The Creator Middle Class Is Disappearing

The creator economy keeps getting larger. The middle of it is not necessarily getting healthier.

CreatorIQ reported that the top 10% of creators received 62% of creator payments in 2025, up from 53% in 2023. The top 1% captured 21%. Average campaign earnings reached $11,400 while the median was only $3,000. [1]

The average says the party is expensive. The median tells you most guests are not drinking champagne.

Growth can hide concentration

Brand spending rises, platforms announce new monetisation tools and the biggest creators build studios. These facts create the impression that everyone with an audience is moving upward.

But creator markets have winner-heavy economics. Attention compounds. Large creators receive better deals, hire teams, improve production and secure collaborations that generate more reach. The advantage becomes circular.

A smaller creator can grow, but they compete inside a system where the top already owns distribution.

The missing middle is not made of failures

Many creators have meaningful audiences and real skills. They can write, shoot, edit, sell and understand a niche. What they lack is predictable demand.

One month brings a €4,000 campaign. The next brings nothing. A viral post creates followers but no product. An algorithm shift cuts reach before a sponsor renewal.

This is not unemployment and not stable business. It is episodic income wearing entrepreneurial language.

CreatorIQ found that 62% of creators already use operational support such as teams or outsourced services. [1] The work has professionalised faster than the pay has stabilised.

Brands contribute to the instability

Many campaigns are purchased as one-off experiments. A brand wants three videos around a launch, then disappears even if the work performed well.

Creators therefore spend a large share of time pitching, negotiating, chasing invoices and replacing clients. The public sees content. The business is a rolling sales pipeline.

Long-term ambassador deals would provide stability, but they concentrate further around proven names that feel safe to procurement teams.

AI increases supply faster than demand

Generative tools reduce the cost of scripts, editing, translation and visuals. They help small teams produce more.

They also allow thousands more people to enter the market and established creators to publish at greater volume. When content supply grows faster than audience time, being competent becomes less scarce.

The value shifts toward taste, trust, access and owned distribution. AI can help make a video. It cannot guarantee that anyone chooses to care.

What a creator middle class would require

A healthier middle would depend less on occasional sponsorship jackpots and more on several moderate income streams:

• Recurring brand partnerships
• Paid communities or subscriptions
• Affiliate revenue with real disclosure
• Products or services
• Licensing
• Events
• Production work for other businesses
• Owned email or customer lists

None is effortless. The point is diversification, not passive-income fantasy.

My view

The creator middle class is not vanishing because creativity stopped mattering. It is being squeezed because attention markets naturally concentrate and campaign income remains unreliable.

The people most at risk are not beginners with ten followers. They are competent creators with enough success to build costs around the work but not enough power to control demand.

The glamorous advice is to grow faster. The practical answer is to build a business that can survive an ordinary month.