YouTube is starting to test a “Top Fans” distribution option limited to the uppermost 1% of viewers

Platforms like Patreon and OnlyFans let creators distribute paywalled videos that can only be watched by their financial backers. Now, YouTube is testing a different approach to gated content: What if videos could only be watched by the fans who are most active within a creator’s community?

That’s the gist of Top Fans, a new distribution option that is beginning to roll out on YouTube. By choosing to upload videos that can only be watched by 1% of their fans, creators can reward the viewers who show them the most loyalty.

YouTube first alluded to Top Fans during its Made On presentation last year. At the time, the platform’s execs positioned the feature as an engagement tool for the artists who art part of the YouTube Music community. A blog post published at the time claimed that musicians would be able to share “just-for-fans content directly to their most dedicated fans.”

“We’re introducing new ways for artists and their top fans to connect on a more personal level,” reads the post. “It’s about rewarding loyalty to the fans who are there from day one.”

Fast forward eight months, and some YouTube users are starting to spot the Top Fans option in the wild. Videos published that way won’t just be limited to the top 1% of a channel’s viewers; the remaining 99% won’t be able to watch the clip, even if they receive a direct link to it.

Creators who have spotted the feature have proposed several uses for it. Top Fans posts could be used to express controversial takes or test experimental formats among a trusted group of viewers. In a creator meta dominated by direct fan relationships, Top Fans videos could offer a more egalitarian form of gated content than the typical paywalled Patreon post.

YouTube could benefit from its new distribution option, too. If Top Fans posts catch on, viewers could start marathoning their favorite creator channels to break into the top 1%. That would increase YouTube’s overall watch time while simultaneously rewarding the platform’s most passionate users.