Newsletter Statistics for 2026: Open Rates, Engagement Benchmarks, Creator Economy Growth, Monetization Models, B2B Performance, Frequency, and Substack vs Beehiiv Platform Data

In 2026, the newsletter has emerged as the most resilient and structurally advantaged content format in digital media. While social platforms wrestle with algorithm volatility, shifting content policies, and AI-curated feeds, newsletters continue doing what they have always done: reliably reaching opt-in audiences through creator-owned distribution. Newsletters are the most popular email type, used by 81% of marketers. Seventy-one percent of B2B marketers use an email newsletter as part of their content marketing strategy. And the newsletter economy nearly doubled year-over-year, growing from 26,911 to 52,809 newsletters between 2023 and 2024 a 96.2% increase based on Mailmend’s analysis of newsletter-specific data.

The engagement numbers validate the format’s authority. Newsletter-specific open rates across 15.6 billion emails average 37.67%, with regular newsletter sends slightly outperforming automated emails at 37.74% versus 35.12%, suggesting subscribers actively anticipate recurring content. On beehiiv’s platform, which powered over 20 billion emails in 2025, the average newsletter open rate is 38.69%. GetResponse’s 2024 benchmark study puts the email newsletter open rate at 40.08% higher than both autoresponders at 34.18% and triggered emails at 35.01% reflecting the unique trust relationship between newsletter publisher and subscriber. In the highest-performing newsletters, open rates of 40% or above are standard, and individual publications built around niche expertise regularly achieve 50% to 70% open rates.

The creator economy dimension of the newsletter industry has grown dramatically in 2025 and 2026. Substack reported 5 million paid subscriptions in early 2025, a 67% year-over-year increase. Beehiiv grew its number of individual newsletters by over 60% in 2025 to reach 140,000, with revenue reaching USD 28 million. Paid newsletter subscriptions generated USD 19 million through beehiiv’s platform in 2025, up from USD 8 million in 2024 a 138% increase. For newsletters launched in 2025, the median time to a first dollar of revenue dropped to 66 days, based on beehiiv’s State of Newsletters 2026 report. And creators with diversified revenue streams combining subscriptions, sponsorships, boosts, and digital products earn roughly 3x more than those relying solely on subscriptions, based on beehiiv platform data.

This article compiles 75+ newsletter statistics organized across nine thematic sections, drawn from the latest figures published within the last two years by primary data providers including beehiiv’s State of Newsletters 2026 (first-party platform data, 20B+ emails), beehiiv’s 2025 State of Email Newsletters (first-party data on 75,000+ newsletters, 350 million monthly readers), GetResponse Email Marketing Benchmarks 2024, Mailmend analysis of 15.6 billion emails, Content Marketing Institute B2B research, Substack platform reporting, Wellput’s State of Newsletters 2025 report, MailerLite’s 2025 benchmark report, Sacra’s beehiiv market analysis, and Whalesbook’s January 2026 platform growth tracking. Every statistic is atomic, individually sourced, and linked directly to its original study or publication.

Scope and Methodology

Includes only publicly available newsletter statistics relevant for 2026.
Based on the latest figures published within the last two years.
“Newsletter” is defined as a regularly scheduled email publication distributed to an opt-in subscriber list, distinct from promotional campaign emails or automated transactional flows.
Sources include primary research, first-party platform data, institutional studies, and industry benchmark reports.
Each statistic is listed separately with its original source and study context.
No estimates, forecasts, interpretations, or recommendations are included.

