The subscription-based platform OnlyFans’s popularity only continues to grow, and in 2024 it hit record numbers — nearly $8 billion in revenue. That’s a mind-boggling increase from five short years ago when the annual revenue didn’t even hit $250 million. Back then, the platform had less than 15 million users.

Now it has nearly 400 million users.

Obviously a lot has changed in the world since 2019, too. While the platform did see a big jump from 2019 to 2020, going from less than 15 million users to nearly 84 million users, the bigger increase came from 2020 to 2021. The number of users increased to 190 million users and nearly $5 billion in revenue.

So what changed?

For starters, the platform became more normalized as more users joined and more creators signed up. While the platform may have started as a place for adult content creators to share their photos and videos and connect with followers (for a fee), it has grown into so much more.

If you look strictly at how the platform works, OnlyFans isn’t too different from other social media sites, especially as many such as Instagram have added paid subscription features. But when it first started, it stood out for the ability to paywall any and all content the creator desired — and to set their own price. Creators can choose to offer subscriptions, tips, and pay-per-view content.

That’s why many adult content creators flocked to the platform in the beginning. It was a safe and legal way to sell and promote their content and services. But as the platform grew, the creators expanded well beyond porn stars.

Now you can find creators of all kinds on the platform, from athletes to musicians to artists.

Sure, some are using the platform to create and sell explicit content. But many are using it to connect with their fans, offer behind the scenes looks into their lives, and even to offer training and lessons.

Chloe Paquet is a French tennis pro who launched her OnlyFans account earlier this year. She said: “Everybody watches tennis tournaments but they don’t know exactly what life is like behind, so I want to show a little bit of that for the fans. I think it’s a really good idea. I will post on here about my tennis life. I want to show the fans how I practice. I want to show what kind of fitness I do. I also want to show what I am before the match or after the match.”

Musician Kate Nash launched her account last year to fund her next tour, and she made what she needed in only 7 days. She stayed on the platform to continue to fund future projects, and joked: “It’s very exciting, my butt enterprise. I need to get a [corporate] name. I need to get ‘Butts for Tour Buses’ on a credit card.”

Even with all these new creators coming on the platform, statistics show that 98% of the content created is still explicit. Though as more creators join, including brands like the Nimbi razor company, we’ll see if that percentage changes in 2025.