How much do creators actually earn on Hive? Everyone asks, few answer with data. We index every author_reward and curation_reward operation on the chain, so we published the numbers for every quarter since Hive's first full quarter after the fork (Q2 2020), in one permanent place:
https://ecency.com/creator-economy
Highlights from Q2 2026:
5,144 authors received on-chain payouts: 777k liquid HIVE plus 932k staked HP, roughly $99,000 at quarter-average prices
11,362 curators earned 2.8M HP just for voting. On Hive, more people earn from curating than from writing
119,762 posts and 743,630 comments published
The most active communities by distinct authors: Actifit, Ecency, Worldmappin, LeoFinance, Photography Lovers
The six-year arc, honestly told:
Roughly $18 million has been paid to authors since the fork
The peak: $2.28M in a single quarter (Q4 2021, 19,288 authors earning) during the bull market
The present: $99k in Q2 2026, with HIVE at six-year price lows
Measured in HIVE instead of dollars, rewards stayed far steadier than the USD chart suggests
The quiet constant: curation has paid 2.3M to 3.3M HP every single quarter for six years, through a 20x price swing in both directions
More honest parts, because credibility matters more than hype:
The median earning author made about 18 HP this quarter. The top 10 percent earned over 463 HP, the top 1 percent over 2,160 HP. Earnings are top-heavy here, like on every creator platform. The difference is you can verify every payout on-chain.
USD value tracks HIVE's market price far more than platform activity: the fall from the 2021 peak is a price story, and the recent quarters are too.
Methodology in short: figures are what was actually credited to authors (net of beneficiary redirects, excluding curation, which is reported separately). Posts and comments exclude edits. Full methodology is on the page.
The data is licensed CC BY 4.0: quote it, chart it, build on it, just link back. The page updates every quarter.
If you write about Hive stats (looking at you, statisticians of the chain), consider this a standing source you can cite.
Curators earn more HIVE, but they also lost more in USDT terms over the year, since HIVE fell by 77% during that period.
Now that you mention it, that seems pretty true.
Interesting metrics, I would do an Infografic on those stats, put it through NotebookLM.
Nice don’t forgot to reference Ecency page link from post into infographic
Yeah, @jza might understand that :)
I did on my wave...
https://ecency.com/waves/jza/wave-202677t12348900z
I thought it turned out pretty well.
Yeah I applied a different theme.
https://ecency.com/waves/jza/wave-202677t12348900z
Thats some fun stats! :D
The million-dollar question is: how do I become a curator and receive benefits? I have already been a curator, but as an apprentice; therefore, I did not receive rewards for exercising that work.
!ALIVE
Curating actively and having Hive Powered up will gradually scale but if you are not sure you will be actively curating daily then delegation is better if delegator returns you back your curation rewards 100% like we do with Ecency delegations
If it is by delegation, I am already doing it, specifically to the Ecency account. I actually recently increased the HP. Thanks for replying.
!ALIVE
Wow 😮 great For me, it's not even worth counting how much money you earn from the hive because there are so many people who have earned a lot from the hive. Millions of dollars in a year.
Thank you for the explanation and for the address of the data reporting site.