A YouTube channel showing a four-year-old and her older brother opening and playing with toys has been ranked number one on the site in Britain. Toys and Little Gaby stars Gabrielle and her brother Alex, five, from northern England, boast an impressive 10.9million followers, with their cute clips notching up more than 3.6 billion views. The channel was set up three years ago by their mother Sabine, 28, originally from Latvia, who now runs it as a full-time job. Dedicated to 'kids fun', it promises to 'do pretend play for kids, kids challenges, playing with kids toys and other activities. The colourful videos follow Gaby and Alex as they play games and open toys around their home. The most popular video is Bath Song Nursery Rhyme for sees Gaby and Alex climb into a bath in adorable swimming outfits, splash around with toys and wash their hair, all accompanied by a jolly soundtrack. Toys and Little Gaby has more subscribers than the CBeebies or Cartoon Network YouTube channels and has been dubbed number one in Britain by digital analytics company Social Blade.
The company, which tracks the performance of 23 million channels, said its earnings could be well over £1million, though Sabine refused to reveal how much it has pocketed to date. Kids, which has recorded 379 million views since it was shared in August last year. However, she admitted the family are thinking of upgrading their unassuming suburban home thanks to the channel's £1million yearly revenue. Speaking about her decision to set up the channel, Sabine explained: 'When they were smaller they liked watching YouTube videos, and we just thought we should try it.'The popularity of YouTube videos featuring children opening and playing with toys is a worldwide phenomenon described as 'toddler crack' by academics. An eight-year-old boy who does just that in his videos is currently the world's highest-earning YouTuber, according to Forbes. Ryan, the star of the YouTube channel Ryan ToysReview, rakes in a staggering £17.5million ($22million) every year through his channel.YouTube channels make money from advertisements that are either shown before a clip is played or appear as a banner across the page. A proportion of the revenues from these ads are handed over to the content creators by YouTube.