YouTube’s top trending content at the moment isn’t an advertisement, music video, or movie trailer. It is not a viral challenge video, nor is it something about Fortnite. Instead, it’s a shockingly raw breakup video featuring two of YouTube’s biggest comedy vloggers, Liza Koshy and David Dobrik. 
 
 Liza Koshy, 22, is best known for going to stores and causing improvisational mischief, often featuring random items that anyone can buy. David Dobrik, 21, has also made a name for himself through funny vlogs, many of which feature his relationship with Koshy. Combined, the two have over 21 million subscribers, making them one of the most visible power couples on the platform. Except that the two broke up six months ago, according to a video uploaded yesterday. 
 
 The split may come as a surprise to some fans, given that the two have been uploading videos with each other this entire time. Just two weeks ago, Dobrik shared footage of him surprising Koshy with a puppy, and before that, there was another video in which he brings her a monkey. But according to the pair, the two had grown apart enough that staying in a relationship just didn’t make sense anymore: they were leading separate lives. 
 
 ”Liza broke up with me because she felt like we’ve been kinda distant, because we’ve just been so busy, period,” Dobrik said. 
 
 The video’s popularity is not entirely thanks to the viewers who normally follow the everyday minutia of their favorite YouTubers. It’s gone viral because of how obvious it is that the two deeply care for one another. They joke around, they crack up, they cry. They sing each other’s praises and talk about how they’re still best friends. They make jabs about future boyfriends and girlfriends. When Koshy says that she is going through something and that she needs to love herself before she can love someone else, she knows it’s cliché — so you believe her. It helps that she pokes fun at herself. “This is gonna sound so lame, but I really want to spread love but I have to have it first, you know?,” Koshy says, laughing. “It’s like saying you’re gonna spread mayonnaise when you only have mustard.” 
 
 Where before partners might consider joining their banking accounts, lovers in 2018 have to think about what it means to merge their brands 
 
 At this point, breakups are their own genre of video on YouTube, and plenty of couples have announced a separation in front of the camera. Where before partners might consider joining things like banking accounts or bills, lovers in 2018 have to think about what it means to merge your brand with someone else’s. You don’t have to be a big YouTube star to think about when you make a relationship Instagram official, how much a partner should be mentioned on your social media feeds, or even what labels you publicly use for one another. To what degree should you own your relationship online? How will that relationship define you in the eyes of others on the internet? Even a simple tagged photo carries a much bigger meaning for some of us. You don’t want to give people the wrong idea about where things stand with certain people — or maybe you do want to send a very specific message out there. 
 
 While most of us can simply stop tagging an ex on our social media accounts, YouTubers with channels revolving around their lives don’t have that luxury. Their entire livelihoods could be at risk if they disappoint or upset the audience following them. As ridiculous as it might sound, there’s a real need for disclosure regarding where they stand with those regularly featured in their videos. If nothing else, airing everything out this publicly is a preventative measure that could minimize the chance that either person will get harassed by fans who believe one person ought to be blamed for the breakup. 
 
 Koshy and Dobrik know they’re operating within this strange space. They waited a long time to tell YouTube fans because they were both angry that they grew apart in the first place. And while we all know that what influencers show us is just a well-edited sliver of a much bigger picture, there’s a subtext of realness here. Koshy jokes that she could have wiped away her tears and fix up her appearance, but that wouldn’t be authentic. You believe her. More than that: you can’t help but watch and think, Man, I wish I had had a breakup as healthy as this one. ||||| Image copyright David Dobrik / YouTube 
 
 YouTube couple David Dobrik and Liza Koshy have announced their separation in an emotional video online. 
 
 The pair had dated since 2015 and built a combined audience of more than 20 million Youtube followers. 
 
 The say in their video they split six months ago but waited until this week to tell their fans. 
 
 "It wasn't healthy for us to continue to be together - for now," says David in the six minute video. 
 
 "You never know what could happen, but just not now." 
 
 They both admitted the pressure of their YouTube careers had been a factor in their split. 
 
