these articles always use very inflated statistics. i know some youtube creators that have many many followers and their earnings(per million views) are no where in line with what these articles claim the top is making.
This trend will definitely continue. These YouTube stars are "organic" celebrities that emerge from the fan base upwards. This is opposed to traditional "top-down" celebrities who get their exposure from high level decisions in the entertainment power structure. Traditional celebrities have larger fan communities but the organic ones have much more tightly knit and loyal ones, and marketers know they have a much higher dollar value.
Our two highest earning channels were under 5k subscribers within the past 24 months, people come out of the woodwork all the time.