Patreon Statistics, Trends 2023

Patreon is one of the pillars of the creator economy.

It’s the great equalizer: it enables you to monetize your most avid fans in ways you aren’t able to on other platforms.

Patreon is not the only game in town, though; it’s not for every content creator, either. Yet, this crowdfunding platform has proven to be no flash in the pan.

Almost a decade after its launch, it has enjoyed incredible success.

As you’ll see in a few, numbers don’t lie. What’s more, they spell promising growth for the company in the future.

Let’s check them out:

Eye-Opening Patreon Statistics for 2022

• Over 250,000 creators have used Patreon.
• Patreon’s total payout has exceeded $3.5 billion.
• The platform’s value soared by 233% in April 2021.
• Nearly 4 in 10 Patreon users are video creators.
• About ⅘ of all creators on the platform don’t work with a team at all.
• It accounts for 41% of its users’ overall creative income.
• With 48,661 patrons, True Crime Obsessed is the most popular creator.
• By bagging $222,352 monthly, The Tim Dillon Show outearns anyone on the platform.

General Patreon Stats

Do you want to know how popular Patreon is and what it promises creators?

Check out these figures:

1. Patreon is home to no less than 250,000 content creators.

(Source: Influencers Club)

It may sound impressive, but the platform accounts for about 0.1% of the 200 million-strong creator economy.

But Patreon doesn’t go head-to-head with the heavyweights like YouTube, Instagram, and Tiktok.

Instead, it serves as an additional vehicle for monetization directed at creators’ rabid fans that would pay for premium content.

The subscription-based crowdfunding platform is open to creators of every hue, with notable exceptions like politicians. It permits mature themes but doesn’t try to compete with OnlyFans.

Outside of straight-out pornography, as well as doxing, violence, hate, and crime, practically anything goes on Patreon.

2. The company puts the average Patreon pledge at $7 a month.

(Source: Patreon)

This is based on the company’s hypothetical scenario used for calculating how much a creator could earn on the platform.

The formula assumes two things:

1. A creator has five membership tiers worth $2, $5, $10, $25, and $100.
2. Most patrons choose the first, second, and third subscription options.

But membership tiers are just one of the many variables you should consider when estimating your page’s earning potential. The others are:

• Your total following across different platforms.
• The number of fans willing to pledge money.
• The value your page offers to convert a fan into a patron.

3. There are over 8 million monthly active patrons on Patreon.

(Source: Patreon)

When divided evenly among all platform users, the ratio of creators to patrons would be 32 to 1.

If so, the average Patreon income would probably not be enough for anybody to make a living.

4. Collectively, Patreon creators have raked in at least $3.5 billion since 2013.

(Source: Patreon)

Patreon has been on a roll since the pandemic broke out. And its growth hasn’t shown any signs of plateauing.

The company has been doubling its annual payouts for two years now, starting at $500 million in 2019. If the trend continues, it will cross the $4 billion milestone before 2023.

Patreon Growth Statistics

This crowdfunding platform has undoubtedly come a long way.

So let’s take a look at these key stats accentuating its past successes and revealing what the future may hold for it:

5. From March 2016 to March 2021, Patreon’s number of creators spiked by 603%.

(Source: Statista)

There were peaks and valleys throughout this span. During this period, the platform saw its most considerable quarterly growth in March 2020, when 34,196 more creators joined it.

Not coincidentally, it was the month when the World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 pandemic.

6. During the first seven months of 2022, Patreon’s combined monthly payouts surged by 7.34%.

(Source: Graphtreon)

All creators approximately got $24,234,442 on January 1 and $26,013,786 on July 31. These figures excluded hidden earnings, so the amount the company paid out is likely much larger.

How high could it go by the end of 2022?

In 2021, Patreon’s estimated monthly payouts went up by 6.49% from August to December. So, this number may reach $27,702,081 by the year’s end if the company repeats its past performance.

7. In 2019, Patreon saw its revenue jump by 83.30%.

(Source: Craft.co)

Primarily, the company lets creators use its platform on commission. The Patreon cut percentage ranges from 5% to 12% of creators’ earnings.