 (Warning: contains language some viewers may find offensive) 
 
 "Liza broke up with me because she felt like we've been distant because we've been so busy," David added. 
 
 "As much as I hate to admit it, I was feeling it on my side too but I just don't have the balls to pull the trigger on that." 
 
 "We felt like we were living separate lives but neither of us was coming to terms with it," said Liza. 
 
 "So I decided we should break up. We didn't want to tell anybody because we were just so angry at the fact we distanced in the first place." 
 
 "We did nothing to each other to cause a break up. 
 
 "We have a lot of growth and development and learning and loving to do." 
 
 The American couple both insist they are best friends and that their break-up is amicable. 
 
 Could the split impact their career? 
 
 David and Liza have been described as the Posh and Becks of YouTube. But Tassilo Labuzinski, the founder of branding company Socially Powerful, says their separation should have little impact on their individual status or future earnings. 
 
 "I don't see the break-up being a negative thing for either of them," Tassilo tells Newsbeat. "I think it's oversimplified to say they are the Posh and Becks of the internet and they only come as a package." 
 
 He also believes fans of the pair's "tongue in cheek, quick and witty" content would be understanding if they got back together. 
 
 "The couple are free to take it any way they want," he adds. "They could make another video and say; 'Look, we've actually decided we love each other too much and we want to be together,' and that's going to get more attention. 
 
 "I don't think there's going to be a negative backlash on them in any form." 
 
 In early 2018, Newsbeat made a documentary about the pressures on YouTube couples to stay together. 
 
 Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Ben delves into the world of online couples for the latest Newsbeat Documentary, YouTube couples: How to stay in love 
 
 Many fans of David and Liza have reacted with shock and upset to the news. 
 
 Others have praised the message shared by the couple in their break-up video. 
 
 And some are holding out hope that their split will be temporary. 
 
 Follow Newsbeat on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. 
 
 Listen to Newsbeat live at 12:45 and 17:45 every weekday on BBC Radio 1 and 1Xtra - if you miss us you can listen back here. ||||| Image copyright Met Police Image caption Security footage shows the panic caused by a prank at London's National Portrait Gallery 
 
 Fake bombs, staged murders, stunts that resemble acid attacks - as competition for eyeballs on YouTube gets fiercer every day, popular vloggers are resorting to extreme pranks to get clicks. 
 
 Arya Mosallah's video channel had more than 650,000 subscribers. But his YouTube career came skidding to a halt with a video titled "Throwing Water On Peoples Faces PT. 2". In it, he approaches several people, and after a brief conversation, throws a cup of water in their faces. 
 
 Many viewers thought the prank in the video looked like an attempt by the British social media star to mimic an acid attack - amid a recent increase in such crimes in London and across the UK. 
 
 Skip Twitter post by @ReshKhan_ I cannot believe this is where we are at. To have a life that lacks to such a degree that for YouTube views you’d put someone through the panic and dread of an acid attack. How do you think? Immature and disgusting, childish and pathetic, sad and unfortunately all too real. https://t.co/UcIZCEy7rf — Resh (@ReshKhan_) January 29, 2018 Report 
 
 YouTube deleted Mosallah's channel - and then a second channel he set up. He told the BBC he had not meant to reference acid attacks - but that he would continue to produce prank videos. 
 
 Image copyright YouTube Image caption This notice on Ayra Mosallah's YouTube page explains why the video sharing site took down his channel. 
 
 But Arya Mosallah is certainly not the first YouTuber to get into trouble for prank videos. His story, along with the controversy over hugely popular Youtuber Logan Paul joking about a suicide victim to his young audience, have called attention to extreme content on YouTube. 
 
 But although it appears to be on the rise - and is getting more coverage from news outlets - extreme pranking is not an entirely new phenomenon. For some time, vloggers have been faking bomb attacks and murders, tricking and frightening friends and members of the public in an attempt to up their view counts. 
 
 Visit BBC Trending on Facebook 
 
 Image copyright YouTube/ItzArya Image caption Arya Mosallah says his stunt wasn't intended to appear like a real acid attack 
 
 Extreme prank history 
 
 In 2016, four people involved in the YouTube channel Trollstation were jailed for staging a fake robbery at London's National Portrait Gallery. They pleaded guilty to "threatening behaviour causing fear of unlawful violence." 
 
