It’s been a good year to be part of the creator economy. Compared to 2024, payments to creators increased by 79%. That figure includes the $100 billion YouTube has paid to creators and media companies over the past four years as well as the $1 billion Roblox paid to creators in 2025 alone.
As YouTube continued to dominate in the living room when it came to overall TV viewing time, several Hollywood companies started to invest more in creators. FAST (free ad-supported television) was an especially big supporter alongside major investment, thanks in part to the Fox-owned Tubi, and Netflix. At the same time, more theaters and traditional production companies started to experiment with releasing creator-made movies. Shortform content continued to grow, driven by TikTok, Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts, as did livestreaming.
Yet as good as this year has been for creators, it wasn’t without its pitfalls. Though AI has led to the creation of several helpful creator tools, accounts made by the rapidly expanding technology threaten to overtake content made from real creators. Also, a global crackdown on social media usage among children and teenagers could make a huge difference in the years to come.
If you only have a few minutes to figure out what the heck happened with creators this year, I have your back. Here are nine of the biggest takeaways from 2025.
Video podcasts took off
Early in the year, YouTube dropped a massive metric bomb: There were more than 1 billion monthly active viewers of podcast content. That was only the beginning.
Though video podcasts emerged as an emerging trend in 2024, they truly took off in 2025. During Spotify’s third quarter earnings call, the company revealed it hosts nearly 500,000 video podcast shows, and roughly 390 million users have streamed a video podcast. That user adoption marks a 54% leap from the prior year.
This boost hasn’t just been reported by platforms. Overall, 56% of podcast fans either listen to and watch podcasts equally or prefer to watch podcasts, according to Acast’s 2025 Podcast Pulse report. Not only that but 40% of the 2,600 surveyed consumers who said they mostly listen to podcasts also admitted to watching on occasion. And this increased attention has led to more ad dollars. Ad spending on podcasts in the third quarter of 2025 increased by 26% year-over-year, according to Magellan AI’s Podcast Advertising Benchmark Report.
Members of entertainment’s older guard have noticed the podcasting boom. Netflix partnered with Spotify Studios and The Ringer to bring some of The Ringer’s top video podcasts to the streamer in 2026, a deal that was followed by a Netflix partnership with iHeartMedia for even more shows. Fox Entertainment also acquired the rom-com podcast company Meet Cute in November, and the Amazon-owned Wondery underwent a major restructuring back in August to prioritize creator-led and video-focused shows. This is one trend that shows no signs of slowing down.
Live streaming saw a big boom
Livestreaming has been around since the days of Jenny cam. But this year it really took off in a major way between Hasan Piker scoring a New York Times profile and Kai Cenat breaking Twitch records during his Mafiathon 3 stream. IShowSpeed also took the internet by storm in the fall thanks to his 24/7 livestream across 35 days, and that was after he was named as one of four creators YouTube partnered with during its first ever free-to-watch NFL game. On Twitch alone, people live streamed nearly 900 million hours in 2025.
This is another trend that seems poised to ramp up. The livestreaming market size increased by 19% this year, according to Globe Newswire, hitting $2.09 billion. It’s expected to hit $4.81 billion by 2029.
Creators greatly increased their empires
The idea of a creator using their platform to launch a brand is nothing new. It’s been an accepted part of the industry ever since MrBeast launched Beast Burger in 2020. But what changed in 2025 is that these grander commerce and media plans have become far more commonplace.
There are multiple examples across all different levels of creators. Dude Perfect spearheaded a new YouTube channel, its first podcast and the theatrical release of “Dude Perfect: The Hero Tour,” all of which were released after the company sold shares to the investment firm Highmount Capital to raise $100 million in capital. Alex Cooper’s Unwell Network added several new shows to its roster, partnered with the National Women’s Soccer League for its beverage product Unwell Hydration, and launched Unwell Creative Agency to handle brand partnerships. TikTok star Dave Jorgenson left The Washington Post to launch his own venture, Local News International. “Diary of a CEO” star Steven Bartlett invested in Maggie Sellers Reum‘s business Hot Smart Rich after his company — Steven.com — hit a $425 million valuation. The list goes on.
Not one but two different creators are even in the theme park business. MrBeast opened the temporary Beast Land in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in November, and the $100 million Dude Perfect World is currently in development.
The point is, the days of content creation being seen as a stepping stone for a film and TV career are over. Creators have proven they’re more than capable of growing their own production and retail empires.
AI took over content creation
When it comes to the creator economy, the AI takeover was truly a mixed bag. On one hand, this year saw a drastic increase in AI influencers like the life advice creator Granny Spill and singer Xania Monet, a trend that jeopardizes the livelihood of real-life creators. Both MrBeast and iShowSpeed — two of the biggest creators out there — expressed anxiety around the technology. MrBeast said the rise of AI means “scary times” for creators, and iShowSpeed said that he was “fucked” after giving Open AI’s Sora permission to use his likeness.
There are also growing concerns around AI slop, the nickname given for AI-created videos and posts often designed to be engaging. Many in the industry fear that these videos could replace viral videos or at least take traffic away from real people. AI has also already been used to create ads and replace brand models — two common sources of income for many creators. But those less concerned with AI taking over the creator space point to how the technology is incapable of generating authentic connections, something that creators are especially good at fostering.
On the other hand, the rise of AI has led to some game-changing tools. YouTube’s Ask Studio, for example, is an AI chatbot that analyzes performance metrics for users’ specific channels. The platform also released a deepfake identification program for creators, allowing them to report unauthorized and AI-generated uses of their likeness. Meta unveiled Vibes, a feed of AI videos, which included a suite of AI-powered creation tools. TikTok unveiled an AI-powered editing tool as well as an AI outline feature. Basically, the creator economy is at the same place as everyone else: There’s some hope about AI, some cool tools and a whopping dollop of fear.
