Hey Creatorverse readers,
It’s the start of January, which means nothing has really happened yet and the world is still full of possibilities. It’s the ideal time to make wild predictions about what may be ahead for the creator economy. And after talking to several industry experts, I have some big ones:
- Hollywood will keep courting creators — but on their terms
- AI slop will lead to an aesthetic shift toward more authentic content
- Mergers and acquisitions will keep revving up
- AI will lead to a lot more panic but a lot more creator tools
- Longer brand deals with creators are in
- Podcasts are evolving
- Longform creators will experiment more with shortform and vice versa
- There will be a boom of scripted creator content
We’ll check back in on these around December to see which was right. But for my first week back with you lovely people, I want to dive into a creator category that quietly took off throughout 2025: livestreaming.
Though the first major livestreamer was the day-in-the-life creator JenniCam, who launched her website in the ‘90s, gaming creators have dominated livestreaming for years. That’s been changing thanks to creators like Kai Cenat (20 million Twitch subscribers), iShowSpeed (47.5 million YouTube followers) and Hasan Piker (3 million Twitch subscribers). All three occupy different niches — lifestyle, challenge and political content, respectively. But what all three have in common is that they’re part of a surge of creators who are popularizing IRL (in real life) livestreaming. Instead of streaming video games, IRL streamers broadcast their everyday lives, talking to their audiences in real time and releasing the footage without editing.
“We’re seeing double the number of streamers versus a year ago streaming in real life,” Ashray Urs, head of the livestreaming tool company Streamlabs, told me at the end of last year.
It’s not just Urs who’s noticed this. In 2025, Twitch’s IRL category saw a 186% increase in hours watched compared to 2024. Live is also becoming more popular outside of Twitch. During the second quarter of last year, over 30% of logged in YouTube users watched live content, and in the first quarter of last year, livestreaming on TikTok surpassed Twitch largely due to the IRL content popular on the platform.
Livestreaming may not be at the heights it reached during COVID, but interest in the sector is growing. Urs has observed that interest in Twitch has cooled a bit, TikTok has gotten more popular and YouTube has demonstrated stable growth, both from creators joining the platform and viewers watching. But most livestreamers now broadcast over multiple platforms as many realize that viewer cannibalization is less of threat than they suspected.
“There’s just a lot of attention out there to be captured,” Urs said. And we’re going to cover it all.
Now onto the rest.
Kayla Cobb
Senior Reporter
kayla.cobb@thewrap.com
What’s New
Spotify makes it easier to join its Partner Program
Helping creators must be one of Spotify’s new year’s resolutions. The music streaming company announced on Wednesday that it has made it easier to join the Spotify Partner Program and that monthly video podcast consumption has nearly doubled since last year. Now those eligible need to have 1) anywhere from 1,000 to 2,000 listeners, 2) 2,000 to 10,000 hours consumed over the last 30 days and three to 12 published episodes.
Speaking of Spotify, Netflix’s big push into podcasting will start next week. “The Bill Simmons Podcast” will be available on the streamer Jan. 11.
Discord is looking to go public
At long last, the messaging and community building platform Discord looks like it’s going public. The company confidentially filed for an initial public offering, according to a Bloomberg report. If it happens, it’s big news. With 200 million monthly users, Discord has become a hub for creators to organize and directly communicate with their audiences. The IPO could happen as soon as March.
Fox launches Fox Creator Studios
Tubi isn’t the only Fox-owned property investing in creators. This week, the company launched Fox Creator Studios, which is designed to develop the next generation of global talent, storytelling and IP. Fittingly for the network home to Gordon Ramsey, Fox is starting with food creators. Rosanna Pansino (14.8 million YouTube subscribers), Jolly (51.5 million subscribers), Sorted Food (2.9 million subscribers), Food Theorists (5.5 million subscribers) and Little Remy Food (3.4 million subscribers) are part of the first wave of creators.
