Who’s attracting the most patrons, patronage and money on Patreon?
While so many in media focus rightly on Joe Rogan and his reported $200 million deal with Spotify for exclusive rights to broadcast The Joe Rogan Experience (and you thought $100 million was a big deal), don’t sleep on Patreon.
It might not be Spotify money, or even Substack money (!), but comedians are making bank making podcasts and more via Patreon. Some without ever leaving their home studio. Others have leveraged their Patreon success by taking their shows on the road.
Do you know how much you could be making on Patreon?
Let’s start at the top.
You may have never seen Patrick Hinds or Gillian Pensavalle perform stand-up comedy onstage or onscreen, but together, their “True Crime Obsessed” podcast — which recaps true-crime documentaries “with humor, sass and a well-timed garbage bell” — boasts more patrons than anyone else on Patreon right now: 50,458. We don’t know how many of them subscribe at the $5 level vs. $7, $10 or $20 per month. But even if all of the patrons only pitched in $5/month, that’d gross more than $3 million a year for the podcasting duo.
The second most popular Patreon of 2022 belongs to stand-up comedian Tim Dillon.
Dillon, who worked as a tour guide on a New York City double-decker bus before his stand-up career began taking off, was a “New Face” at the 2016 Just For Laughs festival in Montreal, and had a 15-minute set on Netflix in 2018 as part of The Comedy Lineup. Dillon launched his Patreon for “The Tim Dillon Show” on Aug. 16, 2019, and his rants reached new heights in the pandemic, first leaving L.A. for Palm Springs, then helped on assuredly by his temporary move to Texas, where he became a regular guest and sometime sidekick for Rogan.
Check out Dillon in October 2020, wearing a “Free Ghislaine” T-shirt while sitting next to Alex Jones in Rogan’s new Austin compound, in a three-hour YouTube video that’s attracted more than 22.6 million views.
Dillon, a Long Island native, eventually moved back to California. By then, his Patreon had made it possible for him to podcast from just about anywhere.
The Tim Dillon Show had 27,442 patrons on June 22, 2021. Five months later, on Nov. 22, he had 196,000 subscribers.
Even before the pandemic, on Feb. 11, 2021, Dillon claimed in an interview with Ted Alexandro: “We make a great living on Patreon. All of our money is public.” At that point, he had 17,690 patrons, earning $92,392, which had just gotten him into millionaire territory. “I don’t need to get an overall deal at HBO or any of that, doesn’t really matter. I think if we just keep making funny stuff, good things will hopefully happen.”
Today? He has 42,306 patrons (up almost 200 from yesterday, and growing even as I write this piece), bringing in $217,237 each month. Even once you deduct Patreon’s cut, he’s still reporting well north of $2 million a year in revenues — and that’s not counting whatever his podcast episode sponsors are paying him.
Ranked 7th overall in Patreon subscribers? Matt & Shane’s Secret Podcast.
No longer a secret when the podcast’s existence in September 2019 led to Saturday Night Live firing newly-hired cast member Shane Gillis, Gillis and his Philly comedy buddy Matt McCusker launched their Patreon that same month. In November 2020, they had a bit more than 9,000 patrons. Today? 28,867. Their revenue stream is private, but with membership levels ranging from $1-$50 per month, suffice it to say the kids are doing alright.
Here are some hard numbers rev you up or rile you up, however the case may be!
By patron numbers:
True Crime Obsessed: 50,458 patrons.
The Tim Dillon Show: 42,306 patrons.
Matt & Shane’s Secret Podcast: 28,867 patrons.
TMG (Tiny Meat Gang), the American musical comedy duo of Cody Kolodziejzyk and Noel Miller. Launched Oct. 2017. Today: 28,091 patrons, paying $5-$15, plus higher levels per month.
The Cum Boys (Cum Town) comedy podcast hosted by comedians Nick Mullen and Stavros Halkias. Launched June 2016. Today: 21,948 patrons, paying $5-$25/month.
Flagrant 2 sports and talk podcast hosted by comedians Andrew Schulz and Akaash Singh. Launched Sept. 2018. Today: 21,753 patrons, paying $5-$25/month.
