Newsletter 2026 Statistics (Updated September)

How big are newsletters

1. 1

   The median newsletter in SponsorHawk's directory has 22,000 subscribers; the middle half have 7,500 to 85,000.

   Source: SponsorHawk · listings added 2021-02 to 2025-03 · 418 newsletters with a subscriber count · method

2. 2

   27.8% of newsletters in SponsorHawk's directory (116 of 418) have fewer than 10,000 subscribers, and 24.4% (102) have 100,000 or more.

   Source: SponsorHawk · listings added 2021-02 to 2025-03 · 418 newsletters with a subscriber count · method

3. 3

   TLDR carried ads from 112 different sponsors in SponsorHawk's placement data, more than any other newsletter; The AI Report was second with 77.

   Source: SponsorHawk · 2023-12-17 to 2025-08-10 · 390 newsletters · method

4. 4

   The median newsletter in SponsorHawk's placement data had 6 different sponsors, and 136 of 390 newsletters (34.9%) had 10 or more.

   Source: SponsorHawk · 2023-12-17 to 2025-08-10 · 390 newsletters · method

5. 5

   The 10 newsletters with the most sponsor placements carried 22.2% of all 8,917 placements in SponsorHawk's data, led by Product Hunt (316) and TLDR (256).

   Source: SponsorHawk · 2023-12-17 to 2025-08-10 · 8,917 placements · method

What open and click rates do newsletters get

1. 6

   Newsletters under 10,000 subscribers list a median open rate of 45% in SponsorHawk's directory, against 34% for newsletters with 100,000 or more.

   Source: SponsorHawk · listings added 2021-02 to 2025-03 · 41 and 28 newsletters that list an open rate · method

2. 7

   The average email open rate across all Mailchimp users is 35.63%, with a 2.62% click rate and a 0.22% unsubscribe rate.

   Source: Mailchimp, 2025 ^[1]

3. 8

   Non-profits get the highest average open rate in Mailchimp's benchmarks at 40.04%, against 29.81% for ecommerce senders.

   Source: Mailchimp, 2025 ^[1]

4. 9

   The average email open rate on MailerLite was 43.46% in 2025, up slightly from 42.35% in 2024, across more than 3.6 million campaigns.

   Source: MailerLite, 2025 ^[2]

5. 10

   MailerLite's average click-to-open rate rose to 6.81% in 2025 from 5.63% in 2024, and the average click rate was 2.09%.

   Source: MailerLite, 2025 ^[2]

6. 11

   Religion newsletters had the highest open rate on MailerLite in 2025 at 55.71%, followed by hobbies (53.25%) and non-profits (52.38%).

   Source: MailerLite, 2025 ^[2]

7. 12

   Legal emails had the highest click rate on MailerLite in 2025 at 4.90%; politics had the lowest at 0.83%.

   Source: MailerLite, 2025 ^[2]

8. 13

   The average unsubscribe rate per email on MailerLite was 0.22% in 2025.

   Source: MailerLite, 2025 ^[2]

9. 14

   Ecommerce campaign emails averaged a 30.22% open rate in 2025, in Omnisend's data on more than 20 billion campaign emails from 27,000+ brands.

   Source: Omnisend, 2026 ^[3]

10. 15

    Automated ecommerce emails earned $3.41 per email sent in 2025, against $0.155 for campaign emails, 22 times as much.

    Source: Omnisend, 2026 ^[3]

11. 16

    Automated ecommerce emails converted at 1.49% in 2025, against 0.08% for campaign emails, about 19 times higher.

    Source: Omnisend, 2026 ^[3]

12. 17

    Wedding brands had the highest ecommerce email open rate in Omnisend's 2025 data at 52.43%, but converted only 0.04% of recipients.

    Source: Omnisend, 2026 ^[3]

13. 18

    Mailchimp's non-profit senders average a 3.27% click rate, nearly twice the 1.74% of ecommerce senders.

    Source: Mailchimp, 2025 ^[1]

Which email apps open newsletters

1. 19

   Apple Mail accounts for 62.26% of email opens tracked by Litmus, and Gmail for 27.03%.

   Source: Litmus, 2026 ^[4]

2. 20

   Outlook desktop accounts for 5.83% of opens tracked by Litmus and Yahoo Mail for 2.59%.

   Source: Litmus, 2026 ^[4]

3. 21

   Litmus says Apple's Mail Privacy Protection now affects roughly 55% to 60% of all email opens, which inflates reported open rates.

   Source: Litmus, 2026 ^[4]

4. 22

   The Radicati Group forecasts that worldwide email users will grow from over 4.4 billion in 2024 to over 4.9 billion by 2028 (a prediction).

   Source: The Radicati Group, 2024 ^[5]

How Substack, Ghost and news publishers use newsletters

1. 23

   More than half of new subscribers to Substack publications come from Substack's own network of recommendations and app discovery.

   Source: Substack, 2026 ^[6]

2. 24

   Tens of millions of people read, watch or listen on Substack every week, according to the company.

   Source: Substack, 2026 ^[6]

3. 25

   Substack writers keep 90% of subscription revenue, minus card fees.