Key Newsletter Statistics for 2026

Newsletters are the most popular email type, used by 81% of marketers, based on primary survey data cited in Sender Email Marketing Statistics 2025.
The newsletter economy nearly doubled year-over-year, growing from 26,911 to 52,809 newsletters between 2023 and 2024 a 96.2% increase based on Mailmend’s analysis of newsletter-specific growth data published at Mailmend Newsletter Engagement Statistics 2025.
Newsletter-specific open rates across 15.6 billion emails average 37.67%, with regular newsletter sends slightly outperforming automated emails at 37.74% versus 35.12%, based on Mailmend’s analysis published at Mailmend Newsletter Engagement Statistics 2025.
GetResponse’s 2024 benchmark study found email newsletters had a 40.08% open rate, higher than autoresponders at 34.18% and triggered emails at 35.01%, reflecting the unique anticipation subscribers have for recurring newsletter content, based on data published at GetResponse Email Marketing Benchmarks 2024.
71% of B2B marketers use an email newsletter as part of their content marketing strategy, based on Content Marketing Institute’s 2025 B2B research cited in OptinMonster Email Marketing Statistics 2026.
Substack reported 5 million paid subscriptions in early 2025, a 67% year-over-year increase, based on platform reporting cited in Whalesbook Newsletter Boom January 2026.
Beehiiv grew its number of individual newsletters by over 60% in 2025 to reach 140,000, powered over 20 billion emails, and generated over USD 25 million in publisher revenue in 2025 alone, based on beehiiv’s State of Newsletters 2026 and platform analysis at beehiiv State of Newsletters 2026 and beehiiv Inside the Newsletter Evolution of 2025.
Paid newsletter subscriptions through beehiiv generated USD 19 million in 2025, up from USD 8 million in 2024 a 138% year-over-year jump driven by niche creators delivering specialized expertise, based on beehiiv’s State of Newsletters 2026 published at beehiiv State of Newsletters 2026.
The median time for a newsletter launched in 2025 to earn its first dollar of revenue dropped to 66 days, based on beehiiv’s State of Newsletters 2026 published at beehiiv State of Newsletters 2026.
In 2024, 37.9% of beehiiv creators sent weekly newsletters, but by the same measure in 2025, weekly send frequency almost doubled to 65.62%, based on beehiiv’s 2025 State of Email Newsletters published at beehiiv 2025 State of Email Newsletters.
Email newsletters are the third-highest channel for distributing content with a 71% rate of usage among marketers, based on Content Marketing Institute data cited in Nutshell Email Marketing Statistics 2025.
Creators with diversified revenue streams combining subscriptions, sponsorships, ad networks, and digital products earn roughly 3x more than those relying solely on paid subscriptions, based on beehiiv platform revenue data published at beehiiv Escaping the Subscription Plateau 2025.

Newsletter Open Rate and Engagement Benchmarks

Newsletter-specific open rates averaged 37.67% across 15.6 billion emails analyzed, with regular newsletter posts at 37.74% compared to automated emails at 35.12%, based on Mailmend’s analysis published at Mailmend Newsletter Engagement Statistics 2025.
Email newsletters achieved a 40.08% average open rate in GetResponse’s 2024 benchmark study, outperforming autoresponders at 34.18%, RSS-to-email at 20.45%, and triggered emails at 35.01%, based on data published at GetResponse Email Marketing Benchmarks 2024.
The average email open rate for beehiiv creators is 38.69%, which falls in line with the industry average range of 17% to 40%, based on beehiiv’s platform analysis published at beehiiv Inside the Most Successful Newsletters of 2024.
Successful newsletters built around niche expertise regularly achieve 50% to 70% open rates because of the precise audience-content match inherent in subject-matter-focused publications, based on beehiiv creator data published at beehiiv Inside the Most Successful Newsletters of 2024.
21.2% of newsletter opens occur within the first hour of sending, making the initial deployment window the most critical engagement period for any newsletter send, based on Mailmend’s analysis of newsletter timing data published at Mailmend Newsletter Engagement Statistics 2025.
On beehiiv, automation click-through rates at 13.48% are nearly three times higher than regular newsletter post CTRs at 4.59%, based on first-party beehiiv platform data published at beehiiv 2025 State of Email Newsletters.
61% of all newsletter emails are read for 8 seconds or more, establishing sustained reading time as a core newsletter engagement metric that distinguishes newsletters from promotional emails, based on data cited in Sender Email Marketing Statistics 2025.
Personalized newsletter emails achieve 44.30% open rates compared to non-personalized ones, with emails featuring personalized subject lines showing a 20.66% open rate versus 19.57% for non-personalized, based on research cited in Sender Email Marketing Statistics 2025.
Including video content in newsletters increases click-through and click-to-open rates, with GetResponse data confirming that adding engaging video formats into emails helps boost CTR beyond text-only newsletter sends, based on GetResponse benchmark analysis published at GetResponse Email Marketing Benchmarks 2024.

