Summary:
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The creator economy is now the backbone of global culture, driving what people watch, buy, and believe.
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Collaboration with Evan Shapiro and Filmhub produced the Creator Ecosphere Map, showcasing engagement, trust, and participation across platforms.
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From YouTube’s global town square to TikTok’s creative lab, the map reveals a new hierarchy of influence based on engagement.
Editor’s Note
The creator economy has outgrown the label “trend.” It’s now the backbone of global culture, driving what people watch, buy, and believe. In collaboration with media cartogapher Evan Shapiro (ESHAP) and Filmhub, What’s Trending mapped the Creator Ecosphere – a data-driven snapshot of who and what truly moves culture across platforms. From YouTube’s global town square to TikTok’s creative lab, and the studios, tools, and agencies powering them, this map reveals a new hierarchy of influence built not on fame, but on engagement, trust, and participation.
– Shira Lazar, Founder & CEO, What’s Trending
An ESHAP × What’s Trending collaboration, powered by Filmhub
For the first time, What’s Trending has teamed up with Evan Shapiro (ESHAP) and Filmhub to chart the modern creator economy, an industry expected to reach half a trillion dollars by 2027.
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The result is our Creator Ecosphere Map, a data-driven visualization of the people and platforms shaping culture today, from YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok to the tools, studios, and agencies behind them.
These interactive maps highlight Engagement Quality (EQ), a 30-day engagement-to-follower ratio sourced from InfluencerMarketing.AI. EQ cuts through vanity metrics to show who commands real fandom and who simply accumulates numbers.
With billions of people engaging across platforms like YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok, the Creator Ecosphere Map offers a real-time snapshot of how creators, brands, and fans interact in the modern media universe.
YouTube: The Global Town Square
YouTube – where scale meets storytelling.
MrBeast (439M subscribers) towers over YouTube with the highest EQ rating among megastars, underscoring how his mix of spectacle and generosity continues to set the platform’s standard.
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Cocomelon (197M) and T-Series (302M) highlight the dominance of kids’ content and music in driving subscriber counts.
The map also surfaces emerging engagement leaders like Mark Rober (70.9M) and Stokes Twins (131M), where EQ outpaces raw size, suggesting that influence often grows strongest in niches before scaling mainstream.
With 2.5B monthly active users (MAU), YouTube remains the largest platform in the ecosystem, but EQ makes clear how attention is distributed unevenly across kids’ channels, music giants, and individual creators.
TikTok: Creator Culture’s Frontline
If YouTube is the town square, TikTok is the cultural lab – fast, participatory, and impossible to predict.
Khaby Lame (161M followers) is TikTok’s undisputed top creator, combining universal humor with one of the highest EQs in the field.
Charli D’Amelio (156M) still defines the early wave of TikTok fame, but newer stars like Kimberly Loaiza (84M) and niangüerrero (41M) showcase the platform’s global breadth and the high-engagement power of regional creators.
Cross-platform giants like MrBeast (119M) and Zach King (82.1M) prove that format adaptation, not just repurposed content, keeps engagement strong across ecosystems.
With 1.6B MAU, TikTok drives creator culture at speed: songs, memes, and movements often begin here before spreading elsewhere. EQ on the map reinforces that celebrities (e.g., Will Smith, Kylie Jenner) can’t always replicate the same cultural pull as platform-native stars.
Instagram: The Celebrity x Creator Crossroads
Instagram sits at the crossroads of celebrity and community, where fame meets fandom.
Cristiano Ronaldo (654.9M followers) and Lionel Messi (504.9M) dominate with global sports fandom, while Selena Gomez (421.8M) and Kylie Jenner (394.4M) underscore Instagram’s ongoing role as celebrity HQ.
But EQ reshuffles the deck: Billie Eilish (124.8M), Zendaya (180.4M), and Taylor Swift (282.5M) score among the top in engagement relative to size, showing that fan intensity and fandom outweighs volume.
Brands like Nike (302.2M), NatGeo (279.6M), and Real Madrid (172.3M) stand shoulder to shoulder with individuals, proving Instagram’s dual role as a stage for both creators and global enterprises.
