Our Takeaways:

While most Creators with a similar amount of followers failed to gain more than a few million in 2023 (e.g. Charli D’Amelio gained a mere 2.1M new followers), MrBeast was an anomaly, gaining 24.1M followers in 2023 to become the fastest growing creator this year. He continues to gain momentum on TikTok via stunts where he treats followers to elaborate surprises and collaborations with breakout Creators like Keith Lee or Paryss Bryanne.

In October, Disney and TikTok released a first of it’s kind partnership where the brand built a landing page within TikTok to celebrate its 100th anniversary. In the custom page, fans could complete challenges to collect Disney character cards, which in turn would unlock unique TikTok profile frames like Woody’s cowboy hat or Minnie Mouse ears. Since following Disney-owned accounts unlocked more chances to collect character cards, fans lost no time smashing the “follow” button on Disney accounts. As a result 17 of the top 100 accounts with the most new followers are of Disney or Disney-owned brands. 

While our top 100 list does include big breakout stars of 2023 like Keith Lee, Zach Choi, and Matt Rife, we were surprised that a huge swathe of the Creators that defined the year were nowhere close to the top 100. Reigning it girl Alix Earle missed the cutoff by more than 1M followers. Despite launching a trend that took over TikTok, “Tube Girl,” aka Sabrina Bahsoon, only gained 750K followers this year. Sofia Richie had TikTok’s favorite wedding of all time but has only 3.5M followers. While follower count and growth will likely remain an important metric, this breakdown proves it’s a flawed predictor for overall impact.