Illustration by Tael Gomes This is the year that the power dynamics in Hollywood finally flipped. The content creator industry, which has been ascendant for decades, finally surpassed traditional Hollywood in terms of clout, cultural capital and, increasingly, size. But as the creator industry is rapidly professionalizing, it's also facing disruption by the proliferation of AI, the platform landscape is being upended by politics, and livestreaming is rewriting the nature of fame and fandom. In 2025, YouTube became the No. 1 streaming platform, surpassing competitors like Netflix and Amazon for the first time. People now watch more YouTube on their TV sets than their phones or any other device, making YouTubers some of the biggest television stars today. Outside of YouTube, the creator economy is now a $250 billion global force. In 2023, Goldman Sachs estimated that the content creator industry would grow to at least $480 billion by 2027. Today, about 67 million people are currently working as full- or part-time creators, with that number projected to balloon to more than 105 million by 2030, according to Goldman Sachs. In the U.S. alone, content creators contributed $55 billion to the GDP in 2024, equivalent to nearly 500,000 jobs, according to Oxford Economics. Sponsored content deals are expected to surpass $10 billion this year, as more advertisers cut back on traditional media advertising and dive headfirst into influencer marketing. An industry that was once dismissed as teens making low-quality lip-sync videos on YouTube or performing skits on Vine is now a dominant force in media, commerce and culture. Related Stories TV From Streamer to Superpower: How YouTube Stole the Show at MIPCOM Business Why Influencers Suddenly Love Facebook. (No Joke.) "It's My Biggest Source of Income" Hollywood Leans In From left: Twitch CEO Dan Clancy, Tubi CEO Anjali Sud and Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos Amy E. Price/SXSW Conference & Festivals/Getty Images; Manny Carabel/Getty Images; Matt Winkelmeyer/GA/The Hollywood Reporter/Getty Images All of this has put Hollywood on notice, and the traditional entertainment industry is showing more eagerness to embrace the creator economy. "We've seen a big shift since the writers strike," says Aliza Licht, founder of Leave Your Mark, a digital strategy consultancy and a founding member of the American Influencer Council. She says that not only is traditional talent embracing digital platforms, but writers, actors and producers who previously worked in traditional entertainment are now working on social-first content. Creators are hiring scriptwriters, production managers and out-of-work actors as Hollywood pivots. "Now, everyone needs to fit into a creator world," Licht says. In January, Netflix signed Rachel Accurso, a popular YouTube educational creator known as Ms. Rachel, to bring four episodes of her show onto the platform. During the company's second-quarter earnings call, Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos said that the streaming platform was actively hunting for internet talent. "We want to be in business with the best creatives on the planet. Regardless of where they come from," he said. He added that Netflix also was taking a look at "a wide variety of" video podcasters "that might be a good fit for us." In June, Tubi rolled out "Tubi for Creators," a program aimed at bringing episodic content from influencers onto the streaming platform. The initiative launched with six inaugural creators including Jubilee, Rhett and Link, Watcher and more than 500 episodes of creator-made content distributed across Tubi's platform. "We're listening to our viewers and recognize their desire for more stories that reflect culture and talent from the digital world," says Anjali Sud, CEO of Tubi. Avi Gandhi, founder of Creator Logic, a publication about the business of creators, says it "boggles [his] mind" why more of the legacy studios haven't sought to lean more into the influencer space: "The richest trove of IP in human history is right in front of us, and they're not mining it." Gandhi adds that these Hollywood execs are going to have to figure things out quickly because there "is a rising tide of companies, like Chronicle Studios, Further Adventures and Super Ordinary, that want to be the new studios." What's New is Old The new class of professionalized, Hollywood-ready creator talent isn't what you might think of when you hear the word "influencer." Over the past year, the creator economy has branched out, with more and more older adults building media ventures. "The fastest-growing kind of group in the creative economy are grown-ups, adult professionals who have gotten laid off or who are tired of working for a company and are becoming creators as a way to grow their own businesses," says Gandhi. These later-stage professional creators have been a boon for advertisers that are seeking to reach previously untapped communities online. More brands are seeking to work with creators on newslett