Forbes placed Jimmy Donaldson — the YouTube personality who built his following under the name MrBeast — at the top of its 2026 Top Creators list, attributing roughly $300 million in earnings to him over the ranking period. The list points to an expanding economic footprint among online content creators, whose audiences have become the foundation for ventures stretching across entertainment, consumer goods, technology, book publishing, and streaming platforms.
Forbes data covering the 50 creators on its latest list put their combined earnings at an estimated $1.02 billion — roughly $169 million more than the $853 million those ranked the prior year were reported to have pulled in together, a gain of around 20 percent. According to the findings, content creators are shifting away from ad revenue and brand partnerships toward building ventures that can hold their own against established entertainment industry players.
Whether the platform is YouTube, TikTok, a podcast feed, or a stand-up stage, these content-driven entrepreneurs have turned devoted followings into full commercial ecosystems — spanning original productions, branded merchandise, outside investments, and subscription revenue alongside deals with major brands. Television and streaming have become particularly fertile ground for this expansion, with creators whose careers began online now taking on film development roles, landing distribution agreements, and producing original content for platforms that have long anchored the entertainment industry.
Heading the rankings with a projected income of $300 million, MrBeast claimed the leading position on the earnings table. His audience grew through a content formula centred on YouTube-based challenges, large-scale giveaways, competitive formats with real consequences, and productions requiring considerable resources. Under the Beast Industries umbrella, a range of distinct operations takes shape — among them Feastables, a snack-focused brand; Lunchly, which packages ready-to-eat meals; Viewstats, a platform built around content analytics; and a licensing arm that extends into toys and apparel.
Forbes figures place his combined YouTube presence at more than 640 million subscribers, with those channels drawing upward of five billion views in a single year. Among his moves into longer-form content, a competition series called Beast Games found a home on Amazon Prime Video, with work on a third season already under way at the time of the report. Beast Industries took ownership of Step — a mobile application built to introduce teenagers to investing and personal finance — through a purchase completed in February 2026. Venture investors placed a $5 billion valuation on the company, according to a Forbes report.
Placing second on the list, Dhar Mann — known for his work across filmmaking and entrepreneurship — pulled in an estimated $65 million. Mann built the operation around narrative-driven production. Around 200 staff members work under his banner on digital programming that, by Forbes's count, draws close to 300 million views across a given week. Distributed across 13 languages, the material finds its way to audiences around the world.
A formal arrangement with the National Football League placed him in a designated "Chief Kindness Officer" capacity for Super Bowl LX. Under a distinct deal with Fox Entertainment, he is contracted to deliver 40 short-form vertical dramas across an 18-month window.
Pulling in an estimated $52 million, Steven Bartlett — who built his profile across entrepreneurship, investing, and podcast hosting — occupies the third position on the list. His public profile rests largely on a podcast called The Diary of a CEO, a long-form interview series hosted by Bartlett. Forbes places the worth of Steven.com — Bartlett's holding company, whose portfolio stretches across media, publishing, live events, and investment activity — at $425 million.
On the commercial side, brand arrangements with Spotify, LinkedIn, and Adobe sit alongside a portfolio of technology-focused stakes that takes in ventures such as Replit and Lovable. His presence on mainstream television grew through appearances on Dragons' Den.
Sitting at number four on the earnings list, Mark Edward Fischbach — the creator widely recognised under the handle Markiplier — pulled in an estimated $38 million. Among his forays into filmmaking, Iron Lung stands out as a feature-length project he financed and brought to the screen entirely through his own resources. Box-office data published by Forbes placed the film's North American haul at $50 million, drawn from runs at roughly 3,000 theatre locations across the continent. A 50-50 split of theatre revenue, arranged through his own negotiations, was among the details Forbes drew attention to. Two podcasts — Distractible and Go! — have kept Markiplier active within the digital entertainment space.
Placing fifth on the list, the comedy partnership of Rhett McLaughlin and Link Neal brought in a combined haul estimated at $37 million. The duo built their public profile around Good Mythical Morning, a talk-format YouTube series that drew a wide following. According to figures cited by Forbes, the show turns out around 240 episodes each year and draws an audience of close to 20 million people. Mythical Kitchen, a channel centred on food content, rounds out their portfolio of ventures.
Their ventures have branched out to cover both a streaming footprint — with titles available via Tubi — and a book publishing arm. Spaghetti Head & Chicken Fingers represents the fourth book from the duo in the food writing genre, extending a body of work that has taken shape across multiple releases.
Placed sixth on the list, Charli D'Amelio — whose following on TikTok has made her one of the platform's most recognised figures — pulled in an estimated $18 million. Her path to worldwide recognition was built on dance clips posted to TikTok, a platform whose short-form format turned D'Amelio into a globally watched creator. Once her run in & Juliet on Broadway wrapped up, D'Amelio turned her attention back to dance content and YouTube vlogs, all while keeping a roster of prominent fashion brand partnerships active. Her fashion partnerships include a brand ambassadorship with Prada alongside campaign work for Kate Spade.
Sitting seventh on the list, Drew Desbordes — the comedian and digital personality who performs under the name Druski — pulled in an estimated $20 million. Comedy sketches posted to YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram were the vehicle through which Druski built his public profile. Sponsorship arrangements with T-Mobile and Dunkin' form part of his portfolio of brand deals. Among the collaborations that earned coverage in Forbes were projects alongside Kevin Hart, Timothée Chalamet, Jeff Bridges, and Zoe Saldaña, with the BET Awards hosting duties adding another layer to that professional profile.
Darren Watkins Jr. — the online entertainer who built his platform under the name IShowSpeed — placed eighth on the list, with projected income put at $30 million. His path to wider attention ran through gaming content he had posted online. From gaming-only content, his output branched outward — joint projects with figures such as Cristiano Ronaldo brought him into football-related entertainment, while a pair of travel-driven livestream series, one tracing a journey across America and another across Africa, rounded out a broadening creative portfolio. Among his brand relationships, arrangements with Dick's Sporting Goods, Beats by Dre, and Doritos sit alongside a World Cup 2026 Tour tied to FIFA, a deal portfolio that Forbes has documented.
Placing ninth on the list, science communicator and former NASA engineer Mark Rober drew estimated income of $30 million. On YouTube, his viewership has built up around a format that blends technical concepts with hands-on experiments and a level of production that makes the material accessible to viewers. Forbes has reported that the operation behind Rober's videos draws on a workforce of around 100 people, with budgets for individual episodes running into seven figures. CrunchLabs, a venture he founded, delivers science and engineering kits to customers through a subscription-based model. Among the brand alliances on his roster, Rivian, Google, and Disney each hold a place as corporate partners.
Rounding out the top ten on the list, Codie Sanchez — whose background spans both entrepreneurship and journalism — drew estimated annual income of $31 million. Her work centres on entrepreneurship, business ownership, and pathways to investment — with a particular lean toward well-established sectors that tend to be overshadowed by the outsized attention given to high-profile tech ventures. According to a Forbes report, her audience across YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok has grown to a combined total of over seven million people.
The Forbes ranking reflects a creator economy that has broadened beyond its roots in ad revenue and brand sponsorships, taking shape instead as a multi-stream commercial landscape. The figures cited in the list represent projected or unverified income data rather than formally audited financial disclosures. How viewership figures are counted can vary depending on the time windows each outlet uses to compile their data.
