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TOGETHER WITH |
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It’s Wednesday and Meta is hoping the prediction market will fare better than the metaverse. According to recent reports, Mark Zuckerberg has signed off on the development of a Polymarket copycat. |
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Today’s News |
🥇 Forbes names 50 top creators 💌 Tinder and TikTok double date 📺 Amazon gives creators their own hub 🍬 Joyride Day was a sweet success 🛗 How smooth is your elevator game?
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MOVERS & SHAKERS |
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MrBeast topped Forbes’ creator ranking. (Photo by Jemal Countess/Getty Images for TIME.) |
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The creators on Forbes’ latest Top 50 list collectively made over $1B in a single year |
The Top 50: Forbes has released its annual ranking of the fifty top digital content creators on the internet, with MrBeast sitting squarely at #1. Jimmy Donaldson’s leading position is nothing new—but the collective earnings of all fifty top creators (as estimated by Forbes) represent a significant shift from previous years. |
As Forbes described it… |
“For the first time in the five-year history of the Top Creators list, the ranking of the 50 most powerful influencers collectively broke the billion-dollar mark, bringing in a total of $1.02 billion.” |
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| - Forbes |
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That figure is a 20% jump from the $853 million the top 50 creators made in 2025, and an 80% jump from the $570 million they made when Forbes first started publishing the list in 2022. The publication attributed that rise to the fact that our creator industry “is no longer trying to break into show business, but has become it.” |
It pointed specifically to the box office success of creator-led films like Backrooms and Obsession, plus creator IP deals with Netflix and Amazon. Creators’ growing entrepreneurialism, the collective expansion into FAST TV streaming, and the prevalence of longer-term, farther-reaching brand partnerships were all cited as contributing factors. |
The ranking: Forbes’ creator rankings are based on a combination of “account earning, entrepreneurship, and clout (follower and engagement ratio).” See who made it into the top five below, or check out the full list here. |
As mentioned, MrBeast came in at #1 with $300M earnings, 873M followers, and an average 3% engagement.
Dhar Mann took second place with $65M earnings, 171M followers, and avg. 0.09% engagement.
Next up was Steven Bartlett ($52M, 38.7M, 0.22%), followed by…
Markiplier ($38M, 76.8M, 0.21%)
And Rhett & Link ($37M, 45.6M, 0.12%)
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What could you do with a bridge to millions of new viewers? |
The answer lies with TheSoul Group. |
As the world’s leading digital studio, TheSoul Group distributes content across 50+ streaming platforms in 180 countries, netting 100B monthly views for its Owned and Operated IP and partner content. |
TheSoul Bridge is the distribution arm of TheSoul Group—bringing creator-made content to every single screen. |
With expansive reach across both social media and streaming, TheSoul Bridge helps creators, content owners, and brands get their content in front of millions of new viewers, opening up endless monetization opportunities. |
The case study: After partnering with TheSoul Bridge, one recent creator partner went from zero MSN presence to over $30,000+ in revenue in just ninety days. The results so far? A monthly average of 2M views and $10K in revenue. |
Ready to bring your content to MSN and 60+ streaming platforms? |
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HEADLINES IN BRIEF 📰 |
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Tinder and TikTok are going on a double date. |
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THE BIZ |
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Welcome to the Creator Hub. ((Photo by David Ryder/Getty Images.) |
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Amazon’s new Fire TV hub offers “another way for creators to get in front of customers” |
The Creator Hub: Streaming services are hungry for creator programming—and Amazon is jumping into the arms race. During a yacht-set presentation at Cannes Lions, the tech giant unveiled a new Creator Hub that will make it easier for Fire TV users to discover content from YouTube and TikTok standouts. |
According to VP of Devices Content and Advertising Charlotte Maines, channels like MrBeast, Topper Guild, Celine Dept, and 5-Minute Crafts will be on full display when the Creator Hub launches this summer. |
The context: As die-hard fans probably know, content from those top creators is already available on Fire TV devices. So, why is Amazon increasing visibility now? |
The tech giant is likely responding to plays from rivals like FOX, which has tackled both FAST (free ad-supported TV) and AVOD (ad-supported video on demand) by pairing a deep reservoir of creator content on Tubi with its recent acquisition of the streaming company Roku. YouTube’s growing dominance on TV screens is nothing to sneeze at, either. |
“What we’re trying to do is take an experience that today you’d need to go to YouTube for, and leverage what we know about the logged-in customer to create another way for creators to get in front of customers with the tools that we have.” |
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| - Charlotte Maines, Amazon VP of Devices Content and Advertising |
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YouTube was a launch partner for Fire TV, but its app hasn’t always been easy to find on those devices. Now, as Amazon looks to siphon creator traffic from Google’s video platform, Maines says the company is leaning on “the fact that we manage device operating systems.” |
By next year, Amazon plans to support more than 500 creators on Fire TV. |
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SWEET SUCCESS |
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Ryan Trahan turned fans into promoters for “Joyride Day.” |
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On “Joyride Day,” Ryan Trahan unlocked a new form of creator product marketing |
The promotion: From his iconic Penny Series to more recent video adventures, Ryan Trahan has become known for his cross-country jaunts. Now, the creator has successfully leveraged that format to create a viral marketing stunt. |
In true Trahan fashion, the latest promotional event for his Joyride candy brand was a 50-state affair filled with spectacle, celebrity cameos, and a record-breaking level of attention. As the creator searched for sweet-toothed fans across the country, a live leaderboard kept track of the states that were engaging the most with Joyride products. (Idaho ultimately snagged the #1 spot, leading to the release of potato wedge-shaped candies flavored with its official state fruit, huckleberries.) |
After traveling from coast to coast, Trahan capped off his journey by hosting a 24-hour “Joyride Day” live stream that ultimately pulled in 2.4 million views, with a peak concurrent viewership of over 24,000. MrBeast and Airrack both made appearances, and Trahan even snagged a Guinness World Record when 11,495 Instagram users uploaded photos of themselves holding candy over the course of just 24 hours. |
The strategy: For Trahan, who raised millions during a 30-day journey in 2022 (and then did it again three years later), the ballyhooed nature of Joyride Day is nothing new. |
What does feel innovative about this year’s trek, however, is the way Trahan turned fans into business associates, building a network of affiliates who will not only buy and promote his product, but actually create content to support it. |
Consider, for example, the Joyride Day “captains” who supported the initiative in specific states. Accounts tied to locales like Georgia, Pennsylvania, and Arizona helped Trahan spread the word about his event—and produced plenty of ideas for new flavors, should he choose to expand his brand in the future. |
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WATCH THIS 👀 |
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Are you smooth enough for the Nonchalant Elevator Challenge? |
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60+ animators just took on a single TikTok challenge |
The challenge: If you haven’t heard of the Nonchalant Elevator Challenge, you probably didn’t spend much time scrolling on TikTok last year. The long-lived video format rates participants on how smoothly they can slip through closing elevator doors (which, more often than not, is not very smoothly at all). |
Creators across social media have already produced some wild results by putting their own spin on that challenge—but add in 64 animators, and the nonchalance reaches a whole new level. |
Hosted by YouTube animator GarrettTheCarrott, The Nonchalant Elevator Collab united dozens of animation creators (including @BluntBrothersProductions, @Jim_EdLee, @Tokarev_, @IsometricPixel, @Loft_Studios, and @NavillusStudio) for a 12-minute saga of (mostly) 2-D elevator entrances. |
Check it out here to see which artists managed the coolest—and most chaotic—animated cameos. |
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Today's newsletter is from: Emily Burton, Drew Baldwin, Sam Gutelle, and Josh Cohen. |
