5 of the richest TikTok stars and their recent millions – ranked: how do Khabane ‘Khaby’ Lame, sisters Charli and Dixie D’Amelio, big brand-endorser Addison Rae and comedian Matt Rife stack up?
Creative platform, moneymaking opportunity or the voice of a new generation? No matter how you look at it, TikTok continues to be a cultural phenomenon with a colossal number of users every day – 1.7 billion worldwide in 2023, to be precise, according to a report by What’s the Big Data in late November last year, with a predicted 2.05 billion for 2024.
According to Influencer Marketing Hub, a social media research firm, businesses are increasing their influencer marketing budgets, with an estimated US$6.16 billion spent in the US alone last year. This means that creators are open to even more financial spending from big brands hoping to cash in on the social media platform.
On April 24, President Joe Biden signed a bill into law that could potentially ban TikTok in the US if its owner, Chinese company ByteDance, doesn’t sell it within a year. ByteDance responded by calling the law “unconstitutional” on X (formerly Twitter), declaring its intention to “challenge it in court”.
While we wait to see how TikTok’s story unfolds, here are five of TikTok’s most influential stars right now – and their estimated 2023 earnings from the social media platform to other areas like music and film, according to Forbes.
5. Addison Rae Easterling aka Addison Rae, 23
Estimated earnings: US$6 million
In 2019, Rae’s dance moves on TikTok made her an internet darling. Her family even moved to Los Angeles to capitalise on her fame, per NBC, which also stated that “Rae’s family is among a new generation of influencers and stage parents who capitalise on the viral success of their children”.
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“Stage parents” who use the success of their viral children to boost their own careers. Rae and her family starred in a 10-episode Snapchat-produced reality series Addison Rae Goes Home.
Since first breaking onto the TikTok scene, Rae has delved into modelling, music and films. Per Forbes, she has also had partnerships with big names including Hanes, Google and Givenchy.
4. Dixie D’Amelio, 22
Estimated earnings: US$11.5 million
According to The Independent, Dixie made a name for herself after taking part in some of her sister Charli D’Amelio’s TikTok dance videos. She went on to sign a record deal, try her hand at acting, and even began a podcast with Charli called Charli and Dixie: 2 Chix.
She has collaborated with high-end fashion brands Valentino, Ralph Lauren and Burberry and launched a shoe with Puma. She is also part of D’Amelio Brands, a family-run consumer product company – through which she launched D’Amelio Footwear.
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3. Khabane “Khaby” Lame, 25
Estimated earnings: US$16.5 million
The Senegalese-born TikTokker based in Italy is the most-followed person on TikTok at the time of writing and is widely known as “the Charlie Chaplin” of the social media platform. That’s because he does not speak in his videos – instead, he uses facial expressions and gestures to get his points across.
He’s so famous thanks to the platform that he’s even performed skits with big-name actors such as Matt Damon, Robert Downey Jr and Tom Cruise. In a Forbes interview in September last year, he mentioned, “When I started making videos, people told me to get a proper job.” Good thing he didn’t.
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2. Matt Rife, 28
Estimated earnings: US$25 million
In 2022, after years of doing stand-ups at bars and comedy clubs, a video clip of some of his work found TikTok fame, getting more than 40 million hits almost instantly when it went viral, per Complex.
Rife’s life changed: he landed a Netflix special Natural Selection that had mixed reviews after airing from November 2023, but either way Rife has made his name in the comedy scene.
1. Charli D’Amelio, 19
Estimated earnings: US$23 million
She’s the undisputed queen of TikTok and the first content creator to get 50 million – and, later, 100 million – followers on the social media platform, per People. She shot into the spotlight in 2019 after posting videos of herself dancing on the platform, which went viral.
But D’Amelio has a plenty of other credits to her name besides being a favoured TikTok dancer. She has appeared in reality TV show The D’Amelio Show since 2021, co-starring with her sister Dixie. She has also become the face of Prada and done campaigns for Skims and CeraVe, and has her own fragrance called Born Dreamer.
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D’Amelio turns 20 on May 1 and has cemented herself as TikTok’s most influential creator year after year.
At the start of 2023, the D’Amelio family also began a fund, 444 Capital, to invest in under-represented groups. The US$25 million fund, led by dad Marc, mum Heidi, her sister Dixie and herself, along with business partners Jeff Beacher and Doug Renert, has invested in women-founded businesses, per Forbes.
