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How Premium subscriptions translate into creator earnings

When a viewer pays for Rumble Premium, how does that support creators?

It's a reasonable question, especially if you subscribe because you enjoy someone's work. You might expect part of your subscription to go to the channels you watch. But Rumble's 2025 Annual Report makes a distinction that's easy to miss: it says the company does not apportion Rumble Premium revenue among content creators.

That doesn't mean creators receive no subscription-related payments of any kind. Premium, Locals memberships, badge subscriptions and creator incentives need to be considered separately.

The specific disclosure matters more than the broad description

On PDF page 8, Rumble lists several ways its video business generates revenue. These include advertising, Premium subscriptions, subscriptions to creators on Locals, badge subscriptions, pay-per-view and tipping. It then says it shares revenue from advertising, subscriptions, pay-per-view and tipping with creators.

Read on its own, that sounds as though every subscription product might contribute to creator revenue sharing.

But PDF page 23 is more specific:

The broad revenue-sharing description shouldn't be treated as a promise that Premium subscription fees are distributed to creators. The report explicitly says otherwise for that product.

Rumble includes this disclosure in a discussion of why creators might leave the platform for better monetization opportunities. It's relevant to creators deciding where to publish, not just to viewers deciding what to buy.

Premium supports Rumble, but that isn't the same as a creator allocation

The report describes Premium as a subscription for viewers seeking a no-ads experience and/or premium Rumble content.

Paying for it generates subscription revenue for Rumble. In that sense, it supports the business operating the platform. But supporting the platform and directing a share of your payment to a particular creator are different things.

Based on this report, viewers shouldn't assume that watching a creator with Premium causes a portion of their subscription fee to be allocated to that creator. Nor should they assume a Premium subscription is financially equivalent to joining that creator's paid community.

The disclosure also doesn't mean every Premium dollar becomes profit. It describes whether revenue is apportioned among creators, not what remains after Rumble pays its expenses.

Locals memberships and badges are separate products

Locals has a different relationship between the viewer and the subscription. Page 8 describes revenue from users who subscribe to content creators on Locals. That's a creator-specific membership, rather than the platform-level Premium subscription described in the same section.

For a viewer whose goal is to support a particular creator, that distinction matters. A subscription to that creator on Locals is a different purchase from Rumble Premium. The cited pages don't specify the creator's exact share, applicable fees or payout terms, so they shouldn't be used to promise a particular take-home amount.

Badge subscriptions are listed separately too. Their inclusion under subscription revenue doesn't make them Premium subscriptions. However, the cited pages don't explain their creator payout formula or how an individual purchase is attributed. Viewers need the relevant product terms to establish those details.

The useful rule is to identify the product before drawing conclusions about the payment. "Subscription revenue" covers more than one arrangement.

Creator incentives don't establish a Premium revenue share

Page 23 also describes economic incentives used to attract and retain creators. These can include minimum guaranteed earnings, cash payments and equity grants for a limited number of creators.

Some arrangements involve fixed payment obligations that don't depend on the revenue or performance generated by the creator.

So a creator can receive money from Rumble even though the company doesn't apportion Premium revenue among creators. A contractual payment and a share of subscription receipts are not the same mechanism.

The report doesn't establish that a particular Premium purchase triggers one of these payments, or that these incentives are available to every creator.

What this means when you choose how to support someone

If you want Premium's viewing benefits, evaluate it as that product. If your main goal is to support a specific creator, look at the options that creator offers and check who receives the payment, what fees apply and whether any Premium purchase is actually linked to creator compensation.

My takeaway is narrower than either "Premium pays creators" or "creators get nothing from subscriptions." The 2025 report says Premium revenue isn't apportioned among creators, while separately describing creator subscriptions and other compensation arrangements.

For viewers, the missing piece is a clear product-by-product explanation of where their money goes. Until that is established, buying Premium shouldn't be presented as interchangeable with paying a creator directly.

Based on Rumble's supplied 2025 Annual Report. This describes the disclosures in that report, not a verification of current product terms or later changes.

Sources use PDF page numbers, not the report's printed page numbers:

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