In March 2025, a Nigerian romantic drama stirred up a storm online. Love in Every Word, a film where a lavish businessman orchestrates several elaborate stunts to win over an advertising exec, became a viral hit almost overnight. Social media was filled with hot takes, memes, and playful wish lists of the ideal odogwu — the Igbo term for a man of wealth and influence and achalugo — the quintessential damsel.
Though some viewers questioned the plot, the film’s emotion and melodrama struck a chord. Within 24 hours of its release on YouTube, it racked up over a million views. By day three, that number had ballooned to five million. Director Omoni Oboli was understandably delighted.
In recent years, as Netflix and Prime Video rethink their position on Africa, Nigerian filmmakers are increasingly turning to YouTube for autonomy and distribution. And the strategy is working. With lower overheads, fewer gatekeepers, and immediate access to a global audience, YouTube is an open, direct-to-audience platform that doesn’t only offer visibility; it pays big!
In fact, many of the most-viewed Nigerian films on YouTube have made tens of millions of naira from ad revenue alone. Using conservative CPM estimates and YouTube’s ad placement system, we calculated just how much money these top 10 titles have generated.
Here’s how the business of film distribution on YouTube really works.
How Nigerian Movies Make Money on YouTube
Contrary to what some may think, uploading a film to YouTube isn’t just about chasing visibility, it’s also a business decision. Through the YouTube Partner Program, creators earn a share of the ad revenue generated when viewers watch their videos. The amount earned depends largely on three things:
- The CPM (Cost Per Mille): This is how much advertisers are willing to pay per 1,000 views on a video that shows ads. For Nigerian-based creators, this ranges from $0.50 to $2.50 per 1,000 views, roughly ₦773 to ₦3,866. In contrast, creators in countries like the United States can earn significantly more, anywhere from $4 to $15 CPM, and even higher for niche content like finance or tech. That means a U.S. creator could earn up to 6× more than their Nigerian counterpart for the same number of views. This gap is mostly due to differences in advertising markets: U.S. brands pay more to reach audiences, while advertisers in Nigeria and similar markets often have smaller budgets and lower bidding rates.
- Ad placements per video: YouTube automatically inserts ads into longer videos, and creators can also manually place mid-roll ads. For full-length Nollywood movies, which often run over an hour, the average is 6 ad placements per hour. Total number of views: This is the biggest multiplier. A film with millions of views and multiple ads can rack up a significant amount of earnings very quickly.
Our Methodology
Calculating what a film might earn is simple Maths. Multiply the average earnings per ad (₦1,580 or $1 as a conservative baseline) by the number of ads in the film, and then by the number of 1,000-view blocks the video has received.
Here’s the formula we used:
₦1,580 × number of ads × (total views ÷ 1,000)
Using this, we crunched the numbers for the ten most-viewed Nigerian films on YouTube. The results will surprise you.
The Top 10 Nigerian Movies on YouTube and How Much They’ve Made
Using the formula above, we analyzed ten of the most popular Nollywood films currently dominating YouTube. All ten titles boast millions of views and together, they’ve earned well over ₦1,113,828,000 or $704,954 in ad revenue, using just the mid average CPM (₦1,580 or $1).
Here’s what each movie has likely made so far:
| Rank | Movie Title | Views (Millions) | Estimated Earnings (₦) | Estimated Earnings ($) |
| 1 | Love in Every Word | 25 | ₦237,000,000 | $150,000 |
| 2 | Treasure in the Sky | 25 | ₦237,000,000 | $150,000 |
| 3 | Unexpected Places | 14 | ₦132,720,000 | $84,000 |
| 4 | Last Straw | 12 | ₦113,760,000 | $72,000 |
| 5 | The Homecoming | 9.7 | ₦91,980,000 | $58,200 |
| 6 | Broken Hallelujah | 9.3 | ₦88,164,000 | $55,800 |
| 7 | Fame and Fury | 8.1 | ₦76,644,000 | $48,500 |
| 8 | Love or Money | 6.4 | ₦60,672,000 | $38,400 |
| 9 | A Night with Mr. Daniels | 4.2 | ₦39,816,000 | $25,200 |
| 10 | Shining Star | 3.8 | ₦36,072,000 | $22,800 |
Love in Every Word and Treasure in the Sky lead the list at ₦237 million each from 25 million views apiece. Mid-tier titles like Unexpected Places and Last Straw earned over ₦132 million and ₦113 million respectively, while The Homecoming and Broken Hallelujah followed closely behind with earnings in the ₦90 million range. Even lower-viewed films like A Night with Mr. Daniels (4.2M views) and Shining Star (3.8M views) managed to rake in nearly ₦40 million and ₦36 million respectively, highlighting just how financially rewarding YouTube has become for Nollywood filmmakers.
With strategic ad placements, consistent storytelling, and a global fanbase hungry for Nollywood content, creators are earning hundreds of millions of naira from a single upload. Films like Love in Every Word and Treasure in the Sky show that you don’t need a cinema release to cash out; all you need is a camera, a story, and an internet connection. As more filmmakers bypass traditional gatekeepers in favor of digital freedom, one thing is clear: the future of Nigerian cinema isn’t just on big screens, it’s in browsers, on phones, and streaming 24/7. The YouTube gold rush is on, and Nollywood is leading the charge.
