How did Substack's top newsletters monetize in 2025 (subscriptions, events, ads)?
Executive summary
Substack’s top newsletters in 2025 monetized primarily through paid subscriptions — a model that produced tens of millions for the platform’s elite — while increasingly layering sponsorships, paid events, and digital upsells to diversify revenue; those mixes varied by niche, scale and strategic choice [1] [2]. Public analyses and company statements show a small cohort capturing the lion’s share of income, even as creators experiment with ancillary products and some migrate to platforms built for scale [3] [4].
1. Subscriptions: the core engine, scaled and lucrative
Subscription revenue remained the baseline monetization method for top Substack titles in 2025, with dozens of authors earning seven-figure annual recurring revenue from paid newsletters alone — numbers confirmed by Substack executives and independent tallies that estimate 45+ or 50+ million-dollar publishers on the platform [2] [5] [3]. Press Gazette and other data-driven rankings repeatedly documented a growing number of newsletters clearing half‑a‑million to millions in subscription revenue, illustrating that direct reader payments continued to be the most transparent and reliable income stream for high‑earning creators [1] [6].
2. Sponsorships, native ads and branded deals: fast-growing second pillars
High-profile newsletters supplemented subscriptions with sponsorships and branded content, a source so important that some publications report substantial non‑subscription income beyond the platform’s visible metrics; The Ankler, for example, declared seven‑figure sponsorship revenue and plans for further growth in 2025, underscoring that sponsorships can rival subscription receipts for big names [1]. Substack’s earlier stance as an “ad‑free” indie refuge softened as creators and brands sought out newsletter audiences, and reporting shows sponsorships and native advertising became routine components of top creators’ mixes [7] [8].
3. Events, merchandise, courses and paid products: monetization beyond the inbox
Top newsletters layered live events, paid workshops, e‑courses, membership tiers and digital product upsells on top of subscriptions to boost lifetime value; creators publicly described strategies that turned a subscription base into customers for higher‑ticket offerings, with some newsletters outlining six‑figure or higher targets from these ancillary streams [8] [3]. Organised meet‑ups and multi‑city programming became part of the toolkit for publishers seeking both revenue and deeper audience engagement, although exact revenues from events are less consistently reported than subscription figures [1].
4. Platform competition, migrations and infrastructure choices
As creators scaled, some moved to platforms promising richer analytics and commerce features — beehiiv, for instance, positioned itself as the growth infrastructure for newsletters and attracted publishers seeking more sophisticated monetization tools — a trend that had implications for how top newsletters packaged and captured ancillary revenue [4]. Simultaneously, Substack’s own growth and funding rounds signaled a shift toward broader creator products and, implicitly, new revenue models that could include advertising or expanded commerce features; this raised tensions around the platform’s original “subscription-first, ad‑free” image [9].
5. Business strategies of the top earners: niche, pricing and scarcity
Analysts of high‑earning Substacks found common strategic patterns in 2025: tight niches, clear value propositions, moderate publish frequency, and pricing that balanced scale with exclusivity — tactics that made subscriptions sticky and made sponsorships more attractive to brands seeking targeted audiences [2] [3]. Several case studies and creator posts argue that once a paid base is established, incremental revenue from courses, sponsorships or merchandise scales faster than adding new subscribers, which helped explain the multi‑product approach many top newsletters adopted [8].
6. Data limits, concentration and alternative readings
Estimates of top‑earner revenues rely heavily on public subscription pricing, leaderboards and self‑reporting because Substack does not publish granular revenue or paid‑subscriber figures; Press Gazette, Backlinko and independent researchers therefore calculate “minimum implied” revenue, a method that captures scale but understates off‑platform income like sponsorships or events [1] [10]. That opacity means reporting can reliably assert subscription dominance and growing diversification, but cannot precisely apportion total income between subscriptions, ads, events and products without creator disclosure [1] [9].