Last Podcast On The Left, horror podcast hosted by comedians Ben Kissel, Henry Zebrowski, and Marcus Parks. Launched Aug. 2014. Today: 14,665 patrons, paying $5-$25/month.
Doughboys, podcast about chain restaurants from fomedians Mike Mitchell and Nick Wiger. Launched Feb. 2017. Today: 11,744 patrons, paying $4.50-$11.50/month.
Have A Word, podcast with UK comedians Adam Rowe and Dan Nightingale. Launched March 2020. Today: 11,654 patrons.
The Normies, a YouTube comedy collective. Launched Oct. 2016. Today: 11,509 patrons, paying $2-$100/month.
Blank Check with Griffin & David (Griffin Newman and David Sims talk about film). Launched Dec. 2018. Today: 10,975 patrons paying $5/month.
Timesuck with Dan Cummins. Launched Jan. 2018. Today: 10,874 patrons, paying $1-$5/month.
The Basement Yard podcast with Joe Santagato. Launched July 2018. Today: 9,767 patrons, paying $5-$50/month.
Supermega — Launched June 2019. Today: 8,101 patrons, paying $5/month.
We Hate Movies, comedy podcast about movies from Andrew Jupin, Chris Cabin, Eric Szyszka and Stephen Sajdak. Launched Aug. 2016. Today: 7,764 patrons, paying $2-$10/month.
Tell ‘em Steve-Dave! podcast with two Comic Book Men plus Brian from Impractical Jokers. Launched June 2018. Today: 7,556 patrons, paying $5-$100/month.
The Mind of Joey Diaz, from the stand-up comedian and former opening act and podcast sidekick for Joe Rogan. Launched July 2020. Today: 7,078 patrons, paying $5-$15/month.
By those reporting revenue publicly:
The Tim Dillon Show: $217,237/month
Flagrant 2: $102,542/month
Cum Town: $95,873/month
Last Podcast on the Left: $82,991/month
Some other interesting comedians with podcasts reporting public revenues…
The Flagrant Ones, comedy podcasts and videos hosted by Sean Clements (Workaholics, Curb Your Enthusiasm), Hayes Davenport (Eastbound and Down, Family Guy), and Carl Tart (Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Comedy Bang! Bang!). Established Oct. 2018. Today: 6,724 patrons, $41,701 per month.
Office Hours Live with Tim Heidecker. Established March 2020. Today: 6,496 patrons; $27,452 per month.
Ray Kump, a comedian buddy of Tim Dillon, has added more than 700 patrons in the past month, up to 1,235 today and $6,066/month.
Of course, there’s some guesswork to figuring out exactly how much plenty of podcasters and comedians are earning via Patreon.
Since you don’t have to keep your Patreon stats public, it’s amazing we still have this much transparency on the platform.
Heather McDonald, a former writer/regular on Chelsea Lately, ranked 58th overall among all Patreon accounts with 5,504 patrons when she took Juicy Scoop stats private on March 4, 20202. Bob the Drag Queen and Monet x Change’s Sibling Rivalry podcast keeps their numbers private, too.
Jeff Wittek, a 32-year-old YouTube comedian, hit it big when he launched his Patreon in April 2021.
But Wittek set his stats to private at the start of 2022.
What else tickled my fancy as I perused my way through Patreon?
Jake and Amir, original viral video stars thanks to their status as early employees of CollegeHumor, are still making videos, just without that CH budget. In June 2021, they had 5,030 patrons. Today: 4,862 patrons paying $4.99-$24.99/month.
Jimmy Dore, a political comedian who has leaned even harder into his political views to gain fans and clicks, had 2,308 patrons for The Jimmy Dore Show last June. Today: 1,718 patrons paying $2-$100/month.
Was there another comedian or comedy troupe on Patreon that I should also be paying attention to?
Which of these stats surprise you the most?
Hit me up in the comments and let me know! Thanks.
P.S. A note on Patreon fees. If you launched before May 7, 2019, creators paid 5 percent of their revenues to the platform. If you started your Patreon since then, there’s a sliding fee scale: now it’s 5, 8 or 12 percent cut you give up to Patreon, depending upon what tools you have (for instance, if you want multiple membership tiers, you automatically need to go to at least 8 percent, and 12 percent if you want to sell merchandise).
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