Forbes published its annual Top Creators 2026 ranking on June 23, listing the 50 most powerful internet creators by gross earnings. For the first time the list collectively broke $1 billion — totalling $1.02B, a 20% jump year-over-year. MrBeast leads by a wide margin at $300M. Streamers and gaming creators who made the cut: iShowSpeed, Druski, Typical Gamer, and Jacksepticeye.
$1.02B
Total earnings, top 50
+20%
YoY growth
$300M
MrBeast earnings
4+
Streamers on list
Of the 50 creators ranked, four have strong streaming or gaming roots. Here's what Forbes said about each one.
$300M
earnings
873M
followers
3.00%
engagement
Jimmy Donaldson's global production empire — 640M+ YouTube subscribers, Beast Industries (Feastables, Lunchly, Viewstats, Step), Beast Games Season 2 on Amazon Prime with Season 3 in production, and a reported $5B company valuation.
$20M
earnings
38.5M
followers
13.77%
engagement
Sketch comic Drew Desbordes is everywhere — YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, national TV commercials for T-Mobile and Dunkin', and hosting the June 2026 BET Awards. Recent collaborations: Kevin Hart, Timothée Chalamet, Jeff Bridges, and Zoe Saldana.
$30M
earnings
184M
followers
0.39%
engagement
From NBA 2K clips in 2016 to 184M followers. Speed pivoted to soccer content with Cristiano Ronaldo collabs, then launched Speed Does America and Speed Does Africa IRL tours. This summer he partnered with FIFA for the World Cup 2026 Tour. Brand deals: Dick's Sporting Goods, Beats By Dre, Doritos.
$13M
earnings
31.6M
followers
0.02%
engagement
Andre Rebelo has 16M YouTube subscribers and 1M Twitch fans watching Fortnite, GTA, and Minecraft content. His game development company Jogo builds maps and play modes for Fortnite, generating millions beyond ad revenue.
$18M
earnings
48.9M
followers
0.24%
engagement
Irish YouTuber Sean McLoughlin built a multimillion-dollar brand around gaming and 'try not to laugh' content. He turned his signature 'top of the mornin' to ya, laddies' catchphrase into a coffee brand — Top of the Mornin' Coffee — and plans to revive charity streams in 2026.
Though not primarily a live streamer today, Mark Fischbach (Markiplier) landed at #4 with $38M. His self-funded feature film Iron Lung screened at 3,000 theaters in North America with a 50/50 revenue split and earned $50M at the box office — the biggest gaming-roots crossover into traditional cinema on the list.
The $1.02B total is an 80% surge from the $570M debut list in 2022. Forbes measures gross earnings between March 2025 and March 2026 — covering ad revenue, brand deals, merch, and entrepreneur income, but not equity in companies. The entrepreneur score (1–4) rates whether a creator merely takes brand deals (1) or builds their own products and companies (4).
All four streaming creators scored a 4 for entrepreneurship — Typical Gamer's game dev company Jogo, Jacksepticeye's Top of the Mornin' Coffee, MrBeast's Beast Industries, and Speed's global brand partnerships — showing that the biggest streamers no longer depend solely on platform revenue.
| # | Creator | Earnings | Followers |
|---|---|---|---|
| #1 | MrBeast | $300M | 873M |
| #2 | Dhar Mann | $65M | 171M |
| #3 | Steven Bartlett | $52M | 38.7M |
| #4 | Markiplier | $38M | 76.8M |
| #5 | Rhett & Link | $37M | 45.6M |
| #6 | Charli D'Amelio | $18M | 209.8M |
| #7 | Druski | $20M | 38.5M |
| #8 | IShowSpeed | $30M | 184M |
| #9 | Mark Rober | $30M | 90.7M |
| #10 | Codie Sanchez | $31M | 10M |