With 3B MAU, Instagram is the largest of the three platforms. Its map reveals how EQ spotlights the distinction between audience accumulation and true cultural resonance.
Facebook: The Legacy Giant
Once the center of gravity for digital life, Facebook now plays a quieter but broader role – a reach machine rather than a culture maker.
Cristiano Ronaldo (166M followers) still reigns supreme, with athletes, musicians, mainstream celebrities and corporate brands driving the biggest audiences.
Although Facebook’s engagement rates skew lower compared to TikTok or YouTube, its 3.1B MAU keep it the broadest-reaching social network globally.
For creators and brands, Facebook remains less about trendsetting and more about sheer reach, especially in older demographics and emerging markets.
LinkedIn: The Professional Stage
Bill Gates (43M followers) and Satya Nadella (14.5M) headline LinkedIn’s unique blend of business leaders, entrepreneurs, and knowledge creators.
Creators like Richard Branson (20M) and Arianna Huffington (10M) show how personal branding thrives in the professional sphere.
With 1.1B MAU, LinkedIn has become a creator platform in its own right, where thought leadership and industry expertise drive high EQ in B2B and professional niches.
Snapchat: Ephemeral Influence
Snapchat’s ecosystem centers around creators like Charli D’Amelio (30M+) and DJ Khaled, who made the platform a home for daily real-time storytelling.
With 930M MAU, Snapchat thrives among Gen Z as a messaging-first platform where creators succeed by blending authenticity with direct fan interaction and monetization opportunities.
The platform’s EQ highlights that short bursts of personal content can build deeper loyalty than polished posts.
Reddit: The Community Engine
Reddit’s creator culture looks different – it’s powered by community moderators, meme-makers, and collective fandoms rather than individual influencers. It’s also the most underrated engines of the creator ecosphere.
With 1.2B MAU, Reddit thrives as the home of micro-communities, from r/WallStreetBets to r/AskReddit, where EQ is measured in upvotes and comments rather than likes or shares.
Creators here succeed not through celebrity, but through participation and trust within specific niche cultures — a kind of influence that’s becoming even more valuable as other go-to social platforms face controversy, fatigue, and over-saturation.
Twitch: Culture in Motion
Gaming stars like Ninja, Pokimane, and xQc lead Twitch, with millions of followers tuning in live for gameplay, reactions, and community hangouts. Kai Cenat has even transformed his streaming experience into a variety talk show, featuring gaming challenges, huge guest talent and celebs.
With 240M MAU, Twitch dominates the live-streaming space, where EQ is about real-time engagement, including chat interaction, donations, and subscriptions.
The map underscores Twitch’s unique place in the creator economy – not asynchronous content, but live culture at scale.
Pinterest: The Visual Idea Board
Creators like Zoella, Oh Joy!, and DIY influencers thrive on Pinterest by curating boards that drive long-term inspiration.
With 578M MAU, Pinterest remains a discovery engine, where content is evergreen and EQ is tied to saves and repins rather than fleeting likes.
Its power lies in curation and conversion – turning inspiration into purchases, making it a vital creator hub for lifestyle, design, food, and fashion.
Podcasts: The Intimacy Channel
Podcasts have become one of the most powerful mediums in the creator economy, built on long-form audio storytelling and deep community connection.
YouTube and Spotify dominate the space, competing for both creators and listeners as podcasting evolves from an audio niche into a visual, cross-platform experience. Joe Rogan remains the dominant figure, with exclusive Spotify reach that reshaped the business model for the entire industry. Shows like Call Her Daddy, Huberman Lab, and SmartLess prove that podcasts can cultivate loyal fan communities that rival the engagement of visual-first creators.
With 584M global listeners, podcasts thrive on time spent rather than quick interactions. EQ here is measured in hours listened, subscriptions, and advertiser loyalty. Unlike other platforms, podcast engagement is rooted in trust and consistency — giving creators an outsized influence on culture, commerce, and even politics.
