Do you know how many creators are on the Patreon platform? How about the total amount of payouts the platform has given to its creators?
In this post, we list the best Patreon statistics from several credible sources.
This includes general statistics and statistics that’ll help guide creators in the right direction.
Let’s take a look.
Editor’s top picks – Patreon statistics
Here’s a quick roundup of our picks for the top Patreon statistics from this list:
- In total, Patreon has issued more than $3.5 billion in payouts to creators. (Patreon)
- 41% of a Patreon creator’s income comes from Patreon itself. (Patreon Creator Census)
- According to estimates, Patreon’s annual revenue is $50-$75 million. (Similarweb1)
- Patreon receives 97.5 million visits per month on average. (Similarweb2)
- There are more than 54,000 video creators on Patreon earning over $5.9 million in payouts collectively on a monthly basis. (Graphtreon2)
General Patreon statistics
1. Patreon has paid out $3.5 billion in revenue to creators
According to data released from Patreon themselves, the platform has paid out more than $3.5 billion in revenue to creators.
Patreon makes money by taking 5-12% cuts from creator subscriptions. The fee is dependent on the plan creators joined when they signed up:
- Lite – 5%
- Pro – 8%
- Premium – 12%
There’s also a fourth Founders plan for creators who joined the platform before May 2019. Patreon takes a 5% cut from these creators.
Patreon also charges processing fees for credit and debit cards and different payment gateways:
- Credit Card and Apple Pay
- Payments that are $3 or less – 5% + $0.10
- Payments that are more than $3 – 2.9% + $0.30*
- PayPal or Venmo in the United States
- Payments that are $3 or less – 5% + $0.10
- Payments that are more than $3 – 2.9% + $0.30*
- PayPal or Venmo outside of the United States
- Payments that are $3 or less – 6% + $0.10
- Payments that are more than $3 – 3.9% + $0.30
There are also different processing rates for different currencies, but there are too many to list here.
Different payout methods also come with their own set of fees:
- Direct Deposit (not available to non-US creators) – $0.25 per payout
- PayPal – 1% of the amount transferred. The fee will be no less than $0.25 per payout but no more than $20 per payout.
- Payoneer (not available for US-based creators) – $1 per payout.
Like processing fees, different currencies have different payout fees.
*This is the standard transaction fee for processing credit cards, so it’s in line with industry standards.
Source: Patreon
2. Patreon’s annual revenue is estimated to be anywhere between $50 and $75 million
Patreon doesn’t publish annual reports, so the only way to determine its annual revenue is by looking at data collected from credible sources.
That includes Similarweb.
According to Similarweb, Patreon’s annual revenue is estimated to be $50 to $75 million.
Source: Similarweb1
3. Patreon.com receives 97.5 million visits per month
According to Patreon web traffic statistics collected by Similarweb over a three month period, Patreon.com receives 97.5 million visits per month on average.
Similarweb’s data also reveals that Patreon.com has a bounce rate of 56.18%.
On average, users visit 3.19 pages per visit and spend three minutes and 35 seconds on the site per session.
For comparison’s sake, here’s how much traffic some of Patreon’s biggest competitors receive on a monthly basis:
- OnlyFans – 310.9 million visits per month on average
- Ko-fi – 10 million visits
- Buy Me a Coffee – 4.7 million visits
- Podia – 3.4 million visits
- Sellfy – 469,600 visits
Each competitor offers a membership platform or subscription option that make great alternatives to Patreon.
Source: Similarweb2, Similarweb3, Similarweb4, Similarweb5, Similarweb6, Similarweb7
4. Patreon has received $413.3 million in funding from investors
According to Crunchbase’s data, Patreon has received a total of $413.3 million in funding from investors from 10 rounds of funding.
The most Patreon generated from a single funding round was $155 million. This came from a total of eight investors, the primary of which was Tiger Global Management.
Source: Crunchbase
5. The average salary at Patreon is $165,083.11 annually
According to over 200 salaries reported by Patreon employees and job listings posted by Patreon at Indeed, the average Patreon employee makes $165,083.11 annually.
