Clips, an industry sector that’s been around since the advent of dial-up internet, may be reclaiming its importance in the adult creator economy. Data from the most recent State of the Creator survey shows the percentage of creators surveyed who identified “clip sales” as their most important revenue stream surged in the past year.12
According to the data, clip sales are now as important to the adult creator income as fan site subscriptions. 18.8% of creators said clip sales are now their most important revenue driver, just a fraction of a percent below those who said fan site subscriptions (19.2%).
Cams and live streams, which previously held the number two slot, fell to a somewhat distant third.3
Clips have long been a crucial component of creator income. OnlyFans didn’t invent the creator economy so much as capitalize on its hype. If clips haven’t gotten the media attention that fan sites or cams did, it’s in part because clips have been around for so long. Independent creators have been selling content directly to fans via clip sites for over two decades. In the wake of COVID and the OnlyFans explosion, fan subscriptions suddenly became the more important industry sector.
Perhaps the froth is settling. According to the data, the shift back to clips among creators has come at the expense of fan sites. Subscriptions and PPV sales seem to have lost ground to clips and customs. (In comparison, cams remained fairly stable, as did other income streams including pay sites, sexting and in-person work.)
This shift to clips is echoed in other data from the survey.
Fewer creators now say they’re working on fan sites. While still large, the percentage of creators who told us they earn money on fan sites has slipped, from 85% of creators in 2024 to 78% of creators last year.4 This is also reflected in a fall in the percentage of creators who say they’re working on the largest subscription site, OnlyFans (71% in 2024 to 68% last year). As notable? Just half of creators (52%) now list OnlyFans as one of their top two income sources.5
Meanwhile, the percentage of creators using various clip sites has been rising. Take Clips4Sale, the platform which saw the greatest year-over-year growth in this year’s survey. In 2022, 24% of creators said they used C4S. That rose to 30.2% of creators in 2024 and to 37.8% of creators this past year. We also see growth in the percentage of creators using iWantClips, which rose from 19% in 2022 to 24% this past year. And even though the use of ManyVids has decreased slightly in the past few years, it’s still strong. As of late 2025, ManyVids remained creators’ second-most utilized creator platform, after OnlyFans, and the second most-important source of income.6
For creators who base their business around clips, the most utilized platforms are, in order of use, Clips4Sale, ManyVids, OnlyFans, LoyalFans, iWantClips. The two largest sources of income are Clips4Sale and ManyVids.
One possible reason for the shift to clips? Exhaustion. A wide majority of creators (63%) surveyed said earning money had gotten tougher in the past year, and a plurality (45%) said their income had declined.7
Creators working on subscription sites like OnlyFans have long been responsible for driving their own traffic and finding new fans. OnlyFans’ higher payout percentage made that trade-off worth it, at least while income was growing. Now, the data suggests the bargain may be out of balance.
Another data point suggesting a shift: creators now rank strong internal traffic as more important than a high-percentage payout8 — something that would have seemed like heresy during the height of OnlyFans, when platforms rushed, sometimes perilously, to match OF’s (then-revolutionary) 80% payout.
For creators, social media bans (and shadowbans) remain the single biggest impediment to revenue.9 Loss or suppression of a social media account can be devastating to the income of an independent creator. Clips and cam platforms, with their strong internal traffic, provide at least some insurance against the loss of an account. At the most recent shows, even fan-based platforms, such as LoyalFans, were more aggressively highlighting their ability to drive traffic.
Clip sales may also offer a way off the hamster-wheel of subscriptions and constant updates. Once valorized hustle culture has become, in the eyes of many creators, a recipe for burnout. Creators appear to be looking for a healthier work/life balance.
Together, the data may be signalling a new phase of the creator economy. We’ll look more into this, and other data driving creator revenue, in future posts.
SWR’s annual State of the Creator survey of over 500 adult creators, conducted between August and November 2025.
“Clips” and “clip sales” can signify different things to different creators. For some, “clips” may refer to the larger clip sector (e.g. Clips4Sale, iWantClips). For others, it can mean selling clips on a fan or cam site. For others, it’s a mixture.
As we’ll get into in future posts, State of the Creator most strongly reflects trends and experiences of creators in the United States and, to a lesser extent, the UK and Western Europe. Trends among creators in Eastern Europe and South America likely differ.
As we noted in a previous post, usage of OnlyFans by creators appears to have fallen, and the site is viewed more negatively than positively by creators.
State of the Creator asks creators to identify all of the creator platforms on which they regularly work, as well as to identify which two platforms are most important to their income. More creators say they use OnlyFans than any other platform (68%), and more say OnlyFans is a top revenue source than any other platform (52%), however both numbers fell in the past year. ManyVids has been a somewhat distant second (53% of creators say they utilize the platform, while 26% identify it as one of their top sources of income.)
The most recent State of the Creator survey closed in November 2025. During the survey period, creators did voice dissatisfaction over changing policies at ManyVids, which appears to be at least somewhat reflected in the later data.
Just 29% of creators surveyed said their income had increased in the past year. This is a marked change from 2024, when 40% reported an increase, and just 37% reported a decrease.
Predictably, that gap widens among creators who use clip sites.
Roughly a third of creators (32.8%) ranked social media bans as their largest impediment to earning, roughly the same as in 2024. For subscription-centered creators, that number rises to nearly half (49%).
I’m making the transition from live streaming to clip creation this year as the per hour income on streams has finally reached the threshold for it to make more financial sense. With age verification laws, live streams have taken a huge hit.