Industry research
Creator Economy
Scope
US
Companies
68
Key takeaways
What is the scope of this industry report?
The US creator economy industry comprises companies that produce original audio-visual content for online audiences, alongside platforms and service providers that support creators in distributing, monetizing and commercializing this content. Herein, content creators span entertainment, sports, gaming, food, lifestyle, education and children's content. Within this landscape, creator-led companies (e.g. Beast Industries) have scaled the personal brands of individual creators or creator groups into media businesses, while social-native media companies (e.g. ZATV) develop or acquire portfolios of branded channels and shows independent of any single personality. These creators monetize their content primarily through social media platforms (e.g. YouTube, owned by Alphabet; US), supplemented by alternative video platforms (e.g. Rumble), social commerce platforms (e.g. Whatnot), membership and fan engagement platforms (e.g. Patreon), creator storefronts (e.g. Stan) and affiliate commerce platforms (e.g. ShopMy). Brand–creator marketing service providers support this ecosystem by facilitating commercial relationships between brands and creators. They do this in three main ways: helping brands discover, vet and measure creators (e.g. CreatorIQ), planning and running campaigns on brands' behalf (e.g. Open Influence) and representing creators commercially (e.g. Night).
As such, we have segmented the US creator economy market into:
Creator businesses,
Creator monetization platforms,
Brand–creator marketing services.
What does the creator economy landscape look like in the US?
The US creator economy market has a three-tier structure, characterized by a highly fragmented creator base, a monetization infrastructure segment led by scaled social media platforms and a fragmented but consolidating layer of brand–creator marketing services. M&A activity has accelerated across the market, with ~70 transactions completed in H1 2026 (+23% YoY), putting full-year activity on pace to exceed 100 deals, while media properties accounted for ~27% of transactions, overtaking software at ~24% as buyers increasingly targeted creator-led content and audiences. Large strategic buyers have also participated in the market, with eBay closing its ~$1.2bn acquisition of Depop, Netflix acquiring InterPositive for ~$587m and Accenture Song acquiring Whalar for ~$500m (NetInfluencer, July 2026).
Within this structure, the global creator base comprises ~67m individuals identifying as creators in 2025 (+34% from 2022; Goldman Sachs, March 2025).
Despite the size of the creator base, earnings remain highly concentrated, with the top 3% of content creators on YouTube capturing ~90% of net creator earnings in 2025, while the top 1% and top 10% of creators captured 21% (vs. 15% in 2023) and 62% (vs. 53% in 2023) of total brand payment volume, respectively (SocialDay, July 2026; NetInfluencer, April 2025).
Additionally, audience reach is concentrated among a select group of scaled creators, with Beast Industries (MrBeast channel) leading among US-owned channels at ~518m YouTube subscribers, followed by Cocomelon (owned by Candle Media; US) with ~203m subscribers (Communitrics, September 2026).
Creators distribute content primarily through social media platforms and monetize largely through advertising, with YouTube paying creators ~55% of ad revenue from long-form videos and ~45% from Shorts (YouTube, February 2025).
Shorts now average ~200bn daily views globally, underscoring the scale of short-form content as a discovery engine for creators (OpusClip, February 2026; YouTube, January 2026).
Competition among scaled creators extends beyond social media platforms to OTT and production studio partnerships for big-budget productions, which provide additional revenue through content licensing and production deals.
For example, Dhar Mann Studios secured a 20-episode series order from Disney, following a pact with Fox Entertainment for an initial slate of 40 narrative videos (Deadline, August 2026).
Similarly, Beast Industries partnered with Amazon Prime Video to create and host a reality competition series, Beast Games, while Ms Rachel launched a Netflix series featuring curated compilations of her YouTube videos, which Netflix renewed for a second season (Realscreen, March 2024; Deadline, August 2025).
In response to this cross-platform expansion, YouTube has sought to lock in talent through multimillion-dollar exclusivity payments and has penalized those who sign Netflix deals by restricting their marketing opportunities and share of platform-brokered brand deals (Tubefilter, August 2026). This escalating competition for top-tier creators strengthens creators' bargaining position, translating into higher payments and more favorable deal terms (Communicate Online, September 2026).
Beyond third-party platforms, some creators diversify their distribution through owned platforms, which reduce reliance on third-party algorithms and policies while adding subscription-based revenue. To illustrate, Critical Role launched Beacon, a subscription service, to bring more of its business in-house amid platform volatility and frequent content demonetization (Tubefilter, May 2024).
Creators also diversify their distribution and revenue base through product lines, consumer brands and other businesses that extend their audience relationships beyond content distribution, using their audience reach as a near-zero-cost customer-acquisition channel and expanding beyond pure media models.
For example, Ms Rachel expanded her Spin Master toy line to >10 products, Beast Industries built Feastables into a standalone consumer brand and Babish Culinary Universe launched a short-term rental compound for traveling foodies (Adweek, July 2026; The Toy Book, July 2025; Fortune, March 2025).
The economics of this model are evident at Beast Industries, where Feastables generated ~$225m of revenue and ~$20m of profit in 2024, while video operations generated similar revenue but lost >$110m, with the broader group having accumulated ~$500m in losses over the past 5 years and expected to turn profitable in 2026 (Everything-PR, August 2026).
What does the creator economy market landscape look like in the US?
Sponsor-led interest has been significant, with ~54% of identified assets being investor-backed (September 2026).
Funding into content creation and creator platforms peaked at ~$3.6bn in 2021, declined to ~$2.3bn in 2022 and ~$950m in 2023, then increased to ~$1.5bn in 2024, outpacing overall US startup funding growth (Net Influencer, April 2025).
