Patreon: Subscriber and Creator Statistics for 2023

Patreon: Subscriber and Creator Statistics for 2023

Brian Dean

by Brian Dean · Updated Aug. 23, 2023

Patreon: Subscriber and Creator Statistics

Patreon launched in 2013 with a mission to help creatives monetize their content.

Within 18 months, 125,000 “patrons” were using the platform to make recurring payments to creators. And total monthly payments hit the $1 million landmark.

Patreon has continued to grow and now boasts more than 6 million active patrons. The platform supports a network of more than 210 thousand creators.

On this page, you’ll find the latest statistics on Patreon’s growth to date.

First, here’s a quick overview of what you’re about to read:

Patreon Stats (Highlights)

  • Patreon hosts over 6 million patrons. 4 million of these supporters have joined within the last 3 years.
  • More than 210,000 creators are supported by at least 1 patron.
  • Patreon has raised a total funding of $412.1 million.
  • Patreon’s post-money valuation is $4 billion.
  • Creators on Patreon have made an estimated $2 billion.

Supporters on Patreon

Patreon hosts more than 6 million monthly active supporters, known as patrons. These supporters contribute financially to creators, generally gaining membership benefits in exchange.

Patreon hosts more than 6 million monthly active supporters

The number of patrons has increased by 50% over the last year.

In fact, patron numbers have tripled over the last 3 years. 4 million new supporters have joined Patreon since 2017.

Supporters on Patreon

Here’s an overview of the recent growth in the number of patrons:

Year Number of patrons
2017 2 million
2018 3 million
2019 4 million
2020 6 million

Source: Patreon, TechCrunch

Creators on Patreon

Patreon hosts more than 200,000 creators.

Patreon hosts more than 200,000 creators

Based on Graphtreon data, 213,233 creators have at least one patron. That’s an increase of 18.39% since September 2020.

The number of Patreon creators has increased 5.58x since September 2016. In this time, 175,020 new participants have joined the platform.

In the last two years alone, Patreon has registered 79,556 new creators (37.31% of the existing base).

Creators on Patreon

Here’s a table showing the growth in the number of Patreon creators since March 2016:

Date Number of Patreon creators (with at least 1 patron)
March 2016 26,703
June 2016 31,744
September 2016 38,203
December 2016 45,243
March 2017 55,603
June 2017 67,571
September 2017 80,059
December 2017 91,847
March 2018 106,821
June 2018 117,966
September 2018 124,078
December 2018 130,170
March 2019 138,881
June 2019 136,911
September 2019 133,667
December 2019 137,083
March 2020 171,279
June 2020 192,965
September 2020 180,099
December 2020 185,537
March 2021 192,450
June 2021 196,256
September 2021 213,223

Source: Patreon, Graphtreon

Annual creator earnings on Patreon

According to company data, creators on Patreon make a combined total of more than $2 billion. Overall creator earnings on the platform have doubled since 2019.

Annual creator earnings on Patreon

Here’s a table showing collective creator earnings on Patreon since 2017:

Year Amount
2017 $150 million
2018 $300 million
2019 $500 million
2020 $1 billion
2021 $2 billion

Source: Patreon, TechCrunch

Monthly creator earnings on Patreon

Creators on Patreon earned a total of $23.64 million in September 2021. Monthly payouts have increased by 23.18% over the last year, up from an estimated $19.19 million in September 2020.

Monthly creator earnings on Patreon

Here’s a table with estimated monthly payments to Patreon creators since March 2016:

Date Monthly payouts (excluding hidden earnings)
March 2016 $4.95 million
June 2016 $5.69 million
September 2016 $6.84 million
December 2016 $8.21 million
March 2017 $8.51 million
June 2017 $9.14 million
September 2017 $9.6 million
December 2017 $9.85 million
March 2018 $10.99 million
June 2018 $11.63 million
September 2018 $11.81 million
December 2018 $11.79 million
March 2019 $12.05 million
June 2019 $12.17 million
September 2019 $10.34 million
December 2019 $12.6 million
March 2020 $14.99 million
June 2020 $18.46 million
September 2020 $19.19 million
December 2020 $20.52 million
March 2021 $22.36 million
June 2021 $23.23 million
September 2021 $23.64 million

Source: Graphtreon

Only 697 creators on Patreon (0.33% of the total number) receive sponsorship from more than 2,000 patrons.

