The 10 Highest-Earning Creators in 2026
Estimated earnings, audience size, and the businesses behind today's biggest creators.
Quick Answer
MrBeast is the highest-earning creator in 2026 with an estimated $300 million, about 1.6× the combined earnings of the next four creators on this list ($192 million: Dhar Mann, Steven Bartlett, Markiplier, and Rhett & Link).
Creator income has grown into a major media business. The biggest creators increasingly earn money from a mix of platform revenue, sponsorships, products, businesses, and other ventures. This ranking uses Forbes' 2026 Top Creators estimates for the period March 2025–March 2026. The Forbes list covers creators across platforms, so this is a creator ranking rather than a YouTube-only ranking.
Estimated Creator Earnings — 2026 · USD millions
Source: ForbesTap any creator to jump to their full breakdown below.
Ranked #10 to #1
Jesser
Born in Westlake Village, California, USA- Estimated earnings:
- $25M
- Category:
- Basketball and sports entertainment
- Revenue sources:
- Ad revenue, brand deals, merchandise
Jesse Riedel built a basketball-challenge and NBA-collaboration channel into a formal holding company, JesserCo, launched in April 2026 to unite his content business with his apparel brand.
His streetwear label Bucketsquad crossed eight figures in annual revenue and now sells in Dick's Sporting Goods, alongside brand deals with Lowe's, Google, and Adidas.
Source: Forbes
- Estimated earnings:
- $26M
- Category:
- Early childhood education
- Revenue sources:
- Ad revenue, books, licensed products
Rachel Griffin Accurso, a former teacher, turned research-backed "parentese" speech techniques into Songs for Littles, one of the biggest children's education brands on the internet.
Her Netflix series became the platform's most-watched children's program at launch, and a 2024 toy line with Spin Master had the most successful presale in Walmart's history.
Source: Forbes
- Estimated earnings:
- $30M
- Category:
- Science and engineering
- Revenue sources:
- Ad revenue, CrunchLabs, brand partnerships
A former NASA JPL engineer, Rober built CrunchLabs, a STEM subscription-box company, rather than relying on ad revenue or brand deals alone.
CrunchLabs hit over 100,000 paying subscribers within its first six months and now reports annual revenue in the $25–50 million range, largely independent of his YouTube ad income.
Source: Forbes
- Estimated earnings:
- $30M
- Category:
- Gaming, livestreams, travel and reaction content
- Revenue sources:
- Ad revenue, sponsorships, merchandise and live content
Darren Watkins Jr. turned unfiltered, high-energy livestreams into a global sponsorship magnet, including a first-of-its-kind creator performance at the World Cup 2026 closing ceremony.
His year-long Expedia partnership as "Official Travel Partner" reportedly lifted destination search demand by up to 70% for the locations he streamed from.
Source: Forbes
Codie Sanchez
Raised in Phoenix, Arizona, USA- Estimated earnings:
- $31M
- Category:
- Business and investing content
- Revenue sources:
- Media, sponsorships and business ventures
A former Wall Street investor, Sanchez built Contrarian Thinking around a contrarian thesis: that buying small, unglamorous "boring businesses" builds more real wealth than tech startups.
She personally owns a portfolio of more than two dozen small businesses — laundromats, car washes, and service operations — and runs three separate companies including an acquisition marketplace, BizScout, which raised $5M in 2026.
Source: Forbes
- Estimated earnings:
- $37M
- Category:
- Comedy and entertainment
- Revenue sources:
- Mythical Entertainment, advertising, merchandise and podcasts
Rhett McLaughlin and Link Neal have run their daily talk show Good Mythical Morning for over a decade, building it into Mythical Entertainment, a full production studio with multiple channels and podcasts.
In 2026, Good Mythical Morning struck a deal to stream on Netflix the same day episodes go live on YouTube, adding a major distribution channel after their show passed 3,000 episodes.
Source: Forbes
- Estimated earnings:
- $38M
- Category:
- Gaming and entertainment
- Revenue sources:
- Ad revenue, merchandise and business ventures
Mark Fischbach, long known for gaming commentary, self-financed and directed a horror film, Iron Lung, that became one of the most profitable movies of 2026 relative to its budget.
Iron Lung cost roughly $3 million to make and earned over $50 million worldwide, a 15x-plus return that beat several major studio releases at the box office.
Source: Forbes
- Estimated earnings:
- $52M
- Category:
- Business, podcasts and entrepreneurship
- Revenue sources:
- Podcast/media business, sponsorships and other ventures
Bartlett built The Diary of a CEO into one of the world's most popular podcasts, then used its platform to launch or back multiple companies rather than relying on podcast ad revenue alone.
His venture steven.com closed an eight-figure funding round in October 2025 at a $425 million valuation, with Bartlett retaining over 90% ownership.
Source: Forbes
- Estimated earnings:
- $65M
- Category:
- Short-form scripted stories
- Revenue sources:
- Advertising, production business and brand partnerships
Mann built Dhar Mann Studios around short, moral-lesson scripted videos, then expanded the format into television through deals with Samsung and Fox Entertainment.
In January 2026, Fox Entertainment partnered with Dhar Mann Studios to produce 40 vertical drama titles, marking one of the first major traditional-studio deals built around a creator's short-form format.
Source: Forbes
- Estimated earnings:
- $300M
- Category:
- Large-scale challenges and entertainment
- Revenue sources:
- Advertising, Feastables, Beast Industries, merchandise and licensing
MrBeast's earnings are more than four-and-a-half times Dhar Mann's, the next-highest individual creator, built on a media holding company, Beast Industries, that treats his YouTube channel as a production line feeding multiple businesses.
His chocolate brand Feastables generated about $250 million in revenue in 2024, out-earning his entire YouTube and Amazon media operation, which lost money on production costs that same year.
Source: Forbes
What the numbers tell us
Even at $300 million, MrBeast's earnings are slightly less than the combined $334 million made by the other nine creators on this list — a sign of how many separate, high-earning creator businesses now exist beyond any single top figure. Creator income increasingly comes from a mix of media companies, products, sponsorships, and podcasts, not ad revenue alone.
- Data period:
- March 2025–March 2026
- Last updated:
- August 31, 2026
- Sources:
- Forbes, Top Creators 2026; additional reporting from Fortune, Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, Digiday, and company sources
Primary source: Forbes, Top Creators 2026. Visual Capitalist also publishes a visualization of the Forbes ranking. Forbes' creator ranking covers multiple platforms and uses estimated annual earnings rather than publicly reported creator income. Audience figures can vary by platform and date, so this article avoids presenting cross-platform follower totals as YouTube subscriber counts. Prepared for Viszlyn.io.
Figures marked as estimates are based on publicly available information and may vary from other published sources.
Frequently Asked Questions
MrBeast tops the list with an estimated $300 million, driven by advertising, his snack brand Feastables, Beast Industries, merchandise, and licensing deals.