Revenues at the online gaming firm operated by YouTubers, Ryan and Scott Fitzsimons last year almost topped €1 million.
New accounts show that the twin millionaires’ Little Lizard Ltd last year recorded revenues of €972,310, or €18,698 per week. as the two benefited from growing numbers turning to online gaming during Covid-19 lockdowns.
The revenues represent a 9 per cent increase on the revenues of €890,722 recorded in 2019.
The Fitzsimons only turned 30 in March and over the last six years, the twins have received €7.8m in pay from their company.
The two however took a €304,035 — or a 43 per cent pay cut — last year with directors’ pay reducing from €706,874 in 2019 to €402,839 last year.
Wage cut
The wage cut for the two contributed to Little Lizard recording a pre-tax profit of €103,115 in 2020 and this followed Little Lizard recording a pre-tax loss of €63,679 in 2019.
However, the two cushioned the pay-cut by taking out a dividend of €55,000 last year.
At the end of 2020, the Co Meath registered company was sitting on accumulated profits of €422,422. The company’s cash pile reduced sharply from €123,691 to €16,950.
The pay last year represented 24 per cent of the twin’s pay of €1.69m in 2018.
The twins paid themselves a total of €4.1m over 2016 and 2015 made up of pay of €2.2m in 2016 and €1.8m in 2015.
'Minecraft millionaires'
The two ‘Minecraft millionaires’ only uploaded their first Minecraft video in June 2012 and today their Littlelizard Adventure channel boasts 4.1 million subscribers.
Over the past nine years, the channel has been viewed a staggering 2.63 billion times.
The brothers’ working lives involves playing modified versions of the Minecraft game with friendly and humorous voice-overs that started out as a hobby for the two.
The Fitzsimons make most of their income from advertising on their channel and direct payments from YouTube based on the number of views of their videos.
In the Minecraft world they inhabit, Ryan’s character is known as Little Lizard while Scott is Tiny Turtle.
Modified games
The brothers tend to play modified versions of the mega-selling Minecraft based on popular games, TV shows, movies or sometimes original ideas.
After the channel debuted on YouTube in 2012, it took nine months for the venture to gain 10,000 subscribers. The brothers only had the one laptop to use between them when they started off.
In a previous interview, Scott said: “At the start, it was just a hobby. We played it, we enjoyed uploading it and some of the stuff clicked more and people started enjoying it.”