The top creator on Patreon is True Crime Obsessed, a podcast series that reviews true crime documentaries. 43,823 patrons sponsor the show.

Most popular creators on Patreon

7 out of the top 10 creators on Patreon (ranked by the number of patrons) produce podcasts.

Here’s a ranking of the most popular creators on Patreon:

Note: Data as of November 2021.
Creator Number of patrons (Monthly earnings if available)
True Crime Obsessed 43,823
Chapo Trap House 35,914 ($159,005)
The Tim Dillon Show 34,158 ($181,415)
DankPods 29,210
You’re Wrong About 28,604
Dark Cookie 28,034 ($72,832)
The Fantasy Footballers 25,330
TMG 22,794
TrueAnon Podcast 20,824 ($86,165)
Not Another D&D Podcast 20,037
The Cum Boys 19,852 ($88,825)
Flagrant 2 19,290 ($92,475)
Maintenance Phase 19,168
Cold Ones 17,738 ($75,143)
Dungeons and Daddies 17,379

Source: Graphtreon

Patreon creator categories

Nearly half (47.4%) of all creators on Patreon produce content within one of four categories: video, podcasts, music and gaming. 99,952 profiles are dedicated to these areas.

Patreon creator categories

Video content is the single most popular category, making up 25.88% of all Patreon profiles (54,582 creators).

Here’s a breakdown of Patreon creators by content category:

Note: Data as of November 2021.
Category Number of creators
Video 54,582 (25.88%)
Podcasts 16,152 (7.66%)
Music 15,530 (7.36%)
Games 13,688 (6.49%)
Writing 10,997 (5.21%)
Adult Video 8,803 (4.17%)
Comics 6,812 (3.23%)
Adult Games 4,642 (2.20%)
Adult Photography 2,375 (1.12%)
Adult Cosplay 1,378 (.65%)
Cosplay 1,044 (.49%)

Source: Graphtreon

What are the most lucrative content categories on Patreon?

Collectively, video producers make the most money on Patreon. Monthly earnings from video content add up to an estimated $6.37 million.

What are the most lucrative content categories on Patreon?

Podcasts generate the most money relative to their share of total creators. Despite only accounting for 7.66% of creators on Patreon, podcast makers bring in 14.80% of all monthly payouts.

Here’s a breakdown of total monthly creator earnings by category:

Note: Data as of October 2021.
Category Monthly payouts
Video $6.43 million (26.84%)
Podcasts $3.54 million (14.80%)
Games $1.77 million (7.39%)
Adult Games $1.84 million (7.70%)
Music $1.18 million (4.95%)
Writing $1.03 million (4.30%)
Adult Video $675 thousand (2.81%)
Adult Photography $94 thousand (0.39%)
Adult Cosplay $46 thousand (0.19%)
Cosplay $24 thousand (0.10%)

Source: Graphtreon

What is Patreon’s annual revenue?

Patreon makes money by taking a cut of all creator earnings generated through the platform. Patreon currently takes between 5% and 12% of creator earnings (plus a payment processing fee), depending on the product plan chosen by the customer.

Assuming the average cut is 8% of total earnings, Patreon registers $80 million in annual revenue.

Patreon annual revenue

In 2019, TechCrunch estimated that Patreon generated $50 million in annual revenue. An increase of 66.66% over the previous year.

Here’s a table with estimated Patreon revenue since 2017:

Year Estimated revenue
2017 $12-15 million
2018 $30 million
2019 $50 million
2020 $80 million
2021 $160 million

Source: Patreon, TechCrunch, Craft

Patreon funding

Patreon has completed 7 funding rounds so far, raising a combined total of $412.1 million.

Patreon funding

59.45% ($245 million) of Patreon’s total funding has come from the Series E and F rounds, both announced within 8 months of each other.