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Shortform proved it’s here to stay
Shortform creation isn’t slowing down. The number of TikTok posts this year more than tripled from a year ago, according to a report from CreatorIQ, and YouTube Shorts viewership grew by 141%.
That’s translated into cold hard cash. TikTok accounted for 51% of commerce ad traffic over Black Friday weekend, according to a study from MikMak, up from 16% in 2024. And from July to September,TikTok Shop sold $19 billion worth of products globally, with the U.S. accounting for about $4 billion in sales. As for Instagram Reels, that’s on track to generate over $50 billion in ad revenue a year.
This growth is happening as creators and brands are increasingly diversifying their campaigns across multiple platforms. Though Instagram still generates the best return on investment when it comes to customers and brand campaigns, many of the creators and industry professionals TheWrap spoke to throughout 2025 noted TikTok was still a vital part of their strategy. However, as the platform has been haunted by its possible U.S. ban, TikTok’s role in the creator economy has shifted slightly. The platform is largely seen as the best option to quickly build an audience, but Instagram and YouTube’s better monetization structures mean more creators have been posting across all three shortform platforms.
As for TikTok itself, the platform had an especially chaotic 2025. The company started the year by prematurely shutting down the platform in the U.S. — a day before the first deadline for its ban. Since then, President Trump has extended the deadline five times, calling for the Chinese-owned ByteDance to either divest from the company and sell to U.S. buyers or risk being banned. The latest deadline is now Jan. 23, 2026, so this saga will march on.
The creator economy saw more M&A than ever before
It’s not just creators who are making money. There has been serious growth and movement when it comes to the companies that fuel creators and platforms. In August, boutique advisory firm Quartermast Advisors predicted that 2025 would set a new record for creator economy transactions after 52 mergers and acquisition deals were completed in the first half of 2025, a 73% increase compared to last year.
Some of the biggest deals so far include Publicis buying Captiv8 for $175 million as well as the Latin American content company BR Media Group for $100 million, and the private equity firm PSG purchasing a majority stake in the analytics and marketing automation company Uscreen for $150 million. Spending from private equity firms typically indicates high hopes for the future, and based on these deals the creator economy is looking bright.
Netflix, Tubi and FAST channels partnered with creators
This was the year creators came to Hollywood on their own terms. Ms. Rachel’s Netflix show emerged as the seventh most-watched show on Netflix in the first half of 2025 despite the fact it was only four episodes long. Though Netflix’s other creator bets like “Pop the Balloon” didn’t prove to be as popular, that hasn’t stopped the streamer from making a deal with science-focused creator Mark Rober. (It also didn’t stop the streamer from investing in video podcasts).
Tubi also dove into the creator space with its Tubi for Creators program, which will launch with four creator-led films produced by Kevin Hart’s Hartbeat. Kinigra Deon, DC Young Fly, Chico Bean and Karlous Miller will all be part of this first round of creator partnerships.
Then there was Samsung TV Plus, which added eight creator-focused channels to its FAST offering, featuring designated hubs for Mark Rober, Dhar Mann, Michelle Khare, Smosh, The Try Guys, Epic Gardening, The Sorry Girls and Donut Media. As cable continues to decline, creators have been increasingly filling the gaps in the reality TV market. Multiple reality producers even pointed to the trend in Reality Blurred’s 2025 State of Reality TV.
“There’s no denying the new generation of ‘unscripted TV’ is on YouTube,” one showrunner and executive producer said in the report. “Creators are making great unscripted content, outside the old distribution channels, at a fraction of the cost and sometimes higher quality, with no network notes.”
Creators moved into theaters
Dude Perfect wasn’t the only creator group that had a theatrical premiere this year. YouTube film critic Chris Stuckmann’s “Shelby Oaks” was released by Neon in October; Kallmekris and CelinaSpookyBoo’s “House of Eden” premiered under RLJE Films and Shudder in July; and the creator-focused independent production company Creator Camp released Baron Ryan’s “Two Sleepy People” in November as part of a grassroots theatrical campaign.
Those four movies are just the beginning. A24 is developing “Backrooms,” a movie from Kane Parsons based on his exploration of unsettlingly empty buildings. Markiplier’s independent horror movie, “Iron Lung,” will premiere in major theaters like AMC, Regal and Cinemark early in 2026. And next year will see the premiere of Kevin Hart’s “Livestream from Hell,” a horror comedy also starring Kai Cenat and Druski.
Stricter age verification measures disrupted platforms
One of the biggest stories lurking in the background of 2025 had a major development earlier this month. After years of fretting over what children can watch on the internet, Australian children and teenagers under the age of 16 were banned from using social media services like Tiktok, X, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Snapchat and Threads. Under this new legislation, underage users will not be allowed to to set up new accounts, and existing accounts will be deactivated.
This massive change is being closely watched by countries around the world, and it’s just one instance of governments cracking down on social media. This summer, the U.K. implemented the Online Safety Act, a measure to protect users under the age of 18 from watching pornography on sites like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube and Google. To follow through with this act, several platforms used AI to determine a user’s age through a live photo or video and required adult users to verify their age through personal information such as a credit card or photo ID.
Stateside, Bluesky pulled out of Mississippi after the state passed a law requiring users of websites and other digital services to verify their age. As for Roblox, the gaming platform popular with younger users was sued by Texas, Kentucky and Louisiana over child safety concerns. Considering that many creators rely on younger audiences, these legal changes could have repercussions in the years to come.
