Internet comedy group and avid pranksters ‘The NELK Boys’ have revealed their shocking earnings from YouTube’s adsense — and despite getting millions of views, it seems that the platform isn’t being kind to their collective pocketbook.
NELK is a rather divisive group, as far as internet entertainment groups go; known for pulling outrageous pranks on unsuspecting members of the public, NELK have been physically assaulted, harangued and publicly shamed for their antics multiple times in the past.
Lately, though, the boys have been drawing massive crowds wherever they go, which quite clearly have flown in the face of local social distancing ordinances in various cities across the United States.
As such, it came as little surprise that NELK received a one-week ban from YouTube after drawing the ire of the Illinois State University for throwing a massive party with their students — but it doesn’t look like the platform is finished punishing them, just yet.
In an Instagram story on November 12, NELK revealed that their October YouTube views had reached a jaw-dropping 15 million eyeballs over the entire month.
However, in spite of the eye-watering amount of clicks on the video, YouTube seemed to demonetized their channel completely, awarding them only 23 cents.
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Understandably, this sparked backlash among the group, who hashed out their thoughts on the matter by exposing the analytics behind their monthly views.
The screenshot they uploaded of their earnings showed that their videos had been watched for an impressive 156 million minutes, and that they had gained over 91,000 subscribers.
Luckily for NELK, they don’t have to rely on adsense to keep the lights on; the group appears to make most of their dough from their own apparel line, appropriately named “Full Send” after their signature catch phrase.
Given that NELK doesn’t monetize directly from YouTube ads or brand deals, they make most of their revenue from their apparel business called @fullsend.
Full Send is MASSIVE. For context, their April drop had over 275K visitors on the site.pic.twitter.com/77Oy5NusDs
— Blake Robbins (@blakeir) November 13, 2020
According to Ludlow’s Blake Robbins, Full Send’s April merchandise launch drew over 275,000 visitors to their website — a huge success for a content collective struggling to stay afloat amid public outrage and YouTube’s restrictions in wake of their divisive behavior.