Recent funding activity includes Beast Industries, which closed a $300m Series C in 2024 led by Alpha Wave at a valuation of ~$5bn, followed by a further $200m investment from Bitmine Immersion Technologies in 2026 (Fortune, March 2025; CNBC, January 2026).
Dedicated investment vehicles also entered the market, with Creative Artists Agency (CAA) and TPG's Integrated Media Company forming Compound Creative Holdings, a $250m holding company focused on the acquisition, operation and growth of creator economy businesses (Variety, June 2026).
Herein, interest mainly stems from:
Growing audience engagement and content discovery on social platforms, which strengthens the position of creators in shaping entertainment consumption,
Rapid adoption of generative AI, which streamlines content creation, expands audience reach through translation and dubbing and enhances brand-creator partnership management and measurement,
Continued migration of US viewing time from cable and broadcast TV toward creator platforms, which redirects advertising budgets toward digital video and creator inventory.
Deterring factors for investment include:
Stricter FTC enforcement on endorsements and reviews, which raises compliance costs and liability across creators, brands and intermediaries,
High reliance on advertising and brand-marketing budgets, which exposes creator monetization to macroeconomic conditions and slower social advertising growth,
Dependence on a small number of platforms, which leaves creator reach and income exposed to future algorithm, monetization and policy changes.
What are the key ESG considerations in the US's creator economy industry?
ESG topics primarily revolve around environmental, social and governance considerations.
Environmental concerns center on the high energy consumption of data centres used to host, stream and increasingly generate video content, with players shifting hosting and compute capacity toward renewable-powered and energy-efficient infrastructure.
Social concerns relate to child welfare and privacy in monetized family content, workplace safety and conduct as creator businesses scale, creator burnout and mental health, as well as the quality of children’s content amid rising screen time.
Players respond through child-earnings protections, professionalized HR and reporting systems, creator wellbeing resources and child-development-focused content practices.
Moreover, governance concerns center on content moderation and trust and safety, intellectual property and creator rights, particularly regarding unauthorized use of content for AI training.
Platforms and industry bodies address these risks through greater transparency around enforcement, stronger moderation practices and emerging standards that give creators greater control over how their content is accessed and monetized in AI-driven environments.
Company benchmarking
Market growth
According to Goldman Sachs (March 2025), the number of individuals who self-identify as creators globally is expected to increase from ~67m individuals in 2025 to ~107m by 2030 (+9.8% CAGR 2025–2030)
The US creator economy advertising spend was valued at ~$29.5bn in 2024 and is anticipated to reach ~$43.9bn by 2026 (+22.0% CAGR 2024–2026; IAB, November 2025)
Positive drivers
Growing audience engagement and content discovery on social platforms continue to strengthen the position of creators in shaping entertainment consumption. To illustrate, ~52% of US fans cite social media as their primary source for discovering new content (~73% among Gen Z fans), ~46% seek out fandom-related content from creators and ~33% of consumers report a stronger personal connection with social media creators than with TV personalities or actors (Deloitte, March 2026)
Rapid adoption of generative AI streamlines content creation and expands creators’ addressable audiences through automated translation and dubbing, while giving brands new tools to manage and measure creator partnerships. To illustrate, ~93% of creators using creative AI report faster content production and ~87% report accelerated business or audience growth, while YouTube’s auto-dubbing reached >6m daily viewers watching ≥10 minutes of dubbed content in 2025. Additionally, ~75% of US advertisers use or plan to use AI for creator marketing, including creator selection and campaign performance reporting (Adobe, June 2026; YouTube, May 2026; IAB, November 2025)
US viewing time continues to shift from cable and broadcast TV toward creator platforms, with advertisers expected to shift budgets toward digital video and creator inventory. For example, YouTube reached a record ~14.2% of US TV watch time in July 2026 (vs. ~13.4% in July 2025), while streaming accounted for ~49% of total TV usage (vs. ~47.3% in July 2025). Additionally, US digital video is projected to surpass 60% of total TV/video ad spend for the first time (Nielsen, September 2026; IAB, May 2026; Nielsen, August 2025)
Negative drivers
Stricter FTC enforcement on endorsements and reviews will increase compliance costs and legal liability for creators, brands and intermediaries. Influencers will need to clearly disclose any material connection to a brand, including payments, free products or other compensation, alongside every endorsement. Enforcement is also set to intensify, following the FTC's 2025 warning letters to around 12 companies over brokered influencer testimonials and fake followers or engagement, with penalties of up to ~$53k per violation (FTC, September 2026; Benesch, April 2026)
High reliance on advertising and brand-marketing budgets makes creator monetization vulnerable to near-term macroeconomic risk and longer-term deceleration in social ad spend. To illustrate, brand partnerships and platform ad revenue together account for ~56% of creator income, while a ~25% probability of a US recession over the next 12 months as of September 2026 could trigger cuts in discretionary marketing spend, with social ad-spend growth also expected to decelerate to single digits from 2027 (US Bank, September 2026; WPP Media, June 2026; Epidemic Sound, June 2025)
Dependence on a small number of platforms leaves creators’ reach and income exposed to future algorithm and policy changes. To illustrate, YouTube will double its Partner Program entry thresholds to 8k watch hours over 365 days or 20m Shorts views over 90 days for new applicants from 2027, while existing partners earning from Shorts must maintain 10m qualified Shorts views over 90 days to keep that revenue share. Additionally, TikTok’s new US joint venture has begun to retrain its recommendation algorithm on US data, which could alter content visibility (PPC Land, September 2026; YouTube, August 2026; Digiday, January 2026)
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