Worth the follow
With creators, every follow is a decision. We asked consumers where they follow creators, how they find them, what makes them follow and what they do when a creator moves to another platform.
This chapter explores:
- Where do people watch content creators?
- Do audiences follow when creators move platform?
- What turns finding a creator into following one?
YouTube leads. Then it gets local.
Globally, YouTube leads the way as the clear hub for creator content. 78% of consumers say they choose the video giant above all others. 21 points ahead of the next platform.
Look closer, though, and the picture changes. Who comes next depends on where you are.
Below: Most people say they turn to YouTube for creator content
Market by market, things change. Every platform has a story.
YouTube sets the pace almost everywhere. What changes is who’s chasing it: Instagram in some markets, Facebook or TikTok in others, and in two markets YouTube doesn’t come out on top at all.
That’s why one global figure only tells half the story. The other half is local.
Below: Where people say the turn to creators, market by market
- YouTube is the safe bet, leading in 10 of the 12 markets studied.
- Instagram is YouTube’s closest rival in five markets, like India and Brazil, and ties with YouTube in Turkey.
- TikTok is a heavyweight in Mexico (75%) and Vietnam (78%), within a few points of YouTube.
- Facebook has serious reach. More than half of consumers (53%) say they regularly turn to it, and it comes out on top in Vietnam.
So what are people watching?
People change the app, not the appetite. Whichever they choose, people say they watch the same things.
Below: What people say they watch, platform by platform
Entertainment
Entertainment rules everywhere. It’s the most popular topic on every platform
Beauty and fashion
TikTok and Instagram are the lifestyle platforms. They lead on beauty and fashion.
Gaming
Gaming leans on TikTok’s. It's the one topic, outside of beauty and fashion, where TikTok pulls ahead.
Finance
Finance doesn't pick a side, attracting similar levels of engagement across the big four.
Creators now play at the very top of entertainment. In Brazil, YouTuber Casimiro Miguel launched CazéTV on YouTube and it’s now one of the country’s biggest YouTube channels. In 2026 it held the streaming rights to the World Cup (1).
Why does it matter?
For platforms
YouTube leads globally, but competition is local. Benchmark market by market, not against a global average.
For creators
Go where your audience is. Interests are similar across platforms, but some topics have a home platform.
For agencies and advertisers
There’s no one-size-fits-all playbook. YouTube is the safe starting point. Build the rest of your creator plan market by market.
When creators move, audiences follow.
Audiences may discover creators on a specific platform, but their loyalty often extends beyond it. Many would follow a creator across platforms, and a majority already have.
7 in 10
say they’d likely follow a creator onto another platform if they moved there
So where do they go next? The answer depends on where audiences first discovered the creator.
Below: Where people followed creators after first discovering them on Instagram, TikTok or YouTube, ranked by the most popular destinations.
- Cross-platform following is already mainstream. 62% of consumers followed a creator from one platform to another.
- YouTube and Instagram are the most common destinations.
- Creators pull audiences across platforms. Loyalty travels with the creator.
A Prime example: MrBeast, one of YouTube's biggest stars, carried his audience across platforms when he launched Beast Games. The show became Prime Video’s most-watched unscripted series ever, according to Amazon (2).
So why do people follow a creator somewhere new?
People rarely follow because another platform is better. They are looking for more ways to engage with creators they already like
Only 24% say they do it simply because they prefer the other platform.
The biggest reason to use another platform is not the platform itself. It’s what the platform lets people see of the creator: a different format, exclusives, more of their content.
A second platform can deepen the relationship rather than replace the first.
Why does it matter?
For platforms
Creators bring audiences in, and can draw them away. Win their attention with experiences and formats they can’t get anywhere else.
For creators
Your audience will follow you. Give them a reason on every platform. Make each one is its own touchpoint, not a copy-paste.
For agencies and advertisers
Audiences follow creators, not platforms. Plan around the creator’s journey, not a single platform.
Found is easy. Followed is earned.
Discovery runs on two tracks. Asked how they find new creators, people say:
find creators in their feed or recommendations
find them by actively searching for a topic
Friends matter too. On Facebook, 54% say they discover creators through content shared by people they know.
People don’t always look for a person to follow. They look for an answer, an idea or an interest, and meet a creator along the way.
A sign of things to come: Platforms are already responding. TikTok’s Creator Search Insights shows creators what people are searching for, including content gaps (3). YouTube’s new Ask YouTube answers questions with a structured set of relevant videos (4).
Discovery is only the first step.
Once a creator has been seen, people make a second decision: is this person worth following?
Below: Why people say they follow creators
Popularity alone is rarely enough to earn a follow.
Just 14% follow a creator because they have lots of followers. 19% because their friends follow them. 24% because they aspire to their lifestyle.
So what does earn the follow? Value.
Audiences are looking for creators who entertain, inform, educate or connect with them on a personal level.
- 63% follow creators for entertaining content
- 57% follow creators because they keep them informed
- 52% follow creators because they help them learn
- 46% follow creators because they relate to them or enjoy their personality
Discovery gets creators seen. Value gives people a reason to follow.
Why does it matter?
For platforms
Feed and search both matter. Build for both. The platform that matches an interest to the right creator wins the discovery and the attention that follows.
For creators
Value gets you followed. Give people a reason to come back, and make sure they can find you when they search.
For agencies and advertisers
Stop buying follower counts. Only 14% follow for scale. Buy the reason people follow, and look for creators who own a topic.
Want to go deeper on the creator economy?
Get access to the creator dashboard and explore the data yourself. Or become a design partner and help shape our next innovation in creator measurement.
