Image Credit: Rave Reviews

Rave Reviews calculated how much the top creators on TikTok earned during 2020 from sponsored posts on the platform.

With around a billion users, short-form video sharing app TikTok is one of the most popular social media platform in the world. Despite nearly being banned in the US last year, TikTok and the creators on the platform saw tremendous success in 2020, in part thanks to the pandemic and stay-at-home orders. A new study from product review site Rave Reviews shows how much some of the top creators on TikTok made in 2020 from sponsored content.

Where Forbes calculated the total earnings of top creators from sponsored content to merchandise from June 2019 to June 2020, Rave Review took the $0.005-per-follower figure The Guardian estimates companies pay for product placement and sponsored posts, then calculated the total amount the top 100 most popular creators made by multiplying this figure by the number of followers and the number of ads they posted over the year, by searching for commercial tags such as #ad and #spon. Rave Review’s calculations do not include revenue from other sources such as sponsored posts on other social platforms and merchandise stores. Note, no earnings calculated can by 100% accurate.


Key Findings from Rave Review:
  • TikTok’s highest earner is Michael Le, who made $20,378,000 from 92 ads in 2020.
  • Michael Le also made the most ads (92), 30 more than the next most-frequent advertiser, Joe Albanese (62).
  • The TikToker with the most followers, Charli D’Amelio, earned $18,224,000 from 34 ads in 2020.
  • The highest-earning fitness TikToker is Demi Bagby, who made $3,266,500 from 47 ads in 2020.
  • Abby Roberts made $1,736,500 from ads in 2020, making her the highest-earning beauty & style TikToker.

Video Credit: Rave Reviews

Who Are the Highest-Paid TikTokers in the World?

Plotted on the graph below are the top 24 earners according to Rave Reviews. On the left you’ll see Savannah LaBrant earning just under $1 million in 2020, with Michael Le on the right, as the highest earner at over $20 million. Despite only being the ninth most followed account on TikTok, Michael Le made up for this by posting more ads than anyone else, with 92 product placement or sponsored videos. This in contrast to creators such as Bella Poarch who netted over $1.9 million from just seven sponsored posts.

Image Credit: Rave Reviews

TikTok Top Earners List

Rave Review found 83 TikTokers earning at least five figures, 39 on at least six figures and 23 earning $1 million-plus in 2020 alone.


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