 The previous year, British YouTuber Sam Pepper uploaded a video in which he pretended to kill another internet celebrity in front of an unsuspecting friend. 
 
 There was a huge backlash and Pepper later claimed the video had been staged, and that the apparently traumatised friend had been in on the stunt all along. 
 
 Perhaps the grandfather of extreme pranking is Vitaly Zdorovetskiy, whose YouTube channel gained notoriety in 2012 after he pretended to put a briefcase containing a bomb next to a stranger. 
 
 He was arrested for that and several other subsequent pranks and stunts. But YouTubers including Arya Mosallah, have been filming variations of his bomb prank ever since. 
 
 Speaking to Trending in 2015, Zdorovetskiy admitted pushing the boundaries of acceptable behaviour. He also seemed unclear about exactly where he would draw the line. 
 
 "I'm not going to take a gun on somebody point it and say 'Give me your money, it's a prank.' I would not do anything illegal - maybe just a little bit." 
 
 Logan Paul isn't primarily known as a pranker, but has done similar stunts. In one video he faked his own violent death in front of a crowd of fans. 
 
 Image copyright Jesse Grant Image caption YouTuber Logan Paul 
 
 On Friday, YouTube suspended advertising on his channel. In a statement the company said that Paul had exhibited "a pattern of behaviour in his videos that makes his channel not only unsuitable for advertisers, but also potentially damaging to the broader creator community." 
 
 You might also be interested in 
 
 The question of whether the pranks are unleashed on unsuspecting members of the public or are instead sprung on actors or friends of the YouTube stars is a crucial one. Mosallah refused to comment to BBC Trending about whether his pranks were unleashed on random strangers. But he hinted that they may have been staged. 
 
 Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Arya Mosallah: "The media kind of demonised me." 
 
 "What if what if the videos were staged - do I deserve to get my channel taken down?" he said. "What if it was a little short film -what if all this wasn't real?" 
 
 'Moment of shock' 
 
 Trending asked Judi James, a body language and behavioural expert, to examine the water-throwing video, and she said the clips "look as though they've been staged" 
 
 "There's usually the moment of shock… but in this case (the victims) almost straight away start running after him. One guy even leaves a large bag on a park bench which is probably counter-intuitive. 
 
 "I'm guessing they're not all what they seem to be although some of them might be," she says. 
 
 Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Behind the scenes with Trollstation 
 
 As YouTube becomes increasingly saturated with young people trying to make their name in on a rapidly developing platform, some have turned to extreme ways to get attention, rack up clicks, and - under YouTube's advertising-reliant model - get paid. Extreme pranks are one way to cut through the noise. 
 
 "It's probably the most sadistic form of comedy," James says. "Every day we get bombarded with more and more graphic films of cars crashing, terrible events taking place, and even people dying. Once you start to break the barriers and look at those then the idea of seeing comedy that is actually quite sadistic becomes even more appealing." 
 
 "A lot of it is schadenfreude - it's a bit like bullying at school, you're almost laughing tinged with a relief that 'it's not me.'" 
 
 Hear more 
 
 "The other thing to think about is the fact that the pranksters themselves can actually suffer from doing the pranks," James says. "Longer term. empathy has a way of catching up with us. Either you have no empathy at all which is quite unusual, or you are often going to get flashbacks about all those people you have upset." 
 
 That seemed to be the case for at least one of the Trollstation prankers, Daniel Jarvis, who spoke to Stephen Nolan on BBC Radio 5live. 
 
 "I disliked it," Jarvis said of the National Portrait Gallery robbery prank which landed him in jail. "It weren't a nice feeling when I seen all these people scared… that's not what I'm about." 
 
 Do you have a story about the world of social media? Email Trending. 
 
