Internet cat has earned £64 million

Many cat owners would describe their pet as priceless - but internet sensation Grumpy Cat has made her owner millions.

Real name Tardar Sauce, the furious-looking feline has inspired two best-selling books and a movie, and has millions of Facebook fans and Twitter and Instagram followers. She shot to fame in 2012 when her owner posted a photo of her on news website Reddit - followed by a YouTube video which got 15.7 million views.

According to her owners, Tabatha and Bryan Bundesen, her scowl is caused by the fact that she suffers from feline dwarfism and has a slightly malformed jaw. "Tardar Sauce visits the vet regularly and she has a clean bill of health," they say.

She also has a very healthy bank balance, now estimated at a whacking £64 million - more than Hollywood stars such as Nicole Kidman and Cameron Diaz or footballers Wayne Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo.

While she makes as much as $42,000 a year in advertising revenue from viewings of the YouTube video, she pulls in even more from spin-offs such as books, calendars and personal appearances.

She recently published her second book: The Grumpy Guide To Life: Observations By Grumpy Cat. Costing £8.99, it's published by Chronicle. The "demotivational guide to everyday life" contains bon mots such as "Frown and the whole world frowns with you" and "It's not whether you win or lose - it's how you refuse to participate."

The Bundsens say her life isn't all glamour, and that most of the time she's a normal pet cat.

"She isn't in front of a camera all of the time like many people perceive," they say.

"We only take photos sets once every week or so and on the few occasions where we have met with the media or licensed partners we ensure the sessions are short and that she isn't handled by many people. Tardar Sauce is a member of the family before anything else!"

Cat food company Friskies keeps tabs on the internet's most influential cats, and says Grumpy Cat isn't the only one to be making millions. But she's currently top of the list, followed by Maru and Lil Bub.


Nobody has ever come up with a convincing explanation as to why the internet is permanently awash with cat pictures. But there are dozens of pets pulling in the punters. Earlier this year, it was revealed that the Brits share more cat pictures than selfies - more than 3.8 million photos a day.

"The most popular Internet cats display human characteristics, mirroring our everyday habits. The Internet cat Hall of Fame features grumpy, affectionate, keyboard playing, surprised, talking and angry cats," says Daniel Fisher, chief operating officer at Viral Spiral, which carried out the research.

"And it's all about making people laugh, with humour winning over cuteness. The vast majority of cat videos online are cute, but the superstars are the ones who are hilarious, make us smile and want to share with our friends and followers."

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