The highest salary is for a fraud manager at $262,000/year, which is 180% above the national average.
The lowest salary is for a social media specialist at $62,000/year, which is 22% above the national average.
Source: Indeed
Patreon statistics for creators to know
6. Creators who promote their Patreons daily earn 75% more from the platform
Patreon surveyed its creators and asked them how often they promote their accounts to their followers.
They found that 21.3%, the majority of creators, promote their Patreons two to three times a month.
18.1% promote their Patreons once a week while 17.6% promote theirs several times a week.
7.3% of creators promote their Patreons daily, and after digging a little deeper and doing a bit of additional analysis, Patreon discovered that creators who do promote their Patreons daily wind up generating 75% more from the platform.
Here are the remaining stats from this metric: 8.7% of creators promote their Patreons every two to three months, 5.4% promote theirs less often than every six months and 3.6% never promote theirs.
Source: Patreon Creator Census
7. There are more than 8 million monthly active users on Patreon
According to the company’s own data, there are more than 8 million monthly active users, who Patreon calls “patrons,” on the Patreon platform.
That’s not just the number of Patreon users there are.
That number represents the number of patrons who are actively paying subscription fees and actually consuming content on the platform on a monthly basis.
Source: Patreon
8. There are more than 250,000 creators on Patreon
The company’s data also explains how there are over 250,000 Patreon creators.
The platform is home to podcasters, video creators, musicians, visual artists, writers, and more.
However, according to Graphtreon, when you only count creators with at least one patron, the number of creators the platform has shrinks to 225,000.
Source: Patreon, Graphtreon
9. Patreon issues more than $25 million in payouts to creators on a monthly basis
According to Patreon creator statistics collected by Graphtreon on Patreon, Patreon payouts amount to over $25 million on a monthly basis, excluding hidden earnings.
These creator earnings come from over 14 million pledges, excluding hidden pledges.
For transparency’s sake, it’s important to note that Graphtreon is only able to include data from creators who choose to share their earnings and pledges, hence the “excluding hidden so and so” note you see attached to some of the statistics in this post.
In an article published to the platform’s blog in April of 2021, Patreon stated that over 200,000 creators were generating more than $100 million a month collectively from the platform.
So, it’s likely this number is much higher than $25 million when you include hidden earnings.
And because that blog post is more than two years old, creators likely generate well over $100 million from Patreon on a monthly basis by now.
Source: Graphtreon1, Patreon Blog
10. The most competitive category on Patreon is the video category at over 54,000 creators
This is probably one of the more unsurprising statistics on this list.
According to Graphtreon’s data on Patreon, Patreon hosts more than 54,000 video creators who primarily make video content.
This is the number you get when you only count creators who have at least one patron.
Collectively, these Patreon creators earn $5.9 million in monthly payouts, excluding hidden earnings.
These payouts come from over 3.8 million monthly pledges, excluding hidden pledges.
Source: Graphtreon2
11. The least competitive category on Patreon is the magazine category at only 500+ creators
According to data collected by Graphtreon, the magazine category on Patreon is the least competitive category to join.
At least, this is the case when you only base the results on categories that also have interest on Google.
There are just over 550 creators with at least one patron in this category.
Monthly payouts amount to more than $64,000, excluding hidden earnings, while monthly pledges amount to over 33,000, excluding hidden pledges.
Source: Graphtreon3
12. There are over 15,000 creators in the podcast category on Patreon
Graphtreon’s data on the podcast category reveals that there are over 15,800 creators in this category with at least one patron each.
They earn a collective payout of $3.6 million on a monthly basis, excluding hidden earnings.
These payouts come from over 2.2 million individual pledges, excluding hidden pledges.
Source: Graphtreon4
13. The top Patreon creator is Matt and Shane’s Secret Podcast with more than 61,000 patrons
Grapheon also collects data on the top creators on Patreon.