 More from Trending: The anti-immigration politician... who's an immigrant 
 
 Hanif Bali is a controversial figure in Swedish politics. Among other things - he wants to stop all asylum seekers from entering the country. He's also an immigrant. WATCH NOW 
 
 You can follow BBC Trending on Twitter @BBCtrending, and find us on Facebook. All our stories are at bbc.com/trending. ||||| B 
 
 rand partnerships, a clothing line, millions of fans: What was once solely the province of superstar athletes and Hollywood A-listers now includes “Markiplier,” one of the world’s highest-earning YouTubers, who hauled in $17.5 million over our 12-month scoring period. 
 
 The Hawaii native (real name Mark Fischbach) launched his YouTube channel in 2012 when he was a biomedical-engineering student at the University of Cincinnati. He was going through tough times: He’d broken up with his girlfriend, been laid off from his desk job and had an adrenal-gland tumor removed that surgeons found when they went to take out his appendix. 
 
 Markiplier, real name Mark Fischbach, sits around playing video games most days—but he's not bumming around. The gamer made $17.5 million last year, touring North America, signing lucrative brand deals and launching a merch line. Ethan Pines 
 
 “A whole bunch of things happened that made me feel like I didn’t have any control in my life, so I had to do something,” says Fischbach, 29, who now lives in Los Angeles. At first he recorded audio snippets as practice for a potential career in voice acting, but he soon found an audience through clips in which he played video games while providing wry running commentary. 
 
 Don’t think watching someone play PS4 sounds like fun? Markiplier’s 22.4 million YouTube subscribers, with their 10 billion video views of his work, beg to differ. Indeed, Fischbach is one of five gamers on this year’s list. The top 10 YouTube stars earned an aggregate $180.5 million this past year, up 42% from 2017. It pays to play: Compared with other common YouTube categories, such as scripted comedy or elaborate pranks, gaming clips can be produced and edited quickly; some gamers post new footage daily. More posts mean more viewers, naturally—and more ad dollars. (The going rate for top online talent, Forbes estimates, is about $5 per thousand views.) 
 
 It helps, too, that the same young viewers who eschew television in favor of YouTube are bonkers for video games. “Ten to 15 years ago, gaming wasn’t cool. You didn’t game because it was cool, you gamed because you loved it,” says David Huntzinger, a digital-talent agent at WME. “Now you have Drake going on Twitch and playing Fortnite, and [professional] athletes in the locker room saying they can’t stop playing Xbox—it’s what these kids are living and breathing.” 
 
 Like any good mogul, Fischbach is diversifying: In October, he cofounded an athleisure line, Cloak, with fellow list member Seán McLoughlin, better known as “Jacksepticeye” (No. 8, $16 million). The workout line includes $85 sweaters and $35 T-shirts. Even if they intend to exercise nothing more than their thumbs, fans have snapped the gear up: The presale items sold out in 48 hours. 
 
 Merchandise has become an increasingly important revenue stream for these top digital stars, almost all of whom (No. 1 being a notable exception) are in their 20s and 30s. Each of the 10 on our list now has a line of merchandise, whose blossoming sales help account for that 42% income increase from a year ago. “I’ve built this huge community, and we’ve made a lot of people laugh,” says Fischbach, who sees Cloak as the first step toward an empire built on assets more tangible than video uploads. For now, though, all those gaming clips serve as a force multiplier for the man known as Markiplier. Like any savvy businessman, he’s thinking ahead. “I’m not going to be able to make videos on YouTube forever,” he says. “I need to plan for the future.” 
 
 The 10 Top-Earning YouTube Stars 
 
 #10: Logan Paul 
 
 2018 Earnings: $14.5 million 
 
 In January 2018, the 23-year-old elder Paul brother was kicked off YouTube’s Google Preferred program, which gives favorable ad rates to popular channels, after he filmed a video in Japan that showed an apparent suicide hanging from a tree. He apologized. His income from videos (pratfalls, pranks) and brand deals took a hit, but loyal fans kept his hefty merchandise business afloat. 
 
 #9: PewDiePie 
 
 2018 Earnings: $15.5 million 
 
 Scandal hasn’t stopped Felix Kjellberg, the Swedish gamer who is the most followed YouTuber (72.5 million followers). Despite a backlash last year after a rash of anti-Semitic videos, advertisers have returned, shelling out up to $450,000 for a sponsored video. 
 