Here’s a breakdown of Patreon funding activity since 2013:

Funding round, Date Amount
Seed, August 2013 $2.1 million
Series A, June 2014 $15 million
Series B, January 2016 $30 million
Series C, September 2017 $59.4 million
Series D, July 2019 $60 million
Series E, September 2020 $90 million
Series F, April 2021 $155 million

Source: CB Insights

How much is Patreon worth?

As of the most recent funding round, Patreon’s post-money valuation is $4 billion. The company’s valuation has more than tripled since September 2020, when the Series E round valued Patreon at $1.2 billion.

Patreon post-money valuation

Patreon’s valuation has increased 26.95x in the last 5 years, up from $148.38 million in 2016.

Here’s an overview of the growth in Patreon’s post-money valuation since 2013:

Funding round, Date Post-Money Valuation
Seed, August 2013 $7.99 million
Series A, June 2014 $50.63 million
Series B, January 2016 $148.38 million
Series C, September 2017 $450 million
Series D, July 2019 $660 million
Series E, September 2020 $1.2 billion
Series F, April 2021 $4 billion

Source: Crunchbase

How many patents does Patreon hold?

Patreon holds 10 patents.

Here’s a breakdown of the number of patents granted to Patreon since 2017:

Year Number of granted patents
2017 3
2019 2
2020 2
2021 3

Source: CB Insights

How many employees work at Patreon?

Patreon has 200 full-time employees. The company has 4 offices, 3 of which are in the US. The other is located in Dublin, Ireland.

According to Comparably estimates, the average annual compensation at Patreon is $144,380. Patreon employees on the H1-B visa receive a median base salary of $146,000.

Source: TechCrunch, Comparably, H1B Salary Database

Conclusion

You’ve reached the end of my roundup of Patreon stats for 2023.

The membership platform has experienced strong user growth over the past few years, and now processes more monthly payments than ever.

Now I am interested to hear from you:

Do you think Patreon’s business model is sustainable? How will the platform cope with a growing number of competitors?

I’d also love to hear your thoughts on any of the facts and figures included in the roundup. Or maybe you think I’ve missed something out.

Just drop a comment below.

7 Comments

  1. Very interesting numbers in there. I don’t know if I think their model is sustainable. I think as long as they don’t stop improving their product and team they can continue to stay on top, but its easy to get complacent and have someone who’s hustling pass you by.

    1. Brian Dean Avatar Brian Deansays:

      Very true, Dan. Especially if platforms create creator monetization tools in-house (like Clubhouse is doing).

  2. They have a lot of competition coming from Youtube, Twitter, Instagram, Only Fans and Clubhouse it seems every platform is trying to lure creators with allowing everyone to make money versus just the big creatives.

    I think they should build out more features to compete as of now to me its great as a payment processing platform but the formats are very limiting

  3. Yuuki Kanada Avatar Yuuki Kanadasays:

    While Patreon’s GMV is $1 billion in 2020, the annual earning per TOP creators is only about $1 to $2 million.

    Does this mean that Patreon’s GMV is supported by the mid-tail?
    Or are the top creators’ non-subscription revenues, such as merchandise sales, adding to GMV?

    1. Brian Dean Avatar Brian Deansays:

      Good question there. Patreon hasn’t released a full breakdown. But that’s a likely scenario.

  4. Daniel Avatar Danielsays:

    Brian, thanks for tracking these stats. This is valuable information. Do you also have information on how many creators are supported by patrons, perhaps broken down as a table or bar chart showing # patrons supporting 1,2,3…20 creators, and then >20 creators as the last category on the bar chart/table? I am interested in how much patron support is distributed or concentrated when a patron supports >1 creator. Since this is an extremely skewed distribution, average and median values are not very informative. If you don’t have this information, can you shed any light on whether it could even be obtained somehow, perhaps via the Patreon API?

    1. Brian Dean Avatar Brian Deansays:

      Hi Daniel, I’ll have to look into that. Patreon is relatively transparent with their data. But they don’t have a lot of data on individual contributions. Maybe if they go public they’ll end up releasing that data. Because you’re right: it would be interesting.

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