By simply smashing objects, content creators can earn up to $650,000 a year from their videos.
Perhaps while browsing YouTube, you’ve come across videos featuring giant hydraulic presses crushing cars or industrial grinders turning household items into dust in just a few fleeting seconds.
These videos circulate widely on social media, with enticing titles like “What Happens When a Crusher Faces Off Against the Heaviest Object and Others” or “Top 100 Best Crushing Moments with Satisfying ASMR Sounds,” according to Insider.
A video of wax candle crushing with a hydraulic press by Lauri Vuohensilta. (Photo: Hydraulic Press Channel)
With captivating titles and eye-catching content, these videos have attracted millions of views across thousands of different channels, helping their creators amass substantial fortunes.
Lauri Vuohensilta is the mastermind behind the Hydraulic Press Channel on YouTube, which boasts over 3.8 million subscribers. He started this channel seven years ago.
Utilizing an industrial press from his family’s shop, he films videos demonstrating what happens to sponges, rubber balls, crayons, and even human teeth when subjected to tons of pressure from the machine.
In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Vuohensilta revealed that he earned $650,000 last year from ad revenue on his videos, which garnered between 50,000 to 58 million views.
Youtuber Lauri Vuohensilta. (Photo: Screenshot)
Another notable figure is Jimmy Donaldson, widely known as MrBeast, who owns a personal YouTube channel with over 130 million subscribers. Initially, he posted videos featuring daring challenges and silly pranks.
Recently, MrBeast has produced a lot of charitable and environmental content, such as “Planting 20,000,000 Trees, My Largest Project Ever!” and “I Cleaned the Dirtiest Beach in the World.”
In 2021, MrBeast earned $54 million – the highest of any YouTuber in history.
In his latest video posted on January 30, MrBeast announced he would fund surgeries for 1,000 visually impaired individuals worldwide.
MrBeast’s actions have sparked significant controversy online. While many praise him, others argue that the world’s richest YouTuber is exploiting the less fortunate for profit.
MrBeast talking to a visually impaired patient after surgery. (Photo: Screenshot)
Although his channel does not focus on destruction like Vuohensilta’s, Donaldson recently uploaded a video crushing a red Lamborghini with a hydraulic press that quickly amassed over 107 million views.
It’s unclear how much he earned from that video, but Donaldson has previously shared that he spends $8 million a month to create innovative content, produce elaborate videos, and widely promote his business.
Vuohensilta, Donaldson’s representatives, and Google, YouTube’s parent company, did not respond to Insider’s request for comment.
MrBeast (Jimmy Donaldson) crushing a $200,000 Lamborghini with a hydraulic press in a video. (Photo: MrBeast)
Destroying objects to gain fame on YouTube is not a new phenomenon. A widely popular channel advertising BlendTec blenders, titled “Will It Blend?” launched just two years after the video hosting platform and quickly defined the genre by putting the titular question to the test.
BlendTec CEO Tom Dickson became known for his willingness to blend anything, more than 16 years ago. Clips demonstrating the power of the blender, including mixing raw chicken with a can of Coca-Cola and destroying a new iPhone X, which was priced around $1,000 at the time, became hits.
According to estimates from Creators Handbook magazine, content creators who specialize in object destruction can earn an average of $2,750 for every million views.
Increasingly, videos of YouTubers crushing everyday items with similar industrial machinery have gained popularity in recent years. (Illustrative image)
For some channel owners like Vuohensilta and Donaldson, who have several videos with over 25 million views, a single video can bring in $65,000. This does not account for exceptional cases—videos that go viral.
While creators earn hundreds of thousands of dollars for destroying everyday items under the guise of entertainment, some face criticism for being seen as wasteful or materialistic.
Carla Abdalla, a lecturer at Armando Alvares Penteado Foundation in Brazil who studies consumer behavior, told Wired: “When I ask what impact their videos might have on young people, the answer is always about lifestyle.” “When I ask what kind of lifestyle they lean towards, they talk about using designer clothes, dining at luxury restaurants, high-tech gadgets, and traveling the world… those are the luxuries of the wealthy.”
In a 2019 video, a user criticized these “garbage” content creators for using an enormous number of unnecessary items to garner views. However, YouTuber Anthony Padilla admitted that watching someone waste money on something ridiculous with a pile of both cheap and extravagant items is also quite interesting and engaging.
“There’s something in the human brain that wants to say, ‘Oh my God, they have so many of these things. I have to watch this right now.’” Padilla revealed.