Creator Economy Newsletter Statistics

Substack reported 5 million paid subscriptions in early 2025, a 67% year-over-year increase, with major media organizations including New York magazine, The New Yorker, The Wall Street Journal opinion section, and The Paris Review launching newsletters on the platform, based on platform reporting cited in Whalesbook Newsletter Boom January 2026.
Beehiiv grew to 75,000 newsletters, 350 million monthly readers, and over USD 30 million in annualized revenue flowing through the platform as of mid-2025, based on beehiiv’s State of Newsletters 2026 published at beehiiv Inside the Newsletter Evolution of 2025.
Sacra estimates beehiiv hit USD 30 million in annualized revenue in June 2025, up from USD 19.8 million at the end of 2024, with software subscriptions making up USD 20 million and Ads and Boosts contributing USD 10 million, based on Sacra market analysis published at Sacra Beehiiv Revenue Valuation and Funding.
In 2024, 4,728 newsletters on beehiiv placed ads through the beehiiv Ad Network, 3,112 newsletters earned revenue through beehiiv Boosts, and 1,498 newsletters earned revenue through paid subscriptions, based on first-party beehiiv data published at beehiiv 2025 State of Email Newsletters.
Morning Brew grew to 4 million subscribers using a referral program that incentivized sharing, accounting for 2.5 million new subscribers, demonstrating that referral mechanics are among the most scalable growth engines available to newsletter operators, based on creator economy case study data at beehiiv Inside the Most Successful Newsletters of 2024.
Publishers on beehiiv report that Boosts alone drive 10% to 20% net-new subscriber growth per send while also generating incremental revenue, making cross-newsletter promotion a dual-function growth and monetization tool, based on beehiiv platform data published at beehiiv Escaping the Subscription Plateau 2025.
Legacy media organizations including Newsweek and Time have moved their newsletter portfolios to beehiiv, alongside independent creators like Jay Shetty and Arnold Schwarzenegger, reflecting the platform’s positioning as publishing infrastructure for professional operators rather than just hobbyist creators, based on platform positioning data at Whalesbook Newsletter Boom January 2026.
Substack holds 41% of newsletter platform market share and beehiiv holds 29% of new newsletter submissions, with MailerLite emerging in third place at 5%, based on Wellput’s State of Newsletters 2025 published at Wellput State of Newsletters 2025.

Newsletter Monetization Statistics

Sponsorships have emerged as the primary revenue stream for most newsletter publishers, with free newsletters accounting for more than 90% of new newsletter submissions and paid subscription models declining year-over-year, based on Wellput’s State of Newsletters 2025 published at Wellput State of Newsletters 2025.
Paid newsletter subscriptions through beehiiv generated USD 19 million in 2025, a 138% increase from USD 8 million in 2024, driven by niche creators delivering specialized expertise to highly targeted audiences, based on beehiiv’s State of Newsletters 2026 published at beehiiv State of Newsletters 2026.
Creators with diversified revenue combining subscriptions, sponsorships, ad networks, and digital products earn roughly 3x more than those relying solely on subscriptions, based on beehiiv revenue data published at beehiiv Escaping the Subscription Plateau 2025.
The median time for a newsletter launched in 2025 to earn its first dollar of revenue dropped to 66 days, a significant reduction from prior years, driven by beehiiv’s integrated ad network and cross-promotion tools enabling faster monetization without requiring large list sizes, based on beehiiv’s State of Newsletters 2026 published at beehiiv State of Newsletters 2026.
The global subscription economy hit USD 722 billion in 2025, but digital subscriptions grew only 0.65% from late 2024 to early 2025, from 917 million to 923 million, indicating saturation that is driving newsletter operators toward sponsorship and advertising revenue instead, based on beehiiv revenue strategy analysis published at beehiiv Escaping the Subscription Plateau 2025.
Subscription fatigue is driving churn up by roughly 23%, and customer acquisition costs for paid subscriptions are up approximately 67% since 2021, creating structural pressure on subscription-only newsletter models, based on creator economy analysis published at beehiiv Escaping the Subscription Plateau 2025.
Local newsletters monetizing through sponsorships have achieved USD 100,000 in annual revenue with subscriber lists of 10,000 to 16,000, demonstrating that niche geographic targeting can outperform large undifferentiated lists for advertiser value, based on beehiiv creator case study data published at beehiiv 2025 State of Email Newsletters.
Digital ad spend hit approximately USD 740 billion in 2025, approximately 69% of all ad spend, with a growing portion shifting toward creator-owned newsletter inventory as brands seek alternatives to platform-mediated advertising, based on revenue strategy analysis at beehiiv Escaping the Subscription Plateau 2025.