Over the Holiday Break
YouTube withdrew from Billboard’s charts
A major shakeup in the music industry took place in the middle of December. After a decade-long partnership with the company, YouTube’s data will no longer be part of Billboard’s U.S. or global charts. The reason? YouTube says Billboard weighs subscription-supported streams higher than ad-supported ones, a method the company calls an “outdated formula.” The change will take place on Jan. 16.
Six creators left the popular esports organization FaZe Clan
Following unsuccessful contract negotiations with new management, six members of the esports organization FaZe Clan left the company. Adapt (1.4 million Twitch subscribers), Jason (2 million subscribers), Ronaldo (4.4 million), Lacy (2.2 million), Rage (1.9 million) and Silky (1.1 million) are all out. All spent much of last year negotiating with Faze Clan investor HardScope. As a reminder, HardScope is the creator scaling company CEO Matt Kalish launched late last year.
TikTok (finally) signed a deal to operate in the U.S.
After a year of pushed deadlines and a blackout, TikTok signed a deal to spin off its U.S. assets that was backed by Donald Trump. The platform’s new owners will be a group of mostly American investors.
Half of this new venture will be owned by a consortium that includes Larry Ellison’s Oracle, the private equity firm Silver Lake and Emirati-backed investment firm MGX. Roughly 30% will be held by affiliates of existing ByteDance investors, and 19.9% will be retained by ByteDance. The transaction hasn’t been completed yet, but it’s progress.
Movers and Shakers
Ian Tuason and A24’s “undertone” gets its first trailer
What if a podcaster heard something unsettling while recording their weekly episodes? That’s the premise of “undertone,” Ian Tuason’s upcoming horror movie that was produced by A24 and will be released March 13. Tuason seems to consider himself as more of a director and storyteller. But considering he came up for the idea for “undertone” while working on his own narrative podcasts and that he won a Watty Award for his Wattpad stories, Tuason is definitely an internet age talent.
“Beast Games” Season 2 premiered this week
MrBeast is back on Amazon with one of the most ambitious reality shows ever brought to television. “Beast Games” is a bit more scaled back in Season 2, focusing on 200 of what it dubs the strongest and smartest contestants rather than trying to track 1,000 competitors. But this time around, the show is upping its collaborations and will feature different creators from around the world based on where an audience watches the show. The season also set a Guinness World Record for the largest single set build on a competitive reality TV show. Records aside, the season is pretty good.
The biggest livestreamer on Twitch is an AI VTuber
According to Twitch Tracker, the AI VTuber Neuro-sama has the most paid active subscribers of any account on Twitch. Neuro-sama was created by a computer programmer known as Vedal and scored over 160k active subscribers in the last month, twice as many as the second runner-up Jynxzi. Because this data is coming from a third-party source, take it with a grain of salt. But it’s still worth keeping an eye on those pesky AI creators.
@naturalhabitok Fun Fact: After the female lays eggs, the male jawfish holds them in his mouth to protect and aerate them until they hatch without eating the entire time.🐠👄🥚 #Naturalhabitatshorts #naturalhabitok #naturalhabitat ♬ original sound – Natural Habitat Shorts
Who to Watch
Natural Habitat
Half PBS special, half Adult Swim nightmare, Natural Habitats (4.8 million TikTok followers) is something that could only exist in the digital age. Created by former animation classmates Brennan Brinkley, Nicole Low and Tyler Kula, each episode follows a cast of anthropomorphic animal characters as they deadpan their way through everyday situations. The twist is that most of those situations highlight how weird and brutal nature can be, from lemurs scarfing down poisonous bamboo shoots to cats who curl up on dying hospital patients. If you like to laugh AND learn, this is the channel for you.
Bonus Content
- Some Questions, Then a Selfie: Mayor Mamdani Meets the (Creator) Press (via New York Times)
- Why Publishers Are Building Their Own Creator Networks (via Digiday)
- The TikTok Awards Were Messy. I Was There (via Mashable)
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This report provides a weekly deep dive into the creator economy. It highlights key trends, political and technological developments, data points and industry leaders all with the goal of making you smarter about this constantly evolving space.