SignalFire’s Creator Economy Market Map

The big trend we see here is that over time, creators are becoming more diversified in their revenue streams and are being funded directly by their fans.

The map defines three ‘layers’ that have led to this transition. First: the rise of foundational media platforms since the 2000s which have significantly lowered the barriers for content creation and distribution. Second: how they enabled these content creators to build a fanbase and subsequently monetize this influencer reach. And third: the event... See more

Essentially, creators have to balance the distribution potential of certain platforms with the risk of becoming dependent on them, and monetize by either earning a little off of each fan from mainstream content for a big audience or earning a lot off of deeper connections to a smaller set of fans through niche content.

Others: including musicians, podcasters, writers, illustrators, etc total ~200K

Twitch: Of the 3M streamers on Twitch, ~300K have either Partner or Affiliate status (source)

Instagram: Of the 1bn accounts on Instagram, ~500K have over 100k followers and are considered active influencers (source)

YouTube: Of the 31M channels on YouTube, ~1M creators have over 10K subscribers (source)

The total number of full-time creators: 2 million. It breaks that number down accordingly: