Daniel Middleton, better known as DanTDM to the 20.7 million subscribers to his YouTube channel has come a long way in the last two years. At the end of 2016, Middleton didn't appear on the list of the highest-paid YouTube stars. At the end of 2017, he was the highest-paid YouTube star with a $16.5 million haul. This year, he's the 4thhighest-paid, but don't feel bad for him, he actually made more this year than last year: $18.5 million!
Daniel Middleton, now known as Dan TDM but formerly as The Diamond Minecraft, is a British YouTube personality. He was born on November 8, 1991 in Aldershot, England. He attended the University of Northampton. He started his YouTube channel in 2010 while in college devoted to Pokemon. Back then, he called himself PokemonDanLv45. Then, in 2012, while he was a shelf stocker at the grocery store Tesco, Dan launched The Diamond Minecart, a gaming channel with an audience of kids aged 5-10. He changed his YouTube channel name to TheDiamondMinecart/ DanTDM. In December 2016, he changed it to just DanTDM.
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His channel focuses on the popular video game Minecraft. He has 20.7 million followers. He posts daily reviews and gameplay videos. Middleton produces videos out of his home studio. He gets up around 9am and starts working on his video about an hour later. He checks for Minecrafty updates, edits the videos in the afternoon, and uploads the finished video at 8:30pm. On weekends, he prepares videos in advance. Once the video is uploaded, he checks his comments. DanTDM posts mini films that involved original characters in addition to Let's Play videos. Since 2016, Middleton has branched out from just Minecraft to other popular games including Roblox and Tomodachi Life.
Middleton has been a regular guest at the gaming festival Insomnia. He has also appeared twice on CBBC's Technobabble, as a commenter on video games. In the fall of 2016, Middleton released a graphic novel called Trayaurus and the Enchanted Crystal. It features characters from his YouTube show including DanTDM and his dog Grim, evil lab boss Denton and his sidekick Fin as well as Dr. Trayaurus, a scientist. It reached the number one spot on the New York Times Best Seller list in Japan for 11 weeks.
In the past year, Middleton had a world tour that included four sold out nights at the Sydney Opera House. It was the second fasting selling show in the venue's history. He also has a booming merchandise business.
