Graph showing a decline in creator incomes between 2025 and 2024. In 2024, more creators said their incomes were increasing rather than decreasing. A year later, the numbers were reversed, with nearly half of creators say their income has gone down.
Nearly half of adult creators say their adult income declined over the past year. Most blamed the effects of the war on porn, including age-verification laws, increased censorship and piracy.
Are you making less money this year than last? You're not alone.
New data shows how age-verification laws have hurt the adult creator economy. SWR investigates whether the boom that fueled that creator economy is really faltering.
“While some creators are making millions selling bathwater, the average income from adult sales is closer to $5,000 a month. Sex work is work, and at the heart of the adult creator community are hundreds of thousands of small, independent creators building their businesses one clip at a time.”
"The question isn’t just a matter of accounting or accuracy. The extremely low revenue figures equate sex work with trafficking, and are used to justify increased censorship, policing and banking discrimination. Better data is both a business and a political issue."
It’s just a job.
"Newer creators earn around $16,000 annually on average, while that number shoots up to $74,000 for those who've been in the industry for five years. And for creators who've been in the industry for 5+ years and only work in adult, the average income is more than $111,000, according to SWR Data."
Graphic showing headline "How Much Do Creators Actually Make" from the Substack post.
But data only tells part of this story. We need more creators to get involved and share your experiences and ideas about what's driving the creator economy.
And, most importantly, what we should look into next to help you build your businesses.
open.substack.com/pub/swrdata/...
Graph showing percentage of creators who have financial support outside of their adult work. Just 35% are entirely dependent on adult work.
Better data is a political issue.
If we can't talk accurately about creator's income or lives, bad data will be used to advocate against the industry.
If we can't talk about who is earning the money, and why, we obscure systemic issues in the industry. We'll get into that more in future posts.
And just about 1/3 of creators are entirely dependent on adult work.
Like any other career, experience matters. Those in the industry for 5 years or more make much more than newbies. Full-time adult content creators make much more than those working more intermittently.
Graph showing 'how much revenue did you earn from income from adult industry work last year' 3.7% earned over $250+, 17.4% earned less than $10K. A plurality (38%) earned between $10-40K.
According to the SOTC data, the average creator earns about $5,000 per month ($59K year).
This includes everyone from ultra-high earners ($250K+ year) to those making a few hundred dollars sexting on the weekends.
More importantly, most creators aren't working in adult full time.
SWERFs and religious right are have been using faked numbers to justify censorship, policing and debanking of adult creators. This year's State of the Creator proved how wrong that data is.
This week, we dive into how (and how much) adult creators are earning. 🧵
"SWR’s data suggested that the rise in the importance of clips sales to adult content creators was at the expense of fan subscription sites. Sustained mistrust of OnlyFans, the world’s biggest platform for porn creator subscriptions, could help explain this."
SWR's @melrose.bsky.social and @mikestabile.bsky.social sat down with @hansbuetow.bsky.social at Never Post to talk about what really draws fans — authenticity and intimacy.
"Social media bans remain the single biggest impediment to revenue. Loss or suppression of a social media account can be devastating to the income of an independent creator. Clips platforms, with their strong internal traffic, provide at least some insurance against the loss of an account"
TRUE! It's difficult to make content and then be ready to chat with individuals at any given time. Sure there are some great fans who are patient but there are many entitled enough to think they pay for your time on their clock.
You gotta set boundaries and enforce them daily. It's exhausting!
"Creators are tiring of fan site hustle culture. While subscription sites really launched the fan site revolution, we’re starting to see creators question the trade-off for having to be on 24/7.” — @melrose.bsky.social of sexworkceo.bsky.social
When I pay for pornography, I:
1) Don't want to have a monthly subscription
2) Want to be able to download and own what I buy
3) Want to be able to be selective
4) Want the artist to be able to make something once that they can continue to profit off of rather than constant live streams
Some great up-to-date info for creators!
Thank you @swr-data.bsky.social for collecting and analyzing this data for everyone! 📊
"Perhaps the froth is settling. According to the data, the shift back to clips among creators has come at the expense of fan sites ... Together, the data may be signalling a new phase of the creator economy"
After years of chasing the highest payout percentage, creators are turning to sites with strong internal traffic.
Social media deplatforming, deteriorating revenue streams and the impact of age-verification laws are some of the potential causes cited.
In the past year, clip sales have risen dramatically as a driver of creator income, rivaling the importance of the subscription model popularized by OnlyFans.
Creators seems to be shifting away from the hamster-wheel of hustle to a business model that promises a better work/life balance.
Graphic: "What's Behind the Rise of Clips?"
Adult creators are increasingly turning to clip sales to drive income. In our latest "State of the Creator" report, we took a look at the data to understand where (and why) the market is shifting.
substack.com/@swrdata/not...
The @chaturbate.com "raw" percentage here should be taken in context: most creators aren't camming, and a lot of creators simply have no opinion, positive or negative, regarding cam platforms. We'll be getting into cams in a future post.
Perhaps it's not shocking that @swr-data.bsky.social found that creators views of ManyVids have turned negative, and became more negative over the course of the fall.
That latter number is particularly instructive. In the previous State of the Creator (2024), 60% of creators named OF as one of their top two revenue sources. Just 53% did this year.
That's a drop of more than 10% in one year, and would suggest creators are looking for off-ramps.
OF is still the platform used by the most creators, and the most important source of income for the largest number of creators.
But it's primacy is declining. Just 68% of creators say they now use the platform, and just about half (53%) of creators say it's still a top revenue source.
Worth noting that the platform viewed MOST negatively by creators was OnlyFans. 48% of creators (including 45% of creators using the platform) viewed it negatively. Only 29% viewed it positively, meaning the brand is underwater among creators by almost 20 points.
That's shaky ground.
Graph showing relative popularity of various platforms, among both creators on the platform and creators in general.
On this year's "Hot List" for Creators:
1. @realloyalfans.bsky.social
2. @fansly.com
3. @sextpanther.bsky.social
4. @clips4sale.com
5. @chaturbate.com
Each of these platforms ranks high both in overall positive sentiment among creators, AND especially among creators who use the platform.