YouTube has revealed that Channel Memberships have generated more than $1.5 billion in payouts to creators over the past five years, and the company is expanding the feature with new tools aimed especially at news publishers, according to coverage from PPC Land, Ascendants and the S.M.A.C.C. creator news roundup.

Memberships let viewers pay a monthly fee to support a channel in exchange for exclusive content and perks, with YouTube keeping 30% of revenue and creators receiving 70% of net revenue from memberships, Super Chat, Super Stickers and Super Thanks. The $1.5 billion figure covers payouts since the feature’s early growth — by December 2020 creators were already earning more than four times as much from memberships as a year earlier.

Three changes are coming: a dedicated in-app hub gathering members-only content, video previews letting audiences watch a snippet before joining, and members-only communities where publishers and journalists can interact directly with supporters. A Creator Insider video on September 25, 2026 also described a channel memberships page meant to help new viewers discover channels with memberships.

Notably, the entry bar for memberships is far lower than for ad revenue. New applicants to full ad-revenue sharing will need 8,000 watch hours or 20 million Shorts views from February 1, 2027, while fan-funding features including memberships stay at 500 subscribers plus 3,000 watch hours or 3 million Shorts views.

For creators, the message is that recurring fan revenue is becoming central to YouTube’s monetization story — worth over $300 million a year on average over the last five years, and still a fraction of YouTube’s total creator payouts.

The takeaway for creators: if you have even a few hundred loyal viewers, turn on memberships before you qualify for ad revenue. A small paid tier with genuine perks converts superfans into predictable monthly income, and the new previews and hub will make that tier easier to discover.