How Gymnast Olivia Dunne Became The World’s Most-Followed College Athlete

Olivia Dunne is TikTok’s million-dollar tumbler. The all-American gymnast at Louisiana State University is the world’s most-followed college athlete.

The New Jersey native has turned her 12 million followers into licensing gold thanks to deals with Motorola, AI assistant Caktus and clothing brands American Eagle and Vuori. “My audience can detect if something isn’t authentic,” Dunne tells Forbes. “My core values have to align with a brand.”Meanwhile her Livvy fund raises money for fellow female NCAA athletes from both fans and brands. Creators. Influencers. Streamers. Vloggers.

Whatever you call them, these powerful social media personalities are calling the shots in entertainment and advertising.

This year, the 50 honorees on our second annual Forbes Top Creator list harnessed their combined 2.6 billion followers to haul in an estimated $700 million in earnings.

That’s up more than 20% from 2022’s $570 million score. To rank the world’s Top Creators, Forbes crunched data on the earnings, follower counts, engagement rates, and entrepreneurial activities of thousands of internet personalities with the help of the creator marketing firm, Influential.

The result: The fifty people tapping their massive fan bases to reshape the worlds of media, marketing, entertainment, and taste.