Ryan's World is a children's YouTube channel featuring Ryan Kaji, who is eight years old as of June 2020, along with his mother, father, and twin sisters. The channel usually releases a new video every day. One of the channel's videos, titled as "Huge Eggs Surprise Toys Challenge" has over 2.0 billion views as of June 2020, making it one of the 60 most viewed videos on YouTube. As of June 2020, the channel has over 25 million subscribers, and its videos have garnered over 30 billion views. The channel is one of the Top 100 most-subscribed YouTube channels in the United States. The Verge has described the channel as "a mash-up of personal vlog and 'unboxing' video, a blend of innocent childhood antics and relentless, often overwhelming consumerism." According to Forbes, Kaji earned $11 million between 2016 and 2017 and was the eighth highest-paid YouTuber; and in 2018 and 2019, was listed as the highest-paid YouTuber, earning $22 million and $26 million respectively from his videos and product line at Walmart. As of July 11, 2019, he has released his own branded toothbrushes and toothpaste. The channel is also offered in other languages like Spanish and Japanese under the titles "Ryan's World Español", and "ライアンズ ・ワールド".
History
Kaji began making YouTube videos in March 2015 after watching other toy review channels like EvanTubeHD and asking his mother, "How come I’m not on YouTube when all the other kids are?" Kaji's mother decided to quit her job as a high school chemistry teacher to work on the YouTube channel full-time.
Before going live on YouTube, the family replaced their real-life surname with the on-screen surname Kaji.
In 2017, Kaji's parents signed a deal with PocketWatch, a startup children's media company that was founded in 2016 by Chris Williams and Albie Hecht. PocketWatch does the marketing and merchandise for Ryan's YouTube channels. In 2018, Ryan ToysReview, in cooperation with PocketWatch and WildWorks, created an app called Tag with Ryan, an endless runner game targeted towards children, for iOS and Android. In 2019, Ryan ToysReview and PocketWatch produced a 20-episode television series for preschoolers titled Ryan's Mystery Playdate. On November 1, 2019, Outright Games released a video game titled Race With Ryan, a racing game featuring Kaji and characters from the Ryan's World brand, for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and Microsoft Windows.
Influence
Kaji has influenced the toy industry; his toy reviews, especially those which get millions of views, will sometimes affect the toy's sales. Chris Williams of PocketWatch compared Kaji to Nickelodeon's SpongeBob SquarePants. At the Toy Fair 2018 in New York, Kaji announced a line of toys, branded as Ryan's World, in cooperation with PocketWatch and Bonkers Toys. The toys were first released exclusively at Walmart on August 6, 2018. The Ryan's World channel has been listed in 2018 and 2019 as the highest-earning YouTube channel by Forbes. The channel's description mentions that most of the toys reviewed are later donated to charity. His mother told TubeFilter that "Ryan doesn’t keep all the toys he gets — we give a lot of them away to friends and family, and also a lot of them away to charity."
Controversy
On August 28, 2019, a complaint was filed by Truth in Advertising and the Federal Trade Commission due to its sponsored videos not being properly disclosed. Truth in Advertising has claimed that "Nearly 90 percent of the Ryan ToysReview videos have included at least one paid product recommendation aimed at preschoolers, a group too young to distinguish between a commercial and a review."
