Young Thug’s net worth is $3.7 million. The Young Thug net worth total comes from a deep analysis of his earnings from singles, YouTube and other sources.
Young Thug started his music career in 2011. To date he hasn’t released even one studio album. With $0 earned from album sales and less than $1 million from singles, the bulk of the star’s earnings comes from concerts and YouTube ad sales. That’s a relatively new path to millions that more and more musicians are following. Drake took the same route to riches, working the mixtape circuit for four years before hitting it big in the album scene in 2010.
The Young Thug net worth total comes from $861,670 in singles sales, $2.88 million from concerts, $5 million in YouTube income and $300,000 in business deals. If that seems like more than his total wealth stated above, it is. Adding up all earnings, Young Thug has earned $9.1 million so far from his music career. Expenses and taxes eat up $5.5 million of that money.
Young Thug Net Worth Facts
Young Thug Net Worth Facts | |
|---|---|
| Young Thug net worth: | $3,733,087 |
| Young Thug net worth vs Kanye West net worth: | 19 times smaller |
| Young Thug net worth vs Taylor Swift net worth: | 84 times smaller |
| Young Thug net worth vs Kim Kardashian net worth: | 41 times smaller |
| Young Thug net worth vs LeBron James net worth: | 84 times smaller |
| Young Thug net worth vs Dr. Dre net worth: | 211 times smaller |
| Young Thug net worth vs Beyonce net worth: | 110 times smaller |
| Young Thug net worth vs Jay Z net worth: | 150 times smaller |
| Young Thug net worth vs Donald Trump net worth: | 1447 times smaller |
| Young Thug net worth vs typical American family net worth | 55 times bigger |
The Young Thug net worth figure is $3.7 million. Currently, the rapper’s net worth is 1/19th as big as troubled superstar Kanye West’s $68 million. It’s 1/84th as big as Taylor Swift’s fortune of $310 million and 1/40th as big as Kim Kardashian’s $150 million. The Young Thug net worth fortune is less than 1/80th as big as LeBron James’ $311 million and 1/211th as big as Dr. Dre’s massive net worth of $784 million. VS Jay Z’s $558 million, Young Thug has 1/150th as much cash. Stacked up against Donald Trump, Young Thug has only 1/1,447th the money. That’s because Trump’s worth is $5.4 billion. Finally, Young Thug does pretty good when measured against the median American family’s net worth of only $68,000.
Young Thug Net Worth Over Time
Young Thug Net Worth by Year | |
|---|---|
| Young Thug net worth 2011 | $15,760 |
| Young Thug net worth 2012 | $39,914 |
| Young Thug net worth 2013 | $539,902 |
| Young Thug net worth 2014 | $1,494,766 |
| Young Thug net worth 2015 | $2,350,412 |
| Young Thug net worth 2016 | $3,733,087 |
The chart above shows how the Young Thug net worth story develops by year. The green line starts out pretty flat between 2011 and 2012. During that time, the artist released three mixtapes and performed in five live shows, earning total income in both years of $100,000. While his star had yet to rise, it was clear by then that there was something going on. Building on early success, Young Thug launched his YouTube channel in 2013. That turned out to be the best move he could have made, since that channel would amass over 750 million views in the next three years. Surprisingly, YouTube is the biggest contributor to the star’s net worth. With earnings of about $7.50 per 1,000 YouTube views from ad revenue, streaming video has chipped in over $5 million to the singer’s earnings.
Young Thug Net Worth Sources
Earnings of $9.1 million form the Young Thug net worth sum of $3.7 million. Taxes took $4.1 million while expenses ate up another $1.3 million. But where did those $9 million in earnings come from to begin with? YouTube, concerts and singles sales form the bulk of Young Thug’s net worth. In fact YouTube makes up more than half the star’s total income at $5 million. Concerts form 32% with $2.9 million and music sales represent only 10% or $870,000. Business deals account for another 3% of Young Thug’s earnings at about $300,000. In other words, Young Thug is a new kind of music star, focused on free music and YouTube first, with everything else second.