That year, Patreon’s slice of the pie was worth $55 million.

These payouts doubled in 2020 and 2021. So, it’s reasonable to believe that its revenue increased at the same rate over the past two years too.

8. In April 2021, Patreon’s valuation exploded by 233%.

(Source: Investment U)

After raising $155 million (and more than $413 million overall) that month, the company was valued at $4 billion. This was three times higher than the $1.2 billion Patreon value when the previous funding round transpired.

These indications of tremendous growth have sparked talk that Patreon might go public in 2022 or 2023.

Patreon Users Statistics

So, what sort of creators gravitate toward Patreon?

Let’s have a look at the stats that define the platform’s user base.

9. 38% of Patreon creators consider video as their primary medium.

(Source: Patreon)

The platform has provided an avenue to monetize content without relying on ads.

For example, movie and TV show reactors upload their full-length videos on Patreon instead of YouTube due to copyright concerns.

Gated content creators are another case in point.

10. 50% and 30% of fans of Patreon video creators and musicians, respectively, come from YouTube.

(Source: Patreon)

Considering the diversity of the platform’s user base, other breeds of Patreon creators naturally get discovered through other mediums.

Visual artists find 21% of their supporters from DeviantArt, while gaming creators use Twitter to get 18% of their audiences.

Meanwhile, writers and podcasters source the majority of their patrons from Facebook.

11. One of the more enlightening Patreon statistics out there is that only 11% of platform users consider themselves seasoned professionals.

(Source: Patreon)

On the contrary, 43% think that they’re just in the first half of their creative journey.

It’s a testament to Patreon’s openness to all. The fact that the company charges no upfront fee further eliminates any barrier to entry.

No wonder hundreds of thousands of creatives of different experience levels find the platform appealing.

12. Only 19% of Patreon Creator Census respondents said that they work with a team one way or another.

(Source: Patreon)

Actually, 8% of them fly solo and choose to outsource various tasks like managing patron interactions to non-creators.

Curiously, visual artists are the most likely to handle everything alone. In fact, a whopping 94% of them do.

13. 41% of the platform users’ creative income comes from Patreon earnings.

(Source: Patreon)

In comparison, the money Patreon creators get from subscriptions on other platforms accounts for just 7%.

Proof that it has realized its co-founder Jack Conte’s vision. Despite the stiff competition, Patreon continues to be the goose that lays the golden eggs for a plethora of creators.

14. In general, creators that use custom names to call their patrons retain their members 4%–8% more successfully.

(Source: Patreon)

Patreon thinks that this is more of a correlation than causation. Another proof that a personal touch yields positive results on the platform.

15. According to income-related Patreon stats, the creators who promote their page daily make 75% more than the monthly promoters.

(Source: Patreon)

Frequent promotion translating to growth and success is supposed to be common sense. That’s why it’s quite a revelation that only 7.3% of Patreon users do it daily.

If you don’t have the time, doing it weekly can still result in 31% more Patreon earnings.

16. Only 27% of Patreon creators view cryptocurrency payments positively.

(Source: TechCrunch)

Although the inaugural Patreon Creator Census revealed that 30% are neutral toward them, it’s interesting to learn that 43% are strongly against it. Leading the pack of dissenters are visual artists (68%) and writers (50%).

Many factors might have colored the naysayers’ perception of crypto. It could be the survey timing, for Patreon conducted it when the bitcoin price was in free fall.

Whatever the case, it doesn’t look like most crowdfunding platform creators are going to be crypto enthusiasts anytime soon.

Patreon Rankings

Let’s find out which creators have been ruling the platform:

17. True Crime Obsessed is the most popular creator on Patreon, with 48,661 patrons.

(Source: Graphtreon)

Since December 2021, this podcast hasn’t seen its monthly subscribership below 45,000. What’s more, on Feb 21, 2022, it peaked at 50,660.

Being on top is one thing; maintaining that status is another.

To offer more value to its supporters, True Crime Obsessed provides ad-free content. Plus, the pair of podcasters behind it gives pre-sale access and VIP meet-and-greet privileges during live shows to higher-tier fans.