B2B Newsletter Statistics

71% of B2B marketers use an email newsletter as part of their content marketing strategy, based on Content Marketing Institute’s 2025 B2B research cited in OptinMonster Email Marketing Statistics 2026.
71% of B2B marketers cited email engagement as one of the most important metrics for the performance of their content in CMI’s 2024 report, making newsletter engagement the primary performance signal in B2B content measurement, based on CMI 2024 benchmark data cited in OptinMonster Email Marketing Statistics 2026.
B2B email newsletters see a 15.14% open rate in some measurements and up to 39.5% to 40% in others, depending on whether MPP-inflated data is included, but B2B maintains a 3.18% CTR compared to 2.09% for B2C, reflecting higher content intentionality in business audiences, based on benchmark data cited in OptinMonster Email Marketing Statistics 2026 and HubSpot Average Email Open Rate Benchmark 2025.
42% of B2B marketers cite email as their most effective marketing channel, outranked only by in-person events and webinars, establishing newsletters as the highest-ROI digital channel in most B2B marketing programs, based on B2B benchmark data cited in OptinMonster Email Marketing Statistics 2026.
Email marketing was ranked the second most effective channel for building brand awareness in a study of 1,000 small business owners, and email newsletters are the primary format through which SMBs deliver regular brand touchpoints to their customer base, based on research cited in Nutshell Email Marketing Statistics 2025.
B2B lead nurturing emails achieve 36.7% to 42.35% average open rates and approximately 8% CTRs for nurturing campaigns compared to 3% for standard emails, with newsletters serving as the primary vehicle for lead education and trust-building across multi-month B2B sales cycles, based on B2B benchmark data published at The Digital Bloom B2B Lead Nurturing Strategies 2025.
Newsletters built around proprietary research, expert commentary, and curated industry data consistently outperform promotional newsletters in B2B engagement, because business audiences reward genuine insight over branded content, based on B2B content preference data cited in SalesSOSO B2B Email Marketing Statistics 2026.

Send Frequency and Timing Statistics

In 2024, 37.9% of beehiiv newsletter creators sent weekly emails, but by the end of the year that figure nearly doubled to 65.62%, indicating a major shift toward higher-frequency newsletter publishing as creators built the content infrastructure to sustain it, based on first-party beehiiv data published at beehiiv 2025 State of Email Newsletters.
Sending newsletters 1 to 2 times per week delivers the best CTR and conversion outcomes, while organizations with highly engaged subscriber lists can send up to 11 to 12 newsletters per week without significant engagement loss, based on GetResponse send frequency analysis published at GetResponse Email Marketing Benchmarks 2024.
Sending emails 2 to 4 times per month yields the highest engagement rates for general email marketing programs, balancing subscriber attention with list fatigue avoidance, based on Campaign Monitor 2024 research cited in InboxAlly Email Marketing Statistics 2025.
Higher newsletter send frequencies at 6 or more per week tend to have lower unsubscribe rates than mid-range frequencies, indicating that highly committed publishers with consistently engaged audiences can sustain daily or near-daily sends, based on GetResponse benchmark data published at GetResponse Email Marketing Benchmarks 2024.
21.2% of all newsletter opens occur within the first hour of sending, confirming that the initial deployment window is the highest-stakes moment in newsletter distribution, and that send-time optimization directly affects total open rates, based on Mailmend timing analysis published at Mailmend Newsletter Engagement Statistics 2025.
Tuesday is consistently identified as the best send day for newsletters across multiple benchmark studies, and 11 AM local time is the peak open window, based on multi-platform timing analysis synthesized at CodeCrew Email Marketing Statistics 2025.
The subject line phrases “invitation,” the name of a month, and “now” tend to produce higher newsletter open rates, while “affordable” and the word “newsletter” itself in the subject line attract both opens and clicks, based on GetResponse subject line phrase analysis of newsletter sends published at GetResponse Email Marketing Benchmarks 2024.

