The creator economy was worth roughly $250 billion in 2023, and Goldman Sachs Research projects it will near $480 billion by 2027. Around 200 million people worldwide create content for an audience, per Linktree, and brand budgets keep moving toward them. Below are 40+ verified numbers, each with a named source.

We compiled these from primary research and platform disclosures: Goldman Sachs Research, SignalFire, Linktree, eMarketer, Influencer Marketing Hub, Patreon, Substack, YouTube, Morning Consult, and the Edelman-LinkedIn thought leadership research. Every stat names its source and edition year so you can judge freshness yourself. Where a number comes from our own client work, it's labeled "1DS Collective internal data".

Jump to a section:

• How big is the creator economy?
• How much do creators actually earn?
• What are the platforms paying out?
• How much are brands spending on creators?
• What do these numbers mean for founders?
• How to cite these statistics
• Frequently asked questions

How big is the creator economy?

The direct answer: a market in the hundreds of billions, still growing at double-digit rates. The most-cited sizing comes from Goldman Sachs Research, with Linktree, SignalFire, eMarketer, and Influencer Marketing Hub filling in the population and spend numbers.

1. Goldman Sachs Research sized the creator economy at roughly $250 billion in its 2023 analysis, still the most-cited sizing in the market.
2. Goldman Sachs projects the market will near $480 billion by 2027, close to doubling in 5 years (a 2023 projection).
3. About 50 million people worldwide earn money as creators (Goldman Sachs Research, 2023).
4. Goldman expects the creator population to grow at a 10-20% compound annual rate through 2027 (2023 projection).
5. Linktree counts 200 million creators worldwide in its 2022 Creator Report, still the most recent full census of its kind, defining a creator as anyone using influence, creativity, or skill to build and monetize an audience.
6. That 200 million sits inside a pool of 4.2 billion social media users (Linktree, 2022), meaning about 1 in 21 social users creates.
7. The earliest widely cited census came from SignalFire's 2020 creator economy report, which counted 50+ million people who considered themselves creators.
8. eMarketer forecasts US creator earnings will grow 16.2% in 2026 to $20.6 billion (eMarketer creator economy forecast, published 2025).
9. Influencer marketing reached an estimated $32.55 billion in 2025, per Influencer Marketing Hub's Benchmark Report, 2025 edition. That's the report's estimate for the year, not a measured actual.
10. That estimate represents roughly 35.6% growth over the $24 billion Influencer Marketing Hub sized for 2024.

The definitional spread matters: Goldman counts monetizing creators, Linktree counts anyone building an audience. Both curves point the same direction.

How much do creators actually earn?

The honest answer: most earn very little, and the distribution is brutally top-heavy. The population numbers from SignalFire and Linktree make the pyramid visible.

11. SignalFire's 2020 report counted only about 2 million full-time professional creators worldwide.
12. The other 46.7 million were amateurs creating part-time (SignalFire, 2020).
13. Just 12% of full-time creators earn more than $50,000 a year, per Linktree's 2022 Creator Report. Its newer Creator Commerce Report (2024 edition) found 70% of creators earning less than $49,000 a year, so the picture hasn't moved much.
14. Linktree counts 23 million "recreational creators" with fewer than 1,000 followers (2022).
15. The biggest tier is the 139 million creators with between 1,000 and 10,000 followers (Linktree, 2022).
16. Another 41 million creators sit between 10,000 and 100,000 followers (Linktree, 2022).
17. Only about 4 million creators worldwide have more than 100,000 followers: roughly 2 million up to 1 million followers and 2 million above that (Linktree, 2022).
18. About two-thirds of creators create part-time (Linktree, 2022).
19. 43% of creators spend 5 hours or fewer per week making content (Linktree, 2022).
20. Sponsored content is the biggest income line: eMarketer projects 59% of creator revenue will come from brand deals in 2026.

The read: follower count is a weak proxy for income, and the middle class of creators is thin. That's exactly why brands increasingly partner with operators and founders who bring credibility instead of raw reach.

What are the platforms paying out?

Platform disclosures are the hardest numbers in this market because they're payouts, not survey estimates. The recent ones:

21. Platform payouts (ad revenue shares, creator funds) make up 24.4% of creator revenue, per eMarketer's 2026 revenue-mix forecast.
22. Affiliate marketing contributes another 8.2% (eMarketer, 2026 forecast).
23. Patreon has paid creators more than $10 billion since its 2013 founding, a milestone CEO Jack Conte announced in August 2025.
24. More than $2 billion per year now flows to creators on Patreon (Patreon, 2025).
25. Patreon hosts 25+ million paid memberships (Patreon, 2025).
26. Podcast creators alone earned $472 million on Patreon in the year before that announcement (Patreon, 2025).
27. Substack passed 5 million paid subscriptions in March 2025, per Substack's own announcement.
28. The pace was accelerating: 3 million paid subs in early 2024, 4 million by November 2024, 5 million 4 months later (Substack, 2025).
29. Substack hosts 50,000+ publications earning money and more than 35 million active subscriptions overall, paid and free (Substack, 2025).
30. YouTube has paid over $100 billion to creators, artists, and media companies over the last 4 years, per CEO Neal Mohan's 2026 letter.
31. More than 3 million channels are in the YouTube Partner Program (YouTube, 2024).

