For the fifth straight year, Forbes is building the definitive list of the 50 most powerful social media content creators. Do you know someone making millions of dollars and attracting millions of fans as they shape culture, style, entertainment, and taste? Nominate them (or yourself!) today. Nominations close on April 1, 2026. We will publish the 2026 Forbes Top Creators list in early June.
To rank the world’s Top Creators, Forbes crunches data on the estimated gross earnings, follower counts, engagement rates, and entrepreneurial activities of thousands of internet personalities with the help of the creator marketing firm Influential.
Forbes ranks entrepreneurial Creators who built their brands and communities on social media platforms, including YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Twitch, X, and Snap. To make the quantitative list, Forbes estimates each creator’s gross earnings between March 1, 2025, and March 1, 2026. We count earnings, not equity held in public and private companies. Our partners at Influential provide follower counts across social platforms and engagement rates (likes, comments, and shares divided by total followers). For the entrepreneur rank, Forbes scores candidates on a one-to-four scale, ranging from people who make most of their money from traditional advertising to folks building their own companies, brands, and services. (Those who exclusively pitch brands score a 1—those who build brands earn a 4).