Top 7 Creators According to Forbes 2026 Top Creators List

Forbes dropped its 2026 Top Creators list at the Cannes Lions Festival on June 23, and the headline number is the one that matters most. For the first time since the ranking started in 2022, the top 50 creators combined cleared $1 billion in a single year, pulling in $1.02 billion total. That's up 20 percent from last year's $853 million, and up 80 percent from the $570 million the very first list recorded back in 2022. Their combined audience grew too, rising 7 percent to 3.6 billion followers across every major platform. Here's a look at the top seven names on the list and how each of them actually got there.

Top 7 Creators According to Forbes 2026 Top Creators List

MrBeast tops the ranking for the fifth straight year. Dhar Mann runs a 200-person studio that pulls in close to 300 million views a week. Steven Bartlett, Markiplier, and comedy duo Rhett and Link fill out the next three spots, with Druski and IShowSpeed rounding out the top seven.

1. MrBeast 

Jimmy Donaldson hasn't been knocked off the top spot once since Forbes started publishing this list in 2022, and the gap between him and everyone else underlines why. His YouTube channels have crossed 640 million subscribers combined, and at this point, the earnings barely resemble a creator's income at all. Between his production studio, the Feastables snack brand, and Beast Games, his competition show on Amazon Prime, Donaldson runs something that looks a lot closer to a media conglomerate than a YouTube channel.

2. Dhar Mann 

Dhar Mann Studios operates like an actual production house because that's basically what it is. Mann leads a 200-person team putting out scripted shorts that pull in close to 300 million views in a typical week, and he's been direct about the thinking behind it. "Most traditional studios create content and hope the audience follows," he said. "We listen to the audience and follow what they want." That approach, repeated across thousands of videos, is most of how he landed at number two.

3. Steven Bartlett 

Bartlett built almost all of his $52 million through The Diary of a CEO, the podcast that turned long, unhurried interviews into one of the biggest formats in audio. He gets CEOs, scientists, athletes, and public figures to sit and talk for hours, then turns those conversations into a media business that now competes directly with the outlets that used to interview him instead.

4. Markiplier 

Mark Fischbach has been one of the steadier names in gaming YouTube for over a decade, but his $38 million doesn't come from Let's Plays alone anymore. He's spent the last few years pushing into horror filmmaking and other production work, and that shift away from a single content format shows up clearly in the number.

5. Rhett and Link 

Rhett McLaughlin and Link Neal have been putting out Good Mythical Morning episodes daily since 2012, which makes the duo one of the longest continuously running acts on this entire list. That consistency, combined with Mythical Entertainment, the production company they built around it, accounts for most of the $37 million.

6. Druski 

Druski turned Coulda Been Records, a fictional record label and the comedy universe built around it, into one of the most recognized running bits on the internet. The $20 million now comes from a mix of brand deals, acting work, and the kind of mainstream crossover that happens when an internet bit gets big enough to stop being just a bit.

7. IShowSpeed 

Darren Watkins Jr. built his $30 million on volume rather than any single deal. Between YouTube ad revenue, livestream donations, and tours that have taken him across multiple continents, including his recent run through the 2026 World Cup, the number reflects someone whose income comes from constantly showing up everywhere rather than from one big payout.