 #8: Jacksepticeye 
 
 2018 Earnings: $16 million 
 
 Foulmouthed, energetic Seán McLoughlin is the most popular YouTuber in Ireland thanks to his colorful video-game commentary. A few bad words haven’t kept him from going mainstream: He did a series for Disney and is developing exclusive content for live-streaming platform Twitch. 
 
 #7: Vanoss Gaming 
 
 2018 Earnings: $17 million 
 
 Witty Canadian gamer Evan Fong plays mainstream titles like Call of Duty and Assassin’s Creed. On the side he’s launching a hip-hop career, but music (so far) isn’t proving nearly as lucrative as the subtle art of being a couch potato in demand. 
 
 
 
 
 
 #6: Markiplier 
 
 2018 Earnings: $17.5 million 
 
 Hawaii-native Markiplier is on his PS4 nearly all day everyday—but he’s not bumming around. The gamer toured North America, signed seven-figures worth of brand deals and, with No. 8 Jacksepticeye, recently launched Cloak, a high-end athleisure line for gamers. 
 
 #5: Jeffree Star 
 
 2018 Earnings: $18 million 
 
 The makeup artist, famous since the Myspace era, has reinvented himself as a beauty mogul, cofounding Jeffree Star Cosmetics, which sells an estimated $100 million–plus of eye shadow, lipstick and highlighters annually. 
 
 #4: DanTDM 
 
 2018 Earnings: $18.5 million 
 
 Last year’s top earner at $16.5 million—Daniel Middleton, a British gamer who specializes in Minecraft—has been playing on-camera for six years, amassing a following of 20.7 million, who shell out for his tour and merchandise, which includes backpacks, baseball caps and hoodies. 
 
 
 
 
 
 #3: Dude Perfect 
 
 2018 Earnings: $20 million 
 
 This five-man sports crew (Coby and Cory Cotton, Garrett Hilbert, Cody Jones and Tyler Toney) specializes in feats of dexterity and intricate trick shots— say, hurling Ping-Pong balls that trigger domino-falls of Oreos, which garnered 175 million views). 
 
 #2: Jake Paul 
 
 2018 Earnings: $21.5 million 
 
 The boisterous younger brother of disgraced Logan (No. 10) earned a career-best income from his thriving merchandise business. He attracted more than 3.5 billion views of his rap songs and goofy pranks over our scoring period. 
 
 #1: Ryan ToysReview 
 
 2018 Earnings: $22 million 
 
 Ryan’s just like every other 7-year-old: He loves Legos, trains, cars—and his 17 million followers. His latest mini-mogul move: a line of collectibles and more, now selling at Walmart. 
 
 METHODOLOGY: All earnings estimates are from June 1, 2017, through June 1, 2018. Figures are pretax; fees for agents, managers and lawyers are not deducted. Earnings estimates are based on data from Captiv8, SocialBlade and Pollstar, as well as interviews with industry insiders. 
 
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 How YouTube Star Logan Paul Made $14.5 Million Amid Scandal 
 
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– It's 2018, which means that when a 21-year-old and a 22-year-old who have become YouTube stars together break up, they don't—they can't—do so privately. And that's how a six-minute video in which popular comedy vloggers David Dobrik and Liza Koshy tearfully discuss their split became, on Wednesday, the top trending content on YouTube. As the Verge (which calls Koshy and Dobrik "one of the most visible power couples on the platform") explains for those unfamiliar, Koshy rocketed to YouTube stardom thanks to prank videos often filmed at stores, while Dobrik's popular video blogs often featured him and Koshy goofing around. Thanks to the intensely public nature of their relationship, it was necessary to come clean to fans about their breakup, which happened six months ago but about which they didn't feel ready to vlog until now. They had been together since 2015 and have a combined 20+ million YouTube followers, the BBC reports. Their breakup video, appropriately titled "we broke up," has received more than 22 million views so far. The coverage is fascinating: