MrBeast just made $300M.
Adam Sandler, the highest-paid movie star on the planet, made $60M.
The top creator now out-earns the top movie star five to one. Last year, I predicted creators would close this gap. I was too conservative. The gap didn't close. It flipped.
For the last 100 years, Hollywood has had the best job in media. It controlled the talent. It controlled distribution. It controlled production. It controlled the money.
Then a kid with a camera, a YouTube account, and zero respect for the old system showed up.
The old media model was built on scarcity. Limited shelf space. Limited channels. Limited stars. Limited shots on goal.
The creator model is built on abundance. More content, more testing, more data, more direct relationships, and much lower overhead.
Hollywood still has the red carpets. Creators have the margins.
Let's break it down into 5 big questions:
1) How big is the creator market?
2) Who makes the most money?
3) How do creators make money?
4) How many creators are there?
5) How much content do creators generate?
How big is the creator market?
Size of the global creator market (Goldman Sachs):
1) 2023 - $250B
2) 2027P - $480B
Who makes the most money?
Highest-paid creators (Forbes):
1) MrBeast - $300M
2) Dhar Mann - $65M
3) Steven Bartlett - $52M
4) Markiplier - $38M
5) Rhett & Link - $37M
6) Charli D'Amelio - $18M
7) Druski - $20M
8) I Show Speed - $30M
9) Mark Rober - $30M
10) Codie Sanchez - $31M
Total revenue for the top 50:
1) 2022 - $570M
2) 2023 - $700M (↑ 23%)
3) 2024 - $716M (↑ 2%)
4) 2025 - $853M (↑ 19%)
5) 2026 - $1.0B (↑ 19%)
Being a creator may be far less glamorous than Hollywood, but the earnings gap has closed to the point where your top creators will soon earn more than movie stars.
How do creators make money?
Source of revenue for creators:
1) Brand deals - 69%
2) Ad share - 7%
3) Started own brand - 5%
4) Affiliate links - 5%
5) Courses - 4%
6) Tips - 4%
7) Other - 6%
The alpha dog: Beast Industries (MrBeast) is setting the pace that every other creator firm is shooting for in terms of scale.
1) 450 employees
2) $912M in projected revenue (≈ $2M per employee)
Finally profitable: Between 2021 and 2024, Beast Industries lost $174M before turning a projected profit ($112M) in 2025.
On average, creators generate 5% of their revenue from starting their own brand. The Feastables candy brand alone accounts for 57% of Beast Industries revenue.
Zoom out: In the early 2000s, ad talent wanted HoldCo jobs. By mid-decade, everyone wanted Facebook and Google - their revenue per employee dwarfed the HoldCos, so they paid more. That gap never closed.
What's next: The same talent migration plays out between creator companies and Hollywood.
How many creators are there?
Number of global creators (Goldman Sachs):
1) 2025 - 67M
2) 2030P - 107M
Reality check: Only 3% earn $100K+. The average makes $5K/year.
Yes, but: Abundance systems don't need average winners. The top of the pyramid already beats Hollywood's biggest star.
How much content do creators generate?
Hours produced last year:
1) YouTube creators - 250M
2) TV networks - 15K
Quick math on YouTube creator model (Andrew Rosen @ PARQOR):
1) 2M+ creators
2) Mr. Beast creates 25 videos per year
3) 0.1% of creators create at the same pace
4) 0.1% 2M = 2K creators
5) 2K 25 = 50K videos per year
Key stat: Only 0.1% of creator content needs to be of quality to disrupt the system.
What’s next
The mistake: Dismissing the creator economy because most of it looks small, weird, or disposable.
1) Most startups fail. Most songs flop. Most shows disappear. The shots on goal are the point. Not the average attempt.
2) Hollywood runs a boutique. Creators run the internet's largest R&D lab.
The next media giants won't look like Disney, Paramount, or WBD. They'll look like Beast Industries.
The bottom line: Hollywood used to manufacture stars. Now stars manufacture Hollywood.