pack of serious “A” males over achiever racers. Great folks mostly but Ego”
‘a beyond measure.
the Artistic craters among them are another level entirely. This one would fit in and be put in his niche.
A lot of people don't like him because he destroys things to troll people. I understand their frustration, but they're his things. He's gotten rich from tearing nice (or sometimes just seemingly nice) trucks to shreds, but that's his business and they're just things. I think I've mentioned around here before that I cherish "stuff" a bit too much, so, I can appreciate the other side a little more sometimes.
As far as his personality, I believe him when he says he's playing a character of himself. If the version he selected is the kinda egotistical side, well... that was his choice I suppose.
Is there that much money in YouTube videos or is he a lotto winner trying to spend his millions?
Yes.
Socialblade doesn't claim to be 100% accurate, but from what I can see you can at least count on the mid-ground. Plus there is merchandise, product sponsorships, other advertising, other platforms (Instagram, Facebook, etc), etc.
If you're doing it right, your YouTube earnings should be about 1/4-1/3 of your total revenue. So, that guy is probably making over $1 million/year to play with trucks.
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You can dig deeper into the earnings calculators and all of that stuff, but from my own (limited) experience I'm pretty surprised how little it takes to get something meaningful back. A channel of 10-20k subs (call it 200k views a month), if ran well, would pretty easily pay the mortgage on a modest Indiana home. It's putting your faith in YouTube being there forever that takes balls. That's why you see most guys like that are under 30. Not much to lose.