18. Razed is the current most successful Patreon game creator with 14,483 patrons.

(Source: Graphtreon)

Occasionally, this mod and shader creator for PC games would slip down to the 4th spot in its niche. But for the most part since February 28, 2021, Razed has sat on the throne.

Razed uses Discord for patron interaction, empowering their community to voice out feedback during each project’s development phase.

In addition, their top-paying subscribers enjoy early access to experimental features the general public may never see.

19. MxR Mods has ranked first in Patreon’s adult video category for at least 412 straight days.

(Source: Graphtreon)

The Skyrim and Fallout 4 mod video maker has been even more dominant than the above figure suggests, though.

The last time another adult video creator overtook MxR Mods was on June 30, 2021. But since March 10, 2019, when it first reigned supreme, it has hardly looked back.

From July 2021 to July 2022, MxR Mods’ daily patron count ranged between 14,382 and 18,404. It was definitely good enough to tighten its grip on the top position in the adult video Patreon rankings!

20. To crack into Patreon’s top 1,000 creators, at this moment, you’d need more than 1,738 patrons.

(Source: Graphtreon)

By end-August 2022, the creator you have to beat is painter Andrew Tischler.

Judging by Patreon’s arbitrary formula, you could convert 0.15% of your entire fanbase into paying supporters. This means that to have 1,739 patrons, you’d need over 1,159,000 followers, to begin with.

21. For 3,395 days and counting, Pomplamoose is the longest-running creator on Patreon’s Top 1,000 list.

(Source: Graphtreon)

This musical duo is made up of Patreon CEO Jack Conte himself and his wife Nataly Dawn. They have had this streak since May 2013.

The band releases fresh content weekly, including downloadable tunes, patron-requested covers, instrumentals, stems, and original demos.

Aside from sheer musicality, the secret to Pomplamoose’s enduring success is perhaps intimate community engagement.

These independent musicians love chatting with their fans on Discord and give video shoutouts to the most generous supporters.

Top Patreon Earners

At the time of writing, here are the biggest winners on Patreon:

22. With $222,196 confirmed monthly earnings, The Tim Dillon Show makes the biggest bucks on Patreon.

(Source: Graphtreon)

As of now, True Crime Obsessed still hasn’t bragged about its earnings.

Our source estimated that the page might be making in the vicinity of $139,000 and $342,000 a month.

But this income data was unconfirmed, while Tim Dillon’s Patreon money is. So it definitely deserves recognition.

23. As of end-August 2022, The Tim Dillon Show received an average Patreon pledge of $5.18 from 42,916 patrons.

(Source: Graphtreon)

That’s about 1.1% lower than what they got at the turn of the year. Despite the dip, the page’s patron count grew by 18.9% since January 1. So the overall earnings steadily rose to $222,352 monthly.

Also, $5.18 per patron is way below the platform’s sample $7 average pledge. This means making six figures is doable even if your average patron pledges less than $6 a month.

24. 6 out of the 10 highest-earning Patreon creators are podcasters.

(Source: Graphtreon)

As of August 2022, The Tim Dillon Show is the only one with confirmed monthly earnings of $200,000+. But the following podcasting pages were also doing exceptionally well for themselves:

• the yard
• Chapo Trap House
• The Cum Boys
• TrueAnon Podcast
• Last Podcast On the Left

To round out the top 10, here are the most successful Patreon creators not in the podcast category:

• Adeptus Steve
• Сергій Притула
• Cold Ones
• Flagrant

The lowest amount any of the other nine top Patreon earners made was $80,850 monthly. Not too shabby.

Wrap Up

The creator economy is clearly super competitive.

And it’s bound to become fiercer as more players vie to win over the growing number of passionate creators.

Fortunately, Patreon has many things going. It has strong brand recall and occupies a niche it created for itself.

Will it continue to provide its users tremendous earnings to keep them from leaving?

Time will tell if it’ll be able to adapt to the ecosystem and meet the ever-changing needs of content creators.

But so far, Patreon has a rosy outlook.

If it plays its cards right, it can cement itself as the platform for monetizing the most loyal of fans.