Patreon is deploying its largest product update in company history, introducing a set of network features designed to connect fans with creators and convert free followers into paying members.

The rollout includes Quips, a short-form post format that appears in a redesigned Home feed and reaches fans across Patreon’s app and website. The company says Quips give existing fans a new way to engage with creators while helping potential new fans discover and evaluate memberships.

Patreon also introduced Collaboration posts, which allow two creators to co-author a single post and reach both of their audiences simultaneously. The company reports that fan engagement is more than five times higher when a post is boosted through creator interactions, such as collaboration posts or creators commenting on and liking each other’s work.

A dedicated Memberships-only feed allows fans to filter content to posts from creators they already support, while the redesigned Home feed surfaces recommended creators alongside posts from existing memberships.

Drew Rowny, VP of Product at Patreon, said the platform now delivers more than one million new members per month to creators through its network. He described the algorithm as built around signals, including fan engagement, shared fandoms, and creator interaction rather than watch time.

“Our network optimizes for connection, not attention,” Rowny wrote in the announcement.

Platform Scale and Context

Patreon currently hosts more than 300,000 creators and reports nearly 80 million fans on the platform. Fans pay creators more than $2 billion annually, and Patreon reports more than 165 million free memberships, nearly double the figure from early last year.

The network expansion brings more of the Patreon experience in front of the paywall, a shift the company says is intended to help creators grow their audiences without relying on traditional social media platforms.

Creator: Katy Lipscomb 

The move aligns with a broader industry trend documented in a 2025 Epidemic Sound report, which surveyed 3,000 creators across the U.S. and UK. The report found that 95% of full-time and part-time creators are engaging audiences through direct-to-fan models, with fan subscriptions cited as a revenue source by 27% of respondents.

Separately, Patreon reported this month that podcasters earned nearly $630 million on its platform in 2025, a 33% year-over-year increase, with growth attributed to direct fan relationships built through paid memberships rather than advertising.

Roadmap

Patreon announced plans to let fans select interests at sign-up and explore topic-specific spaces on the platform. The company said it will measure the network’s success by the strength of connections between creators and fans and by creator earnings rather than time spent on the platform.

Image source: Patreon

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