Why a within-niche metric?
Platform-wide percentile is mathematically simple but practically misleading. A solid fitness creator earning $5,000/month is in roughly the top 8% platform-wide — but only the top 35% of fitness creators. Which number tells them more about their competitive position?
The answer depends on the question. For "how am I doing relative to people doing what I do?", niche position is far more useful. For "how am I doing overall on the platform?", platform-wide percentile wins. Both are useful; NPI fills the gap that platform-wide percentile leaves behind.
Formula
NPI is piecewise linear interpolation against niche-specific breakpoints (median_low, median_mid, median_high, top_decile_low, top_decile_high):
Niche breakpoints (current)
The breakpoints are derived from agency creator-management panel data, refreshed quarterly. Values shown in monthly gross USD:
| Niche | Median range | Top-decile range | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Couples | $800 – $4,000 | $15,000 – $40,000 | Highest-earning organic niche. Partner dynamic doubles addressable audience. |
| Adult / intimate | $400 – $1,200 | $12,000 – $25,000 | Largest by creator count (~60% of all creators sit here). |
| Fitness | $300 – $900 | $8,000 – $15,000 | Top fitness earner reported ~$8M in 2023. Steeper power law. |
| Cosplay | $200 – $1,500 | $5,000 – $50,000 | Highly bimodal. Belle Delphine-tier creators reach $1M+/month at peak. |
| Amateur | $150 – $600 | $2,000 – $8,000 | Largest by total count, lowest by average. Heavy long-tail dormancy. |
| Celebrity | $50,000 – $500,000 | $1M – $9.5M | Median is far above platform average — celebs only join with established audiences. |
Score interpretation
| Score | Interpretation |
|---|---|
| 90 – 99 | Top decile within your niche. Account is well-priced and reaching its addressable audience. |
| 75 – 89 | Top quartile. Strong competitive position; room to push pricing or expand revenue mix. |
| 50 – 74 | Upper half. Working, but not differentiated. Engagement Signal usually the highest-leverage improvement. |
| 25 – 49 | Lower half. Often price/audience mismatch — check whether your price tier matches your niche norms. |
| 0 – 24 | Long-tail. Account is either new, dormant or significantly mis-niched. |
Use cases
- Creator self-benchmarking: The most actionable single number for "am I doing well?". Tells you exactly how many creators in your niche you outperform.
- Agency client targeting: Find creators above NPI 75 who are still under-priced; these are the highest-upside agency clients.
- Niche-comparative reporting: Journalists writing "the most successful X creators" pieces can use NPI to objectively rank within a category instead of cherry-picking dollar amounts.
- Coaching: A creator with low NPI but high Engagement Signal usually has a pricing issue, not a content issue. NPI alone isolates that.
Limitations
- Self-classification dependency. If a creator misclassifies their niche, NPI gets distorted. We recommend defaulting to the broadest niche that captures more than 60% of your content.
- Static breakpoints between quarterly refreshes. A creator's NPI can shift as niche breakpoints update, even if their own revenue is unchanged.
- Niche overlap. Many creators span niches (fitness + cosplay, couples + adult). NPI doesn't currently handle blended classifications — we pick the primary.
How to cite
For interactive calculation see our income calculator.