Daniel Middleton

THIS ARTICLE IS NOT COMPLETE. PLEASE EXPAND IT.

Daniel Middleton (born November 8, 1991) is an English personality and professional gamer who goes by the handle The Diamond Minecart or DanTDM. His online video channels have covered video games, especially Minecraft. As of August 2017, he has over 10 billion views and 16 million subscribers. He has been listed as among the top 25 YouTube channels in the United Kingdom. In 2014, Business Insider estimated Middleton's annual income was between $213,000 and $2.15 million. In July 2015, his channel was listed as one of the most popular YouTubers in the world by viewership. He has earned several Kids' Choice Awards as well as set Guinness World Records for his gaming and presenting.

BIOGRAPHY

Middleton was born on 8 November 1991 in Aldershot, England as the elder of two siblings.[8] His parents divorced when he was a child. He attended Northampton University and started a YouTube channel in 2010 dedicated to Pokémon while at university, in which he called himself "PokemanDanLv45".

In 2012, Middleton created The Diamond Minecart, a gaming channel whose audience consists of mostly children ages 5–10. He changed his YouTube channel name to TheDiamondMinecart // DanTDM, and then, on 12 December 2016, to just DanTDM. He produces videos out of his home studio in Wellingborough. In an interview with The Big Issue, Middleton describes his process in making videos: he gets up around 9am and starts working on the video an hour later. He checks for Minecraft updates, edits the videos in the afternoon, and uploads the finished product at 8:30pm, after which, he checks for comments. He said "There isn’t another game where free content comes out every day made by fans, and some of it is mind blowing." On weekends, he prepares videos in advance. In addition to Let's Play videos, he makes mini films that involve original characters.

Middleton has been a regular guest at the Insomnia gaming festivals. He was also featured twice on CBBC's Technobabble, where he commented on several video games, and once on ITV's Lorraine, where he talked about being a YouTuber.

He released a graphic novel called DanTDM: Trayaurus and the Enchanted Crystal on 6 October 2016. The graphic novel features characters from his YouTube shows including: DanTDM and his dog Grim, the scientist Dr. Trayaurus, evil lab boss Denton and sidekick Fin. He was a featured guest at the Cheltenham Literature Festival and went on a book tour that included parts of the UK and a visit to New York City. In 2017, he has gone on another tour to the United States to 21 venues.

His online video channel had focussed primarily on the popular game Minecraft, but as of 2016, he has allocated part of his channel to playing other video games, such as Roblox and Tomodachi Life.