Whilst you might not recognise his name, Khaby Lame has proved silence is golden.
The TikToker had become one of the biggest influencers on the app, with his hilarious and often silent reaction videos.
Now, Forbes have revealed that the content creator is making hundreds of thousands of dollars per post despite never saying a word.
Advert
His rags-to-riches story began when the 23-year-old was laid off during the pandemic, so began posting clips of himself gaming or dancing on TikTok.
It wasn’t long before his page began to take off though, with the content creator silently reacting (and judging) some of the, um, questionable ‘life hacks’ on the app.
Without saying a word, Lame became TikTok’s biggest influence in 2022, beating Charli D'Amelio, with over 161.9 million followers.
If that weren’t impressive enough, Forbes now estimates that Lame makes over £617,300 ($750,000) per branded post on the app.
Having crunched the numbers, the outlet also named Lame as the 11th best influencer on their Top Creators of 2023 list.
It’s not a bad way to make a living, especially considering that the Senegal-born influencer has appeared in videos alongside Tom Cruise, Robert Downey Jr and Matt Damon.
Forbes also estimates that Lame has amassed a fortune of over £13.5 million ($16.5m) over the last year as he partnered up with brands like Hugo Boss as well.
With so much attention on the 23-year-old, it’s understandable that he feels under pressure to look after his young followers.
He told the outlet: “I want to work clean. I’ve never promoted anything that’s bad for you…because a lot of kids follow me and it’s a great responsibility.
In fact, the influencer was recently immortalised in Fortnite earlier this year, with Lame added as a skin on the epic multiple-player video game.
Despite this, the influencer would have to strike some insane deals to beat the others in the impressive Forbes list.
Unsurprisingly, Jimmy Donaldson (aka MrBeast) came in a number one with an insane 321 million followers – nearly as big as the US population.
The YouTube giant has also earned an insane £67.5 million ($82m) from his antics on his channel, even with all the epic giveaways he does.
Coming in second was British YouTuber KSI with 112 million followers, with influencer and boxer Jake Paul taking the bronze medal.
We wonder who will take the top spot next year.
Katherine Sidnell