If you’ve spent any time in the creator economy, especially on TikTok, you’ll know one frustrating truth and that's that people are still obsessed with follower count. And honestly? It’s outdated.

At GG Talent Group, we see this every day. Some of our creators consistently pull hundreds of thousands, even millions, of views on their TikTok videos. They’re consistent and genuinely resonate with audiences but yet because their follower count isn’t in the six- or seven-figure range, they’re often overlooked by sponsors. 

Meanwhile, creators with much bigger follower numbers but significantly lower views continue to get the inbound interest. It’s a system that simply doesn’t reflect reality - or give you the best value for your money!

WHAT DOES TIKTOK CARE ABOUT?

Follower count used to matter more back when platforms grew more slowly, audiences were stable, and your follower number was the closest thing you had to a visibility metric. But TikTok completely changed the game. Its algorithm doesn’t care how many followers you have, it cares about how engaging your content is. A creator with 80k followers can easily outperform someone with over a million followers if their videos are consistently pulling huge view numbers. One has genuine reach, the other just has a big number on their profile. And sponsors need to remember that these mean completely different things.

WHAT'S YOUR GOAL?

If the goal of a sponsored campaign is awareness, exposure, or audience connection, then views are what you need to be paying attention to. Views reveal how many people are actually watching the content, how strong the creator’s relationship with the algorithm is, how consistently they reach new audiences, and how much visibility a brand can realistically expect. A creator who regularly gets a million organic views delivers far more value than someone with a million followers whose content rarely lands.

Some of the most exciting creators right now are those whose views massively outperform their follower size. These are creators with momentum and rapidly growing. But because they don’t meet old-school follower thresholds, they’re skipped over before a conversation even begins. It’s a huge missed opportunity for brands and indie game developers and an unfair limitation for creators.

WHY DOES THE MINDSET NEED TO SHIFT?

The industry desperately needs a mindset shift. Instead of focusing on follower count, which is increasingly a vanity metric, brands and indie game developers should be looking at performance, consistency, audience behaviour, and the overall quality of a creator’s content. These are the indicators that predict campaign success, not the number displayed at the top of a profile.

As a platform, TikTok has evolved, audiences have evolved, and the way creators build influence has evolved too. Sponsorship criteria need to catch up. A view-first approach is more accurate, more effective, and far more aligned with how TikTok actually works. It rewards creators who are genuinely performing, gives brands and indie game developers better ROI, and helps identify rising stars before they explode.

Creators shouldn’t be penalized just because their follower count hasn’t caught up to their content performance. And brands and indie game developers shouldn’t be investing based on outdated metrics. The industry needs to move forward.

It’s time to pay for views, not followers, because real reach, not raw numbers, is what drives results.

If this sounds like something you need, get in touch with our team via the website or by dropping them an email on info@ggtalentgroup.com.

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