In his latest volley in the creator‑economy arms race, Elon Musk has publicly backed a plan for X to increase creator payouts to compete directly with YouTube, potentially even paying more than Alphabet’s streaming giant in some cases.
In a December exchange flagged by outlets including WatcherGuru, Musk responded to an X user who argued that the platform should “crank creator payouts way way way way up” and “maybe even more than YouTube” by replying, “Ok, let’s do it,” and looping in X head of product Nikita Bier.
That short reply carried an important qualifier. Musk added that the platform would have to “rigorously” enforce rules against “gaming of the system,” a pointed reference to the engagement‑driven ad‑share program that has previously incentivized clickbait and reply‑bait threads.
In earlier comments to Bier, Musk acknowledged that X is “underpaying and not allocating payment accurately enough,” and bluntly conceded that “YouTube does a much better job,” which is about as clear as it gets on where he believes X stands today.
Mr Beast has done 9 figures in YouTube ad revenue on one Channel
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MrBeast’s six‑figure X payout in context
No conversation about creator payouts on X is complete without MrBeast. When Jimmy Donaldson decided in early 2024 to upload an existing YouTube hit, “$1 vs $100,000,000 Car!,” directly to X, he did it as a test: “I was curious how much ad revenue a video on X would make.” After about a week, he shared a screenshot showing roughly 156 million impressions, more than 5 million engagements and $263,655 in ad revenue.
Then he undercut the headline number himself. In the same post, MrBeast wrote “MY FIRST X VIDEO MADE OVER $250,000!” and immediately called that figure “a bit of a facade,” explaining that advertisers “saw the attention it was getting and bought ads on my video,” which likely pushed his revenue per view far above what a typical creator would see. Coverage from NBC News and the BBC all stress that his effective rate of around $1.68 per 1,000 impressions on X is a fraction of what he can earn on YouTube once real “views” and watch time are factored in, where outside analysts estimate that the same video will generate millions of dollars over its lifetime.
In his newer post responding directly to Musk’s payout push, MrBeast set expectations even more bluntly. “Competing with YouTube revenue gonna be pretty hard, they’re the best platform to ever exist at this,” he wrote, adding,
in a post that has been widely circulated as a reality check on X.
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I read that example as a cautionary tale. It proves that X can deliver large checks under the right conditions, but it also shows how easily a single outlier can distort expectations for smaller creators who do not have brand advertisers lining up to chase a viral moment. For working creators who rely on consistent RPMs and predictable monthly payouts, YouTube’s mature ad‑share model still looks more reliable than X’s relatively new monetization tools.
How X’s payout structure is shifting
Musk’s latest comments arrive on top of a series of changes that have already pushed X deeper into the creator‑payout business. X currently pays select creators a share of ad revenue based largely on engagement from verified users, and it layers that on top of subscriptions, tips and brand‑style Amplify pre‑roll deals for a small pool of major accounts. TechCrunch reported in 2024 that X was tweaking payout formulas to depend more on engagement than on direct ad placements, a shift that encouraged high‑volume replies and sometimes toxic discourse because replies helped unlock revenue.
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By telling Bier to increase payouts while “rigorously” preventing system gaming, Musk is effectively admitting that the first iteration of the program pushed creators toward engagement hacks instead of high‑quality content. Reports from outlets such as Longbridge and Live Index suggest that part of the new push is tied to Musk’s desire to secure “high‑quality content” that can train or feed Grok, his in‑house AI system, which raises the stakes for how much X is willing to pay to keep original material on the platform.
From what I see so far, the strategy boils down to three goals:
- Pay select creators more per impression or per view, approaching or, in some cases, exceeding YouTube‑level payouts.
- Tighten enforcement against bots, fake engagement and low‑quality spam that have historically siphoned off ad money.
- Use higher payouts as leverage to attract exclusive or first‑window content that makes X a true video destination instead of just a repost hub.
Whether that translates into better economics for mid‑tier creators is still an open question. The current gap between headline payouts for stars like MrBeast and the much smaller checks described by everyday users remains wide.
What creators and analysts are saying
Reactions inside the creator community range from enthusiastic to sharply skeptical. In coverage compiled by NewsX, independent journalist Nick Shirley called Musk’s pledge “amazing” and said that while “X so far hasn’t been able to compete with YouTube Adsense,” he sees the platform as “a much more effective platform for videos to be shared and seen by the masses without censorship.”
Shirley added that he has been urging peers to post on X, but many still feel “their time is better used (monetarily) on other platforms,” a line that captures the core adoption problem Musk has to solve.
Other creators quoted by Mashable after the first wave of X ad‑revenue payouts described being “pleasantly surprised” by the new income streams, with one user saying, “$370 is fantastic ROI for something I do anyway.” At the same time, a former Twitter executive told the Washington Post that some of the early numbers looked “totally and completely bogus” and questioned whether the payouts were sustainable, raising reasonable doubts about how durable the model will be once promotional budgets dry up.
Analysts who track the platform are also split. Business Insider has previously reported that Musk told employees it made sense to pay “cool” YouTubers 10% more than they earn from YouTube to lure them over, which lines up with his current public stance about outbidding rivals.
But TechCrunch and other outlets warn that any system that over‑rewards raw engagement can backfire by incentivizing polarizing or low‑quality content, especially if the enforcement tools lag behind gaming tactics.
As someone who covers and uses digital platforms, I see Musk’s latest signal as a genuine escalation in the battle for creator loyalty. The challenge now is whether X can translate a viral “Ok, let’s do it” into a stable, transparent payout system that works for more than a handful of superstar accounts. Until creators consistently report that their X dashboards match or beat what they see on YouTube and TikTok, Musk’s pledge will remain a bold promise, not a settled reality.
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