Podcasters are making hundreds of millions of dollars on Patreon

We know podcasting is big business. It’s been one of the fastest-growing sectors of digital content for years, got a growth boost during the pandemic that drove listening up by over 40%, and is now worth over $25 billion. We hear about podcasters landing multimillion-dollar deals with distributors. But what about creators producing their shows independently? How much money are they making?

Well, according to Patreon, the 40,000+ podcasters using its platform raked in a collective $350 million from their patrons in 2023. To put that number in context, the entire global podcast market is expected to make around $4 billion from advertising this year.

Podcasting is Patreon’s second biggest content category; the only folks making more than podcasters are video content creators. In a blog post about podcasters’ success, Patreon pointed out that podcasts are an “intimate” form of content creation where listeners are committed for long periods of episode time, and said it thinks that’s why podcasters and their listeners are more likely to use platforms like it, where they can have a direct line to one another.

“People listen to the same show every week at the same exact time, bake it into their schedules, even plan their days around it. Those are the real fans, and those are the ones who are on Patreon,” it said.

It also identified podcasts as potential “media empires” that can spawn live shows, merch lines, brand deals, book contracts, “and a million other things.” We’ve seen that in action with shows like The Adventure Zone (multibook deal with Macmillan) and Critical Role (which straddles the line between webseries and podcast, and spun its lore off into a TV show on Amazon

Patreon also thinks the reason podcasters are so adept at earning money on its platform is because they are “CEOs of their own companies, which means they’re responsible for figuring out how to reach, grow, and energize their communities.” Again, we see that with digital content creators across the board: more and more YouTubers are starting their own brands and businesses, selling everything from body care to creative consulting.

Creators can sell things on Patreon, too. Where once the platform only let them monetize by offering monthly subscriptions with access to things like bonus episodes and behind-the-scenes content, in June 2023 it began letting them operate entire digital storefronts. One podcaster Patreon points out as an example is Shannon Beveridge, an artist who uses Patreon to sell products tied to her podcast exes & o’s–things like IRL meetup photo ops, digital galleries of her work, and recordings of her live appearances.

(Patreon also highlighted Regulation Podcast and 100% Eat, both of which were part of Rooster Teeth before Warner Bros. Discovery shut it down. Those shows are now independent and earning revenue on Patreon.)

We’d like to know what percentage of the $350 million podcasters made in 2023 was generated by digital storefront sales versus subscriptions, but unfortunately Patreon doesn’t break out different revenue streams. What we do know is that however the revenue breaks out, podcasters are one of Patreon’s strongest forces–and if platforms like YouTube want to keep courting that force, they might need to step up their game.