How toy unboxing channels became YouTube's real stars

A fifth of the site's top 100 channels are focused on toys, while young viewers are also driving big views for kids' music, cartoons and vlogs

Like most pre-school children, Ryan loves playing with toys - from cars, trains and Lego to Disney toys, Play-Doh and Minions. Unlike most pre-school children, he's playing with those toys for an online audience of millions.

Ryan is the young star of Ryan's Toys Review, a YouTube channel with more than 2.5 million subscribers and 4bn video views - startling figures given that his channel only launched in March 2015.