Creator Economy: YouTube Creator Payouts and Partner Program

There is no official statistical measure of the creator economy. Platform payout disclosures are the most concrete public evidence of its size. YouTube says it pays creators a share of the revenue their content generates through the YouTube Partner Program [1].

In a February 2024 blog post, YouTube CEO Neal Mohan said YouTube had paid more than $70 billion to creators, artists and media companies over the previous three years [2]. More than three million channels were in the Partner Program at that time [2].

In September 2025, YouTube said it had paid out more than $100 billion to creators, artists and media companies since 2021 [3]. YouTube's How YouTube Works site cites KPMG's September 2025 "Money in Motion" report. It says YouTube paid out more than $32 billion to partners globally in 2024, which made it the second-largest contributor to content creation by content spend [1].

• Short-form video: in early 2024, Shorts averaged more than 70 billion daily views, and the number of channels uploading Shorts was up 50% year over year [2].
• Memberships: the number of creators using channel memberships rose by more than 50% in 2023 [2].
• TV screens: viewers watched more than one billion hours of YouTube on TVs every day [2]. In 2025, the number of channels earning more than $100,000 from TV screens rose 45% year over year [3].

Figures are YouTube's own disclosures. The $70 billion figure comes from Neal Mohan's February 2024 blog post, reported by The Hindu [2]. The $100 billion figure was announced by YouTube in September 2025 and reported by CNBC [3]. The 2024 payout figure comes from YouTube's How YouTube Works site, which cites KPMG [1]. The figures are cumulative or annual nominal US dollars and include payouts to media companies and music partners as well as individual creators. We found no primary source for an economy-wide creator economy estimate, so we do not give one.