They report that Matt and Shane’s Secret Podcast, a variety show by Philly-based comedians Matt McCusker and Shane Gillis, has the highest number of patrons on the platform at over 61,800 patrons.
Their pledge options range from $1/month to $50/month.
Other top Patreon creators include Maintenance Phase with over 45,200 patrons and True Crime Obsessed with more than 44,200 patrons.
Source: Graphtreon5
Top Patreon statistics from the creator census
Note: Patreon conducted a survey of its creators in early 2022 and published the data in May of that year. Over 13,000 creators from 113 countries took part in the survey.
61.94% of respondents were from North America, 21.2% were from Europe, 5.65% were from Asia, 5.08% were from Latin America, 2.26% were from Australia and New Zealand, 0.76% were from Africa and the Middle East, and 3.12% were from a variety of different regions.
The statistics in this section represent our top picks from this census.
14. Patreon creators make 41% of their income from Patreon
Patreon asked its creators about their primary sources of income.
Collectively, creators make 41% of their income from Patreon.
Here are additional sources of income for creators and what percentages they represent of a creator’s total income:
- Job Related to Creative Pursuits – 11%
- Commissions – 8%
- Subscriptions On Other Platforms – 7%
- Ad Revenue – 7%
- Coaching or Teaching – 5%
- Book Sales – 4%
- Merchandise – 3%
- Sales from Digital Downloads – 3%
- Live Shows – 2%
- Brand Sponsorships – 2%
- Other Sources – 9%
Note: Patreon says numbers were rounded up to the nearest whole number.
Source: Patreon Creator Census
15. 38% of Patreon creators are mostly interested in video topics
Patreon asked its creators about the types of mediums they primarily use to create content.
38% of respondents, which was the majority, primarily use video.
17% primarily use writing, 14% use audio, 11% use visual arts, 6% create video games or video game mods, 6% create photography, and 8% use other types of creative mediums.
Patreon also asked creators about the platforms they used to grow their followings:
- Video Creators – 50% of creators found their audiences on YouTube.
- Writers – 19% used Facebook, 17% used Discord and 14% used their own websites.
- Audio/Music – 30% of creators used YouTube.
- Podcasters – 17% used Facebook, 16% used podcast networks and another 16% used Twitter.
- Visual Artists – 21% used DeviantArt and 19% used Twitter.
- Developers/Modders – 18% used Twitter and 17% used Discord.
Source: Patreon Creator Census
16. 70% of Patreon creators use the platform as a way to give their followers a way to support them
Patreon asked creators about the benefits they offer to patrons.
70% use Patreon as a simple way to offer their followers a way to support them outside of watching ads, using affiliate links and buying merch.
69% offer exclusive content on Patreon, and 57% offer early access to content.
Here are additional benefits creators deliver to patrons through subscriptions:
- Access to complete post archive – 39% of creators offer this benefit to patrons
- Giving patrons shoutouts in videos or listing their names in credits – 37%
- Fan requests and voting rights – 35%
- Interactions with creator and other patrons through locked posts and comments – 30%
- Access to Discord or Facebook group – 29%
- Educational content – 19%
- Digital downloads – 16%
- Patron-only livestreams – 16%
- Weekly or bi-weekly physical goods, such as exclusive merch – 13%
- One-on-one interactions with creator – 11%
- Custom digital commissions – 10%
- One-on-one coaching or teaching sessions – 9%
- Ask me anything sessions (AMAs) – 8%
- Monthly physical goods – 6%
- VIP access to in-person events – 5%
Source: Patreon Creator Census
17. 55% of Patreon creators consider themselves to be seasoned content creators
Patreon asked creators to rate themselves on a scale from 1 to 6 with 1 designated for creators who feel they’re just starting out to 6 being for those who feel they’re “seasoned professionals.”
55% of creators voted for 4, 5 and 6: 23% rated themselves a 4, 21% chose 5 and 11% chose 6.
21% of creators rated themselves a 3, 17% chose 2 and 5% chose 1.