X: The Unfiltered Town Square
Once known as Twitter, X remains one of the most polarizing yet culturally potent platforms in the Creator Ecosphere. With roughly 590 million monthly active users, its real-time format continues to shape global news cycles, politics, and pop culture in ways few others can match. Figures like Elon Musk, Barack Obama, Rihanna, and Cristiano Ronaldo top follower charts, but engagement quality has declined since major policy and algorithm shifts under Musk’s ownership.
X still functions as a megaphone for power users, brands, journalists, and political figures, but has lost ground to platforms that emphasize creativity and community over controversy. As one map note points out, MAU data is “entirely unreliable,” a fitting reflection of X’s current volatility within the broader ecosystem.
Substack: The Independent Press
With 50 million monthly active users and 5 million paying subscribers, Substack has become the go-to platform for independent writers, thought leaders, and creator-journalists building direct relationships with their audiences. From The Ankler and Pop Culture Brain to voices like Adam Grant, Derek Shen, and Ray Dalio, Substack has reframed newsletters as a media business in their own right.
Here, Engagement Quality (EQ) is built on trust and attention span: open rates, paid subscriptions, and reader communities replace likes or shares. Substack’s growth underscores a broader creator-economy trend: audience ownership over algorithmic dependence, as creators seek sustainable, subscription-based ways to publish ideas and drive discourse.
Patreon: The Direct-to-Fan Model
Among the many companies popping up in the subscription model space, Patreon still remains supreme. Top Patreon earners like Matt & Shane’s Secret Podcast (172K patrons) and True Crime Obsessed (45K), prove that subscription-backed fandom can sustain creators outside traditional platforms and advertising.
With 10M paying users, Patreon emphasizes depth over breadth: smaller but intensely loyal fanbases willing to pay directly for exclusive content.
Here, EQ is measured not in likes but in dollars per fan, making it one of the purest forms of engagement in the creator economy.
Studios & IP Management
From Barstool Sports to Mythical and First We Feast, creator-led studios have matured into full-fledged media networks, blending traditional production values with creator-led agility. Distribution partners like WatchMojo, Totem, and Trusted Media Brands bridge the gap between digital creators and mainstream audiences, proving that independent IP can travel as far as Hollywood franchises when coupled with strong community engagement.
Tools & Platforms
Software and service tools, from Adobe, Canva, and CapCut to Opus Clip, Descript, and Runway, are now as vital as cameras or microphones. These platforms democratize production and post-production, making professional-grade creation accessible to anyone with a smartphone. Beyond editing, platforms like Circle, Collective Voice, Mighty Networks, and Discord enable creators to build and nurture their own communities, while monetization tools like Buy Me a Coffee, Fourthwall, and Shopify turn fandom into sustainable income.
Agencies & Representation
Agencies such as Viral Nation, WME, CAA, NeoReach, Movers+Shakers, and Influencer Marketing Factory, are redefining talent management for the digital era. They don’t just broker brand deals; they shape creator identities and companies, build campaigns, and connect influencers with broader media partnerships. Together, these agencies represent the connective tissue linking creators, commerce, and culture.
The Takeaway
The Creator Ecosphere is no longer a side industry, it Is the Industry. What started as individuals posting online has evolved into a complex, interdependent system of creators, studios, tools, and agencies shaping culture, economics, and influence worldwide.
As the lines between entertainment, entrepreneurship, and technology blur, engagement – not reach – is the new metric of power. The Creator Ecosphere Map captures this shift in real time – a world where creativity, authenticity, and trust, not just fame, define who truly moves culture next.
Methodology & How to Read the Map
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•Platform Scale: MAU and ad reach are drawn from public reporting (DataReportal, Meta, Nielsen, 2025).
•Engagement Quality (EQ): 30-day engagement-to-follower ratio sourced from InfluencerMarketing.AI, enabling cross-platform comparison.
•Color Coding:
•Green = High EQ (strong engagement relative to size)
•Yellow = Moderate EQ (balanced reach and interaction)
•Red = Low EQ (large followings, lower recent activity)
•Note: Kids’ content channels often list EQ as “N/A” due to unique engagement measurement methods.
The maps are living documents, reflecting a moment in time, and will continue to evolve as creators, audiences, and platforms shift.
