I listed 47 Substack Bestsellers Making at Least $300K Yearly Revenue with Paid Subscription:

Last month, I released a report analyzing 75K Substack newsletters, and the feedback has been incredible.

Among the many reactions, one question kept popping up:

How can creators build successful paid subscription strategies?

This question inspired me to dive deeper into the best practices for paid subscriptions.

To start, I researched Substack newsletters with the “Purple Bestseller Badge”—provided by Substack to newsletters with at least 10,000 paid subscribers.

Here’s what I discovered:

→ I found 47 newsletters with the purple badge.

→ Politics dominates the space, with 25 out of 47 newsletters in this category.

→ While 45 newsletters are in English, there’s one in Spanish and one in Italian.

→ Some newsletters stand out with unconventional approaches:

→ One accepts Bitcoin as payment.

→ Another uses a fourth pricing tier called "Navigators", beyond the usual monthly, annual, and founding membership.

The most striking one is that estimated annual revenue ranges from $300K to $5M! (multiplying 10K by annual price).

👇 Here is the list of 47 Substack Bestsellers with the Purple Badge, including their category and estimated minimum annual revenue:

1. Letters from an American by

   Heather Cox Richardson
   (Politics / $5 million)

2. ByteByteGo Newsletter by

   Alex Xu
   (Technology / $1.5 million)

3. Lenny’s Newsletter by

   Lenny Rachitsky
   (Business / $1.5 million)

4. The Pragmatic Engineer by

   Gergely Orosz
   (Technology / $1.5 million)

5. Meidas+ by

   Ron Filipkowski
   (Politics / $1 million)

6. Noahpinion by

   Noah Smith
   (Business / $1 million)

7. The Bulwark by

   The Bulwark
   (Politics / $1 million)

8. Public by Michael Shellenberger (News / $1 million)

9. Silver Bulletin by

   Nate Silver
   (Politics / $950,000)

10. Slow Boring by

    Matthew Yglesias
    (Politics / $800,000)

11. The Forgotten Side of Medicine by

    A Midwestern Doctor
    (Politics / $800,000)

12. The Preamble by

    Sharon McMahon
    (Politics / $800,000)

13. WhitePaper by

    Rene Lankenau
    (News / $782,000)

14. Tipping Point Prophecy Update by

    Jimmy Evans
    (Faith & Spirituality / $770,000)

15. Vale Tutto - di Selvaggia Lucarelli by

    Selvaggia Lucarelli
    (Culture / $730,000)

16. Zeteo by

    Mehdi Hasan
    (Politics / $720,000)

17. The Message Box by

    Dan Pfeiffer
    (Politics / $700,000)

18. Thinking about... by

    Timothy Snyder
    (Politics / $700,000)

19. Big Salad by

    Joanna Goddard
    (Fashion & Beauty / $600,000)

20. Proof by

    Seth Abramson
    (Politics / $600,000)

21. Serious Table by

    Josh Barro
    (News / $600,000)

22. The Good in Us by Mary L. Trump by

    Mary L. Trump
    (Politics / $600,000)

23. The Isolation Journals with Suleika Jaouad by

    Suleika Jaouad
    (Culture / $600,000)

24. Unreported Truths by

    Alex Berenson
    (Politics / $600,000)

25. Blocked and Reported by

    Jesse Singal
    (Culture / $550,000)

26. a newsletter by

    Alison Roman
    (Food & Drink / $500,000)

27. Chartbook by

    Adam Tooze
    (History / $500,000)

28. Civil Discourse with Joyce Vance by

    Joyce Vance
    (Politics / $500,000)

29. David Lebovitz Newsletter by

    David Lebovitz
    (Food & Drink / $500,000)

30. House Inhabit by Jessica Reed Kraus (Culture / $500,000)

31. Popular Information by

    Judd Legum
    (Politics / $500,000)

32. Public Notice by

    Aaron Rupar
    (Politics / $500,000)

33. Racket News by

    Matt Taibbi
    (Politics / $500,000)

34. Robert Reich by

    Robert Reich
    (Politics / $500,000)

35. Seymour Hersh by

    Seymour Hersh
    (News / $500,000)

36. Steady by

    Dan Rather
    (Politics / $500,000)

37. Story Club with George Saunders by

    George Saunders
    (Literature / $500,000)

38. The Borowitz Report by

    Andy Borowitz
    (Politics / $500,000)

39. The Martyr Made Substack by

    Darryl Cooper
    (History / $500,000)

40. The Weekly Dish by

    Chris Bodenner
    (Politics / $500,000)

41. Violet’s Substack by

    Violet Witchel
    (Food & Drink / $500,000)

42. What To Cook When You Don't Feel Like Cooking by

    Caroline Chambers
    (Food & Drink / $500,000)

43. Who is Robert Malone by

    Robert W Malone MD, MS
    (Politics / $500,000)

44. Your Local Epidemiologist by

    Katelyn Jetelina
    (Science / $500,000)

45. Hopium Chronicles By Simon Rosenberg by

    Simon Rosenberg
    (Politics / $450,000)

46. The Morning Edition by

    Mike Huckabee
    (Politics / $360,000)

47. Dr. Mercola's Censored Library by

    Dr. Joseph Mercola
    (Politics / $300,000)

WHAT’S NEXT?

Substack also awards two other badges:

→ Orange Badge: Thousands of paid subscribers

→ White Badge: Hundreds of paid subscribers

I identified 600 newsletters with the Orange badge and 3,000 newsletters with the White Badge.

I will check all these 4,000 newsletters’ pages and strategies ONE BY ONE to reveal “how” they became successful:

→ How do they price their memberships?

→ What makes their premium content stand out?

→ How do they convert free subscribers into paid ones?

→ How do they craft their welcome emails?

→ What unique tactics drive their growth?

Throughout 2025, I’ll study these newsletters, I’ll talk to their creators and share my findings in exclusive mini-reports and articles for my paid members. If you’re looking to start or grow your paid subscription, Newsletter Circle is where I’ll share it all.