AN IRISH GAMER has featured on the Forbes list of top-earning Youtube stars for this year, with his estimated earnings at $16 million (€14 million).

Séan McLoughlin – who posts videos under the name JackSepticEye – has over 20 million subscribers to his Youtube channel. 

Successful Youtubers manage to generate income primarily through advertisements on their videos, and also through merchandise, sponsored posts and other means.

Athlone-native McLoughlin is 8th on Forbes’ list, which actually features a 7-year-old in first place.

It says of JackSepticEye: “Foulmouthed, energetic Seán McLoughlin is the most popular YouTuber in Ireland thanks to his colorful video-game commentary.

A few bad words haven’t kept him from going mainstream: He did a series for Disney and is developing exclusive content for live-streaming platform Twitch.

He featured on RTÉ 2 documentary Ireland’s Rich List last year, which said he was worth €2.5 million. 

McLoughlin posted his first video in 2012, and received a major boost in followers early on after a shoutout from fellow Youtuber PewDiePie (real name Felix Kjellberg).

The controversial Kjellberg is 9th on the Forbes list, who faced criticism in the past for using racial slurs.

Forbes said that all its figures are estimates, based on data from a number of sources as well as interviews with industry insiders.