Note: These are the numbers Patreon gives in their results. Because they don’t add up to 100% and Patreon gives no explanation for that, it’s likely they made a small error and these figures are slightly skewed.
Source: Patreon Creator Census
18. 80% of Patreon creators work alone
Patreon asked creators who they work with.
80% of creators say they work alone.
11% work with a team, and 8% work alone but partner with non-creators.
Podcasters are the group who are most likely to work as part of a team. In fact, 39% of Patreon creators do.
Creators who create visual arts are most likely to work solo: 94% do.
Source: Patreon Creator Census
19. 96% of creators want followers to be able to give one-time tips on Patreon
Patreon asked creators to rate how important potential features would be if they were added to the platform.
Creators were able to select the following responses to each potential feature:
- Crucial
- Nice to have
- Don’t care
- Please don’t
96%, or the majority of creators, voted “one-time tips” as being the most important potential feature to have on the platform.
To be more specific, 61% think this is a “crucial” feature to have while 35% think it would be “nice to have.”
3% “don’t care,” and 1% do not want the feature to be implemented on the platform at all.
It’s unsurprising for one-time tips, or the ability for followers to donate to creators in one-off instances rather than paying ongoing subscriptions, to be the number one feature creators would like to have.
Most other platforms, including OnlyFans, Ko-fi and Buy Me a Coffee, not to mention primary content platforms like YouTube and Twitch, allow followers to tip or send donations to creators in one way or another.
The addition of this feature would allow Patreon to become even more competitive.
Here are the other features Patreon asked creators about, in order of most to least wanted:
- Gift memberships – 91% think this feature would be “crucial” or “nice to have.”
- Customizable landing page – 90%
- New patron data – 88%
- Patron notifications – 86%
- Control of back catalog access – 84%
- Canceled patron data – 82%
- Community forum/chat – 74%
- One-time unlockables – 71%
- Livestreaming – 71%
- Custom badges/emojis – 69%
- Free trial memberships – 67%
- Exclusive merch for patrons – 62%
- Integration with shipping services – 62%
- Sell tickets to live events – 42%
- Crypto payments – 27%
Crypto payments being the feature Patreon creators least want implemented into the platform is interesting due to the fact that it’s the only potential feature Patreon included additional questions for in their survey.
That question revealed that 70.88% of Patreon creators either “don’t care” (28.5%) to have crypto payments implemented into the platform or don’t want the feature to be implemented at all (42.38%).
28.88% of Patreon creators do want the feature to be implemented.
10.13% think it would be a “crucial” feature to have while 18.75% think it would be “nice to have.”
The group pushing for crypto payments the most on Patreon are image-based creators, likely due to the NFT art craze.
Source: Patreon Creator Census
20. 90% of Patreon creators want to grow their audiences above all else
Patreon asked creators about the goals they have for their brands.
The majority of creators, or 90%, want to grow their audiences.
25% want to collaborate with other creators more often, 18% want to hire staff members and another 18% want to experiment with a new creative medium.
Here are goals other creators want to focus on, listed from highest to lowest priority:
- Try a new channel or platform – 12%
- Add creative collaborators to the team – 12%
- Launch a new podcast – 9%
- Build or hire someone to build a website – 9%
- Experiment with new monetization options – 6%
- Build or hire someone to design an app – 2%
- Other goals – 7%
Source: Patreon Creator Census
Patreon statistics sources
Final thoughts
These statistics reveal quite a bit about the Patreon platform and its creators.
The biggest revelation has to do with the platform’s impact on a creator’s income.
For creators who decide to use the platform, Patreon is a major source of income, one they’re able to generate without relying on someone else’s product (sponsors and affiliate products).
In fact, Patreon is one of the easiest ways to offer subscription services in exchange for premium content, among other benefits.
One of the other major revelations these statistics uncovered is how competitive the platform is when it comes to video content.
This is why it’s important for creators to branch out and try different creative mediums as well as find a target audience within a niche on specific platforms.
All in all, if you’re a content creator, Patreon offers one of the best ways to leverage the power of your audience and give them additional ways to support you.
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