Newsletter Growth and Subscriber Acquisition Statistics

The newsletter economy grew from 26,911 to 52,809 active newsletters between 2023 and 2024, a 96.2% year-over-year increase, driven by creators recognizing email’s ownership advantage over algorithm-dependent social platforms, based on Mailmend’s analysis published at Mailmend Newsletter Engagement Statistics 2025.
Beehiiv grew its newsletter count by over 60% in 2025 to reach 140,000 individual newsletters and sites, reflecting the continued acceleration of newsletter creation despite rising competition for inbox attention, based on January 2026 platform tracking at Whalesbook Newsletter Boom January 2026.
GRIT Capital migrated 360,000 subscribers to beehiiv in 2025, adding sponsorships and ad network campaigns on top of existing paid content, improving margins by approximately 15% while maintaining a premium brand, based on beehiiv case study data at beehiiv Escaping the Subscription Plateau 2025.
Declining use of automated cross-promotion tools is a major trend in 2025 and 2026, as publishers recognize that subscribers acquired through automated swaps have lower engagement and lower sponsorship value than organically acquired readers, making engagement quality a more important growth metric than raw list size, based on Wellput’s State of Newsletters 2025 published at Wellput State of Newsletters 2025.
Email is 40x more effective at acquiring new customers than social media, establishing newsletter list growth as a fundamentally higher-ROI investment than social media follower acquisition, based on McKinsey and Company 2024 data cited in Entrepreneurshq Email Marketing Statistics 2026.
65% of marketers see improved newsletter open rates from audience segmentation, and segmenting lists drives 760% more revenue from newsletter campaigns than unsegmented sends, making segmentation the foundational growth lever for newsletter monetization, based on HubSpot and Campaign Monitor data cited in Mailmend Newsletter Engagement Statistics 2025 and InboxAlly Email Marketing Statistics 2025.
Dave Jorgenson, who built The Washington Post’s TikTok presence, left the publication to launch an independent newsletter on beehiiv, representing a broader movement of established media professionals toward direct-to-audience publishing models, based on January 2026 platform reporting at Whalesbook Newsletter Boom January 2026.

Deliverability and List Health Statistics for Newsletters

1 in 6 marketing emails including newsletters never reaches the inbox, being filtered to spam or blocked outright, making deliverability the foundational prerequisite for any newsletter engagement strategy, based on Litmus research cited in InboxAlly Email Marketing Statistics 2025.
The average email deliverability rate across all senders was approximately 83% in 2024, with the remaining 17% of emails never reaching their destination mailbox, based on EmailTooltester’s 2024 deliverability test cited in EmailTooltester Email Marketing Statistics 2025.
Gmail achieves an average deliverability rate of 95.54%, while AOL averages 81.33% deliverability, with real estate reaching the highest industry-level deliverability at 97.1% and telecommunications, finance, and insurance experiencing below-average rates, based on EmailTooltester 2024 data cited in EmailTooltester Email Marketing Statistics 2025.
Gmail’s 2024 updates caused unsubscribe rates to double industry-wide by adding a one-click unsubscribe option visible directly in the inbox without opening the email, requiring newsletter operators to accelerate list hygiene practices and shift focus toward engagement quality over raw subscriber counts, based on MailerLite and Mailmend 2025 analysis cited in MailerLite Email Marketing Benchmarks 2025 and Mailmend Newsletter Engagement Statistics 2025.
The median unsubscribe rate across all email newsletter campaigns was 0.22% in 2025, more than double 2024’s rate of 0.08%, primarily driven by Gmail’s new easier unsubscribe interface, based on MailerLite’s 2025 benchmark data published at MailerLite Email Marketing Benchmarks 2025.
Emails with clear opt-out links see 14% higher deliverability, and proper email authentication including SPF, DKIM, and DMARC can significantly improve inbox placement, with finance industries seeing 88% inbox placement with proper authentication, based on deliverability data cited in InboxAlly Email Marketing Statistics 2025.
Removing unengaged subscribers from a newsletter list means the percentage of people who open and click rises, directly improving sender reputation and long-term deliverability, making aggressive list hygiene a net positive for engagement metrics even as it reduces raw subscriber count, based on MailerLite’s 2025 benchmark analysis published at MailerLite Email Marketing Benchmarks 2025.

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