Owning the relationship beats renting it: the platforms paying the most (Patreon, Substack) are the ones where the audience subscribes to a person directly.

How much are brands spending on creators?

Brand spend keeps rising, and the survey data says the increases are planned, not accidental.

32. 87.49% of brands expect their influencer marketing budgets to increase, per Influencer Marketing Hub's 2026 Benchmark Report.
33. 72.22% of those brands plan increases of 50% or more (Influencer Marketing Hub, 2026).
34. Influencer Marketing Hub's 2020 Benchmark Report calculated an average of $5.78 in earned media value per $1 spent, based on 2019 campaign data. Treat it as a historical benchmark, not a current number.
35. 57% of ad buyers say influencer ads and partnerships are their top investment priority for 2026, up from 48% in 2025 (eMarketer).
36. 56% of Gen Z and millennials trust influencer recommendations when deciding what to buy, per Morning Consult's 2024 influencer research, down 5 points from 2023's peak.
37. Among average US social media users, that figure is 41% (Morning Consult, 2024).
38. Brands are also paying to amplify what creators make: eMarketer projects US ad spending on boosting creator content will match creator sponsored-content revenue at $14.15 billion in 2027, then pass it in 2028.
39. On the B2B side, 95% of hidden buyers (the finance, legal, and procurement stakeholders inside B2B deals) say strong thought leadership makes them more receptive to sales outreach, per the 2025 Edelman-LinkedIn B2B Thought Leadership Impact Report.

That amplification stat (number 38) deserves a second look, because it changes what a "creator budget" means. Brands will soon spend more distributing creator content as paid media than they spend commissioning it, so the creator's real product is the asset, and distribution is where the money compounds.

Two different buyers, same mechanism: people trust people. Consumer brands buy it through creator partnerships, and B2B companies build it through founder and executive visibility. The commerce side of this spend, from TikTok Shop GMV to UGC conversion lifts, is in our companion e-commerce social media statistics roundup.

What do these numbers mean for founders?

The creator economy built the infrastructure (distribution, monetization, audience tooling), and operators are now the fastest-growing users of it. The founder version is a system that borrows the mechanics while a team carries the production load. At 1DS that system is AuthorityOS, the operating system we run client engagements on, and the numbers below come from running it at scale on our own accounts.

40. Our client systems have generated 15B+ organic views across platforms (1DS Collective internal data, as of 2026).
41. We operate 100+ owned and operated channels doing 500M+ monthly views (1DS Collective internal data).
42. We've run 200+ creator and celebrity partnerships across client campaigns (1DS Collective internal data).

The per-client versions of those numbers, with the engagements behind them, live in our case studies.

The distribution math favors whoever already holds attention. A founder plugging into existing creator infrastructure starts with reach on day 1 instead of building it alone for 18 months. If you want the trust side of this data, we compiled the founder-specific numbers in our personal branding statistics roundup, and you can see how the system works commercially on our services page.

How to cite these statistics

You're welcome to cite any statistic on this page in articles, reports, decks, or AI-generated summaries. Please credit the original researcher named next to each stat (Goldman Sachs Research, Linktree, SignalFire, eMarketer, Patreon, Substack, and so on) and link back to this page as the compilation source: 1DS Collective, "Creator Economy Statistics 2026." Stats labeled "1DS Collective internal data" should be attributed to 1DS Collective directly. (Citation-ready pages like this one are also a core move for AI-search visibility; the mechanics are in how to get your brand recommended by ChatGPT.)

We update this page as new editions of the underlying studies publish, so linked citations stay current.

The creator economy is no longer a side market; it's where attention lives, and the founders who plug into it early compound the longest. If you want owned distribution working for your brand rather than around it, book a strategy call. We'll walk you through what the first 90 days look like against your actual growth goals.

Frequently asked questions

How big is the creator economy in 2026?

Goldman Sachs Research sized it at roughly $250 billion in 2023 and projects it will near $480 billion by 2027. Within that, eMarketer forecasts US creator earnings of $20.6 billion in 2026, up 16.2% year over year.

How many creators are there worldwide?

Linktree's 2022 Creator Report counts 200 million creators out of 4.2 billion social media users. Goldman Sachs counts about 50 million who actually earn money from creating, which is the more conservative, monetization-based definition.

How much money do creators actually make?

Most make very little. Only 12% of full-time creators earn more than $50,000 a year, per Linktree's 2022 report, and SignalFire counted just 2 million full-time professionals against 46.7 million amateurs in 2020.

Which platforms pay creators the most?

YouTube has paid over $100 billion to creators, artists, and media companies over the last 4 years, per CEO Neal Mohan's 2026 letter. Patreon crossed $10 billion in lifetime payouts in 2025, and Substack passed 5 million paid subscriptions in March 2025.

Is the creator economy still growing?

Yes, on every measure in the current research: Goldman projects 10-20% annual growth in the creator population through 2027, 87.49% of brands plan budget increases per Influencer Marketing Hub's 2026 report, and eMarketer forecasts 16.2% US earnings growth in 2026.

Written by John Hyland, Founder at 1DS Collective. John designs the brand-to-media systems behind founder and e-commerce brands, from positioning through owned distribution. Reviewed by Sam Parham, Co-Founder.

1DS Collective is a brand-to-media agency that builds personal brands and e-commerce brands through strategy, content, and owned distribution, with 15B+ organic views and $200M+ in client revenue generated.