66% of India's Creator Economy is Now Driven by Non-Metro Creators

A comprehensive report from the Indian School of Business and Hashfame reveals that India's creator base has expanded from 0.96 million to 4.12 million over the last five years. This growth is primarily fueled by non-metropolitan markets, which now account for 66% of the country's digital creators compared to less than half in 2020. This shift signals a major decentralization of the digital economy, requiring brands to adapt their strategies to reach a more geographically and linguistically diverse audience.

The joint study, titled Understanding the Canvas of India's Creator Economy, utilized data from the Qoruz Creator Intelligence Platform to track the sector's evolution between 2020 and 2025. It found that the number of creators in non-metro areas grew by 6.4 times during this period, significantly outperforming the 2.6-fold growth seen in metropolitan hubs. Geographically, Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra have emerged as the primary drivers of this expansion, representing nearly 25% of the total creator base, while states like Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, and Gujarat show high participation rates relative to their populations.

Despite the rapid increase in the number of creators, audience engagement has also intensified, rising from an average of 1.8% in 2020 to 7.2% in 2025. This surge in interaction has been met with increased commercial interest, as the number of annual brand campaigns tripled to 42,000 and average campaign spending grew by 3.6 times. Language is a critical factor in this growth; while Hindi remains the most common language at 42%, the majority of the ecosystem is now comprised of creators working in regional languages such as Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, Marathi, and Bengali.

Industry experts emphasize that the next phase of development must focus on economic sustainability rather than just population growth. Madhu Viswanathan of ISB noted that the transition to becoming a creator is already well underway, but the challenge now lies in helping these individuals build durable businesses. Anirudh Sridharan of Hashfame highlighted that many non-metro creators still face monetization hurdles, often securing only one paid campaign per year, and suggested that brands must move toward long-term partnerships to help creators establish stable professional paths.