The Sunday Times is one of the most traditional newspapers and for many years has published the Rich List. So, for them to create an Influencer List really adds credibility to influencers, as the mainstream publication verifying the power and influence of influencers. No doubt that the list will help the bloggers to find new advertisers and attract new followers.

If you check out the full list, you’ll notice that the Top 3 are gamers. It might be odd for some of you, but watching other people playing is entertaining, especially for the younger audience. Track some people’s progression, their techniques, listen to their comments — it’s like watching a movie with the director’s commentary. So that watching professional gamers playing is entertaining.

The other angle of the news is that some of the media focused on the controversy of the Top Influencers. And if you’re a brand representative, who is looking for a right influencer for your ads campaign, the controversy can be a bonus or a problem. Let’s say, you build a rock-n-roll, around the ages kind of brand and you focus on a performance. In that case, the controversy might be good for your campaign and you can skip brand safety. But if you dearly care about brand safety, the controversy blogger’s actions may hit the reputation or your loyal customers will turn you down, so be careful with that.