system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
Eli5: How can YouTubers afford to bend, blend and burn expensive electronic devices?
gpt
A good rule of thumb for Youtube is that 1 million views = $1000. If a phone costs $600, then you only need to get 600,000 views to make your money back. 

Many of the drop-test style channels get millions of views, meaning that they make several times that in profit. 

The smart ones will also fix the screen and case themselves ($150 ish), and resell the phone as a used product for another $300 profit. 

I imagine that companies like Apple probably give a number of handsets out for free for the exact purpose of these videos too. Also some of these videos are done using defective/broken phones.