Young Thug Net Worth Sources | |
|---|---|
| Mixtapes | $0 |
| Singles | $538,096 |
| Concerts | $2,882,500 |
| Featured Artist | $323,574 |
| Young Thug YouTube Channel | $5,062,786 |
| Business | $300,000 |
| Total Young Thug Earnings | $9,106,956 |
| Young Thug Salary (average) | $1,517,826 |
| Young Thug Salary 2016 | $3,314,614 |
| Taxes | $4,152,772 |
| Expenses | $1,366,043 |
| Investments | $144,946 |
| Young Thug Net Worth | $3,733,087 |
How Free Mixtapes Built Young Thug’s Millions
How did Young Thug get to be a millionaire by giving away free music? The Young Thug net worth number of $3.7 million gets its power from freebies. Basically, the music world has changed drastically in the past five years. Even a few years ago if a musician wanted to hit it big, the way to do that was to impress the big studios. An artist with talent would make demo tapes and submit them to producers. If the musician impressed a producer enough, he or she might get a shot at recording an album. If the album sold well, the artist’s career had launched.
This traditional path to riches through music producers was rocked to its core by the internet. First, people just don’t buy music anymore. Even the megastars like Rihanna and Drake have seen huge falloffs in album sales in the past several years. In that climate, smaller stars like Young Thug hardly have a chance. Luckily there’s a new earnings game in town: streaming ad revenue.
A star that can rack up a billion YouTube views can earn millions from YouTube alone. But how can a musician pull down those high numbers of viewers? In Young Thug’s case it was free music.
There’s no question that Young Thug has talent. Since the old way of getting that to the masses through for-sale albums had ended, Young Thug took another path to his millions. Namely, he gave his music away free on a series of mixtapes and in YouTube videos. In fact since 2011, the star has given away 16 free mixtapes. Those are basically free albums. The free music generates interest in his videos and concerts. The videos and concerts are what paid him his $9 million. Put another way, giving it away for free is what created the Young Thug net worth figure of $3.7 million.
Young Thug Net Worth: $861,670 From Music Sales
As the table below shows, singles sales kick in $861,670 to the Young Thug net worth pile. The rapper’s debut single, 2014’s Stoner, went RIAA Gold. That means it sold over 500,000 copies in the US. At $10.99 per album, that makes for $1.1 million in total revenue. According to industry estimates, Young Thug only got to keep $90,744 of that money, since about 91% went toward production, marketing, distribution and agent fees. The 2015 single Best Friend went RIAA platinum, selling over a million copies and raking in over $2.2 million. Young Thug’s cut of that money is about $181,500. A similar look at each of the star’s 14 singles and 24 singles as a featured artist on singles from other artists gives a total of $861,670 earned from singles sales so far.
Young Thug Net Worth from Music Sales | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Young Thug Singles | Unit Sales | Revenue | Young Thug Earnings |
| Stoner (2014) | 570,000 | $1,134,300 | $90,744 |
| Best Friend (2015) | 1,140,000 | $2,268,600 | $181,488 |
| Pick Up the Phone (2016) | 570,000 | $1,134,300 | $90,744 |
| Other singles (11 non-certified; 2014-2016) | 1,100,000 | $2,189,000 | $175,120 |
| (As Featured) | |||
| Hookah (2014) | 570,000 | $1,134,300 | $34,029 |
| About the Money (2014) | 570,000 | $1,134,300 | $34,029 |
| Lifestyle (2014) | 1,140,000 | $2,268,600 | $68,058 |
| Throw Sum Mo (2014) | 1,140,000 | $2,268,600 | $68,058 |
| Other Appearances (20 non-certified; 2014-2016) | 2,000,000 | $3,980,000 | $119,400 |
| Total Young Thug Net Worth from Singles | $861,670 |
How Young Thug Made $2.88 Million from Concerts
Young Thug has earned $2.88 million from concerts. A deep dive into data from Bandsintown.com shows the rapper performed in two shows in 2011, three in 2013, 36 in 2014, 67 in 2015 and 39 in 2016. A look at the size of the venues shows Young Thug performed to audiences of about 500 people from 2011 through 2015. With ticket prices of $50 each, he earned $25,000 per show. He kept only about 80% of that money, since the rest went to production and promotion. Other expenses probably cut out another 15% of this money, which we figured into our calculations lower down in this article. By that math, Young Thug earned $40,000 from concerts in 2011, $60,000 in 2012 and $720,000 in 2014. 67 shows in 2015 earned $1.6 million total, but Young Thug only saw 30% of that thanks to splitting the earnings with Travis Scott. Less shows in 2016 earn more money for the star thanks to bigger venue sizes. 2016 is his biggest year yet, adding $1.5 million to the Young Thug net worth tank.
