Myth YouTube recorded nearly 1 million euros in revenue in 2020

The online gaming company run by YouTubers Ryan and Scott Fitzsimons last year exceeded almost 1 million euros in revenue.

New calculations show that millionaire-owned Little Lizard Ltd posted revenue of €972,310, or €18,698, per week. The two benefited from increasing numbers turning to online games during the Covid-19 lockdowns.

Revenue represents a 9 percent increase over revenue of €890,722 recorded in 2019.

The Fitzsimmons family turned 30 in March, and over the past six years, the twins have received €7.8 million from their company.

However, the two earned €304,035 – or a 43 per cent pay cut – last year with managers’ salaries dropping from €706,874 in 2019 to €402,839 last year.

pay cut

The two’s pay cut contributed to Little Lizard recording a pre-tax profit of €103,115 in 2020, followed by Little Lizard recording a pre-tax loss of €63,679 in 2019.

However, the two softened the wage cut with a dividend of €55,000 last year.

At the end of 2020, the Co Meath registered company was sitting on accrued profits of €422,422. The company’s cash pile fell sharply from 123,691 euros to 16,950 euros.

The salary last year represented 24 per cent of the twins’ wages of €1.69m in 2018.

The twins paid themselves a total of €4.1 million during 2016 and 2015 consisting of a wage of €2.2 million in 2016 and €1.8 million in 2015.

« Minecraft Millionaires »

The two Minecraft millionaires uploaded their first Minecraft video in June 2012 and today their Littlelizard Adventure channel has 4.1 million subscribers.

Over the past nine years, the channel has been viewed 2.63 billion times.

The two brothers’ working lives include playing mods of Minecraft with friendly, humorous voiceovers that started as a hobby for both of them.

Fitzsimons make most of their income from ads on their channel and direct payments from YouTube based on how many times their videos are viewed.

In the Minecraft world in which they live, Ryan’s character is known as Little Lizard while Scott is known as Tiny Turtle.

Modified Games

The brothers tend to play mods of the blockbuster Minecraft game based on popular games, TV shows, movies, or sometimes original ideas.

After the channel debuted on YouTube in 2012, the project took nine months to gain 10,000 subscribers. The two brothers only had one laptop to use between them when they started working.

In a previous interview, Scott said, “At first, it was just a hobby. We turned it on, had fun loading it and clicked some items more and people started enjoying it.”