How fast has OnlyFans grown over the past five years?

While not all OnlyFans users are adults, it is evident that this group is expanding. Therefore, it's critical to comprehend the market and how to carve out your own niche if you're an aspiring OnlyFans creator. Let's discuss discoverability. If you want a steady income stream from a loyal base, audacy.com subscriptions usually win. However, it doesn't provide the predictable recurring revenue that OnlyFans or Patreon can offer.

Large audiences are available on some platforms, such as YouTube and TikTok, but they control your reach through algorithms and take a cut of the ad revenue. You are fully in control when using OnlyFans. It implies that you have authority over your community and brand, but it also means that you must promote yourself. Similar to Patreon and Ko-fi, OnlyFans lacks an integrated discovery engine.

You can set up "commissions" or "memberships," but the default is one-off support. Although they don't identify individual creators, they can show patterns in subscription spending. Data from digital wallet services and payment processors make up a third channel. Every now and then, these payment behemoths publish aggregate data about the platforms they support. Despite being indirect, this is a trustworthy stand-in. For instance, a report from a payment processor might indicate that the adult entertainment industry saw a sharp increase in subscription service spending in a particular year.

It validates the growth trends that OnlyFans itself reported. These analysts have direct lines to company executives. Sex workers are not pleased with OnlyFans' recent policy change regarding explicit sexual content. OnlyFans has changed its mind about prohibiting explicit sexual content on the adult social network, but it will still impose an additional 20% fee on creator earnings from such content. Tim Stokely and Leonardo DiCaprio, founders of OnlyFans, at the British LGBT Awards in London in October.

The decision follows a warning and a backlash from creators. 21, following an initial ban that caused controversy. In an effort to keep users on the platform, the adult content website OnlyFans announced on October 24, 2026, that it will no longer block explicit content. 21, after an initial ban was met with backlash. OnlyFans has reversed its decision to ban explicit sexual content on the adult social network, but will charge an extra 20 percent fee on creator earnings made through sexually explicit content.

June 4, 2026 OnlyFans is one of several subscription-based websites and applications that let users share and market their content. (Getty) In October, OnlyFans declared that it would no longer impose restrictions on the sexually explicit content that users pay creators for.