Young Thug Net Worth from Concerts | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Number of Shows | Revenue @ $50 per ticket | Young Thug Earnings |
| 2011 | 2 | $50,000 | $40,000 |
| 2012 | 3 | $75,000 | $60,000 |
| 2013 | 0 | $0 | $0 |
| 2014 | 36 | $900,000 | $720,000 |
| 2015 | 67 | $1,675,000 | $502,500 |
| 2016 | 39 | $1,950,000 | $1,560,000 |
| Total Young Thug Net Worth from Concerts | $2,882,500 |
Young Thug’s $5 Million YouTube Payoff
Young Thug has earned over $5 million so far from YouTube ad income. Industry experts put YouTube earnings from ad revenue at about $7.60 for every 1,000 views. Young Thug’s YouTube channel launched in late 2013 and now has over 750 million views. As we said earlier, those YouTube views got a shot in the arm from the artists 16 free mixtapes.
Other income sources include endorsements and business deals. In 2016 Young Thug has just recently signed deals with Calvin Klein and Puma. Those deals should be good for millions in future years, though so far they add only about $200,000 to the Young Thug net worth story. Young Thug also has a fledgeling clothing line, Young Stoner Life, that kicks in another $100,000 so far to his earnings.
Young Thug Net Worth from Youtube | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Channel | Views | Earnings at $7.60 per 1,000 | Earnings |
| Young Thug Own Channel | 666,156,021 | $5,062,786 | $5,062,786 |
| Total Young Thug Net Worth from Youtube | $5,062,786 |
Young Thug Net Worth Calculations
The table below adds up the income from every Young Thug net worth sources. Also, it adjusts for expenses, taxes and investments.
Young Thug Net Worth Calculations | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Mixtapes | Singles | Concerts | Featured Artist | Youtube | Business | Young Thug Total Earnings | Taxes | Expenses | Net | Investment Income (6% of net per year) | Young Thug Net Worth |
| 2011 | $0 | $0 | $40,000 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $40,000 | $18,240 | $6,000 | $15,760 | $0 | $15,760 |
| 2012 | $0 | $0 | $60,000 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $60,000 | $27,360 | $9,000 | $23,640 | $514 | $39,914 |
| 2013 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $1,265,696 | $0 | $1,265,696 | $577,158 | $189,854 | $498,684 | $1,303 | $539,902 |
| 2014 | $0 | $149,117 | $720,000 | $243,974 | $1,265,696 | $0 | $2,378,788 | $1,084,727 | $356,818 | $937,242 | $17,622 | $1,494,766 |
| 2015 | $0 | $239,861 | $502,500 | $39,800 | $1,265,696 | $0 | $2,047,858 | $933,823 | $307,179 | $806,856 | $48,789 | $2,350,412 |
| 2016 | $0 | $149,117 | $1,560,000 | $39,800 | $1,265,696 | $300,000 | $3,314,614 | $1,511,464 | $497,192 | $1,305,958 | $76,717 | $3,733,087 |
| Young Thug Net Worth Totals | $0 | $538,096 | $2,882,500 | $323,574 | $5,062,786 | $300,000 | $9,106,956 | $4,152,772 | $1,366,043 | $3,588,141 | $144,946 |
If you liked reading about Young Thug’s net worth, try this post about Lil Wayne’s net worth or this one about Floyd Mayweather’s net worth. All Young Thug net worth data in this article are based on our analysis of income streams, tax, expense and investment calculations, estimates and media reports and are provided here for entertainment purposes only.