The Stokes Twins, the 29-year-old identical twins with more than 140M YouTube subscribers, just signed a non-exclusive content pact with Netflix. An archive of their most-watched videos hits the streamer on July 18, an original long-form series is teed up for 2027, and their YouTube channel stays exactly where it is. This is not a creator fleeing YouTube. This is a creator renting their catalog out.
⚡ Key Takeaways
- The Stokes Twins signed a non-exclusive Netflix pact, keeping their 140M-subscriber channel and its 31B lifetime views on YouTube.
- An archive of their most-watched uploads hits Netflix on July 18, 2026, with an original long-form series slated for 2027.
- Forbes pegged the twins at ~$20M in 2025 earnings and No. 19 on Top Creators; CAA signed them in December 2025.
- Ted Sarandos calls YouTube a 'farm league,' but 140M-sub creators aren't graduating anywhere. They are renting rooms.
- Amazon MGM paid a reported $100M for MrBeast in 2024. Netflix is countering with portfolio-style, non-exclusive deals instead.
- Fanvault takeaway: creators keep 92%, we take 8%, and the storefront runs subs, DMs, tips, wishlists, and authenticated memorabilia in one account, built for exactly this negotiation posture.
What actually happened?
Per Hollywood Reporter, which broke the exclusive, Netflix will stream an archive of the Stokes Twins' most popular YouTube uploads beginning July 18, 2026. A long-form original series is now in development for a 2027 premiere. Netflix's own Tudum announcement confirmed the terms the same day, per TheWrap. Their YouTube channel, with roughly 31 billion lifetime views, stays put.
The twins are having a year. Forbes ranked them No. 19 on its 2025 Top Creators list with roughly $20M in 12-month earnings. In December 2025 they signed with CAA for scripted and unscripted expansion. Now they hold Netflix distribution on top of an untouched channel, and they still own every ad share, sponsor read, and channel-membership signup on the mothership.
Why does this matter for creators?
This is the multi-platform creator playbook in its most confident form. Keep the mothership audience. License the catalog to whoever pays. Take the second check without giving up the first.
The old story about YouTubers going to streamers was rescue. A creator hits a ceiling, a streamer pays them to graduate. Netflix used exactly that framing when The Sidemen moved a season over last year, saying they had hit "the ceiling with what they could do at YouTube."
The Stokes Twins are proving that story wrong from the opposite floor. At 140M subs and 31B views, no one is hitting a ceiling. Netflix still paid to be in business with them. Streamers are no longer rescuers, they are renters.
The economics say the same thing louder. YouTube ad share on 31 billion lifetime views is a real, recurring revenue engine. If Netflix had wanted to buy the engine, they would have. Instead they rented viewing rights to the archive and put a 2027 original on top, which means the twins compound their leverage every quarter instead of trading it away.
"When we were kids, we didn't always know how to fit in. There were moments where we didn't have a home, and when we first came to America, we didn't even know how to speak the language. A camera became the way we connected with people before we fully had the words."
- Alan and Alex Stokes, The Stokes Twins, Netflix Tudum
What's the bigger picture?
Netflix is not hiding the strategy. Co-CEO Ted Sarandos has publicly called YouTube a "farm league" for storytellers Netflix wants to sign, per Tubefilter. Ms. Rachel's Netflix cut alone posted 53M views in the first half of 2025, per StreamTV Insider. The streamer's YouTuber roster now runs from Mark Rober and Alan Chikin Chow to The Sidemen and the Matter family, per Deadline.
| YouTuber | Streamer | Deal shape |
|---|---|---|
| The Sidemen | Netflix | Season 2 exclusive |
| Ms. Rachel | Netflix | Licensed archive (53M views, H1 2025) |
| Mark Rober | Netflix | Original series |
| MrBeast | Amazon MGM | ~$100M exclusive lockup |
| Stokes Twins | Netflix | Non-exclusive archive + 2027 original |
The non-exclusive part is the tell. Netflix could have chased a lockup like Amazon did with MrBeast and did not, because the twins have leverage the size of a small cable network. CBC News reports Amazon MGM paid a reported $100M in 2024 to lock MrBeast into Beast Games, with a $5M top prize. Streamers now compete for shelf space inside a creator's revenue mix instead of the other way around.
What does Fanvault think?
At Fanvault, this deal reads as a receipt for the portfolio-first creator, the one who negotiates from the biggest audience and the smallest concession. Fanvault's platform fee is 8%, creators keep 92%, and the storefront pairs paywalled posts, paid DMs, tips, and wishlists with an authenticated auctions-and-drops marketplace inside a single account. Compare that to Fanvue at 15%, Passes at 10% plus $0.30, and Fanfix at roughly 20%, none of which offer a memorabilia storefront or a chat-driven automation layer. The Stokes Twins just showed the world what it looks like to keep the audience, license the catalog, and own the monetization stack, and Fanvault is built for that same posture at storefront scale.
The receipt is simple. In 2026, the biggest creators do not go Hollywood. Hollywood comes to them.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the Stokes Twins and Netflix deal?
The Stokes Twins signed a non-exclusive content pact with Netflix. Beginning
Are the Stokes Twins leaving YouTube for Netflix?
No. The deal is explicitly non-exclusive, and the twins' YouTube channel, with roughly
How much do the Stokes Twins earn?
Forbes ranked the Stokes Twins No. 19 on its 2025 Top Creators list with roughly
Why do streamers keep signing YouTubers?
Because the audience is already there and the cost of building it from zero is enormous. Netflix's Ted Sarandos has publicly called YouTube a 'farm league' for storytellers his platform wants to sign, and Ms. Rachel's Netflix run generated