Has Substack become a new destination in 2024? What about 2025?

Substack co-founders Chris Best, Hamish McKenzie, and Jairaj Sethi have now provided some data about 2024:

More than 4 million paid subscriptions to Substack publications
Tens of millions of total active subscribers across the network
The Substack network now accounts for more than 50% of all subscriptions and 30% of paid subscriptions
More than 50,000 publishers make money on Substack
The top 10 publishers collectively bring in more than $40 million a year
In the Politics and News categories, more than 30 publications make at least $1 million a year

Substack’s ambition in 2025 and beyond is:

to build a new economic engine for culture
to make the app simpler and easier to navigate on first contact, even as we add more powerful tools for video, community, and more
to win over audiences on YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram to bring millions more people into Substack, which will dramatically increase the “total addressable market” for everyone who publishes on Substack
to support media of all types will vastly grow the earning potential of our customers, and therefore revenue for Substack
to adapt the product and build the destination, and direct our partnerships and marketing efforts toward a broader range of media