The Social media stars across Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Spotify and Twitch turning followers into fortunes.
. Reporting by Steffi Cao, Matt Craig and Alexandra Levine. Photography by Devin Yalkin.reators. Influencers. Streamers. Vloggers. Whatever you call them, these powerful social media personalities are calling the shots in entertainment and advertising.
This year, the 50 honorees on our second annual Forbes Top Creator list harnessed their combined 2.6 billion followers to haul in an estimated $700 million in earnings. That's up more than 20% from 2022's $570 million score. They’re not alone, in 2023 brands will spend an estimated $21 billion on creator marketing, up from just $1.6 billion seven years ago, according to the social media research firm, Influencer Marketing Hub.
"Influencers are more trusted by their audiences than ads. They can sell out products in minutes. They can cause a flash mob that shuts down a major city," says Erin Lanuti, the chief innovation officer at ad titan Omnicom PR Group. To rank the world's Top Creators, Forbes crunched data on the earnings, follower counts, engagement rates, and entrepreneurial activities of thousands of internet personalities with the help of the creator marketing firm,The result: The 50 people tapping their massive fan bases to reshape the worlds of media, marketing, entertainment, and taste.