Forbes just released its 2026 Top Creators list, and the numbers will make you pause.
Here are the ten people sitting at the very top:
- MrBeast — $300 Million
Jimmy Donaldson is 28 years old and has earned more money from YouTube than most countries spend on roads. He has over 640 million subscribers across his channels, a food brand in Feastables, a production studio, and a reality show on Amazon Prime called Beast Games. The gap between him and number two on this list is $235 million.
- Dhar Mann — $65 Million
You know those videos that always end with someone learning a life lesson in the last five seconds? That’s Dhar Mann’s entire business model. He runs a 200-person team pumping out digital short films that rack up close to 300 million views every single week. Forbes says he recently signed a deal with Fox to produce 40 vertical dramas. The man turned moralising into a media empire.
- Steven Bartlett — $52 Million
The Diary of a CEO guy. British-born, built a podcast that somehow became a $425 million media holding company, sits on Dragons’ Den, and has partnerships with Spotify, LinkedIn, and Adobe. He also invested in AI coding platforms Replit and Lovable before most people knew what those were. Young, sharp, and not slowing down.
- Markiplier — $38 Million
Markiplier has been on YouTube since 2012 playing video games, which means he has basically been doing this longer than some of his fans have been alive. His film Iron Lung, which he wrote, directed, and starred in, made over $260 million at the box office on a $10 million budget. That’s not a YouTube creator. That’s a film studio.
- Rhett & Link — $37 Million
Good Mythical Morning, the morning talk show that somehow became one of YouTube’s most consistent earners. They put out 240 episodes a year for their main channel alone. Their spinoff, Mythical Kitchen, has pulled guests like Tom Hanks and Gordon Ramsay. Nobody talks about Rhett and Link enough, and yet here they are, year after year.
- Charli D’Amelio — $18 Million
The girl who broke TikTok at 15 is now 21 with 216 million followers and a business portfolio to match. Brand deals, Dancing with the Stars, a Broadway debut, her own fragrance line, and a fashion brand she co-runs with her sister. Forbes named her the highest-earning female creator on the list.
- Druski — $20 Million
Druski sits at number seven and has one of the most impressive stats on the entire list: an engagement rate of 13.77%, which is genuinely absurd. Most creators with his following would be at 2 or 3%. He hosted the BET Awards this year, starred in commercials for T-Mobile and Dunkin’, and has collaborated with everyone from Kevin Hart to Timothée Chalamet. The audience likes him. Like, really likes him.
8. IShowSpeed — $30 Million
Speed started posting NBA 2K content in 2016 and now has 184 million followers and a World Cup Tour partnership with FIFA. He did a travel series across America, another across Africa, locked in deals with Beats by Dre, Doritos, and Dick’s Sporting Goods, and became one of the most watched people on the internet almost entirely through chaotic energy and football. The Ronaldo collaboration was the turning point that launched him globally, and he hasn’t looked back since.
9. Mark Rober — $30 Million
Former NASA engineer who makes science feel fun on YouTube. He runs a STEM subscription kit company called CrunchLabs, works with brands like Rivian, Google, and Disney, and recently gave a TED Talk. He’s not the loudest person on this list but he might be the most trusted. Brands love that.
10. Codie Sanchez — $31 Million
Codie Sanchez built her following telling people to buy boring businesses: laundromats, car washes, vending machine routes. The twist is she actually does it herself, which is what separates her from the thousands of “financial education” creators who talk but don’t act. Her newsletter has over 750,000 subscribers, and her holding company quietly owns operating businesses across the US. She came from Goldman Sachs. She knows exactly what she’s doing.