   Source: Substack, 2026 ^[6]

4. 26

   Paid subscriptions to UK-based Substack publishers passed half a million, according to Substack data given to The Hollywood Reporter.

   Source: Simon Owens, 2026 ^[7]

5. 27

   More than 50 people make over $1 million a year on Substack, according to the same Substack data.

   Source: Simon Owens, 2026 ^[7]

6. 28

   Substack was valued at $1.1 billion after its 2025 Series C funding round.

   Source: Simon Owens, 2026 ^[7]

7. 29

   Total publisher earnings on Ghost have passed $100 million, while Ghost's own annual revenue is over $8.5 million.

   Source: Ghost, 2025 ^[8]

8. 30

   A 2021 study counted 84 email newsletters published by 16 leading Spanish daily newspapers.

   Source: Revista Latina de Comunicación Social, 2021 ^[9]

9. 31

   A content analysis of 1,231 items from the daily newsletters of nine U.S. news outlets found they were mostly national politics and government stories.

   Source: Electronic News, 2021 ^[10]

How newsletter creators grow and earn

1. 32

   52% of newsletter creators share their newsletter content on LinkedIn and 50% on Facebook, more than the 42% who rely on email distribution alone.

   Source: HubSpot, 2025 ^[11]

2. 33

   42% of newsletter creators rank recommendations from current subscribers as the most effective way to gain new ones.

   Source: HubSpot, 2025 ^[11]

3. 34

   90% of newsletter creators tailor their strategy to their largest subscriber demographics.

   Source: HubSpot, 2025 ^[11]

4. 35

   67% of newsletter creators expect subscribers to want much more personalization by 2030 (a prediction).

   Source: HubSpot, 2025 ^[11]

5. 36

   64% of newsletter creators agree newsletters will be AI-generated by 2030 (a prediction), and only 4% neither use AI nor plan to.

   Source: HubSpot, 2025 ^[11]

6. 37

   28% of newsletter creators use AI for brainstorming and 25% for content creation.

   Source: HubSpot, 2025 ^[11]

7. 38

   Only 8.7% of 427 creators surveyed by Creator Spotlight, a newsletter about the creator business, earned six figures from creator work in 2025.

   Source: Creator Spotlight, 2025 ^[12]

8. 39

   Nearly half of 427 creators surveyed by Creator Spotlight, including newsletter operators, earned less than $500 from creator work in 2025.

   Source: Creator Spotlight, 2025 ^[12]

9. 40

   54% of B2B marketers name email newsletters as one of the most effective channels for thought leadership, second to LinkedIn at 76%.

   Source: Content Marketing Institute, 2025 ^[13]

10. 41

    85% of B2B marketers who personalize content do it in email campaigns, far ahead of social media at 34%.

    Source: Content Marketing Institute, 2025 ^[13]

11. 42

    36% of B2B marketers using AI apply it to email campaign optimization and personalized email content.

    Source: Content Marketing Institute, 2025 ^[13]

Frequently asked questions

What is a good newsletter open rate?

It depends on the platform that measures it. MailerLite's average across 3.6 million campaigns was 43.46% in 2025, Mailchimp's all-user average is 35.63%, and Omnisend's ecommerce campaigns averaged 30.22%. Apple's Mail Privacy Protection affects roughly 55% to 60% of opens, according to Litmus, so reported open rates run high.

Do smaller newsletters get higher open rates?

In SponsorHawk's directory, yes. Newsletters under 10,000 subscribers list a median open rate of 45%, and those with 100,000 or more list 34%.

How many subscribers does a typical newsletter have?

The median newsletter in SponsorHawk's directory of sponsorable newsletters has 22,000 subscribers. 27.8% have fewer than 10,000 and 24.4% have 100,000 or more.

Which email app opens the most newsletters?

Apple Mail, with 62.26% of opens tracked by Litmus. Gmail is second at 27.03% and Outlook desktop third at 5.83%.

How much do Substack writers earn?

Substack writers keep 90% of subscription revenue minus card fees. More than 50 people make over $1 million a year on the platform, according to Substack data reported by The Hollywood Reporter. In a Creator Spotlight survey of 427 creators, only 8.7% earned six figures in 2025.

Sources

1. [1]Mailchimp. 2025.↑7 ↑8 ↑18
2. [2]MailerLite. 2025.↑9 ↑10 ↑11 ↑12 ↑13
3. [3]Omnisend. 2026.↑14 ↑15 ↑16 ↑17
4. [4]Litmus. 2026.↑19 ↑20 ↑21
5. [5]The Radicati Group. 2024.↑22
6. [6]Substack. 2026.↑23 ↑24 ↑25
7. [7]Simon Owens. 2026.↑26 ↑27 ↑28
8. [8]Ghost. 2025.↑29
9. [9]Revista Latina de Comunicación Social. 2021.↑30
10. [10]Electronic News. 2021.↑31
11. [11]HubSpot. 2025.↑32 ↑33 ↑34 ↑35 ↑36 ↑37
12. [12]Creator Spotlight. 2025.↑38 ↑39
13. [13]Content Marketing Institute. 2025.↑40 ↑41 ↑42

Method

We searched Google for newsletter statistics, email newsletter statistics and Substack statistics, read the pages that ranked, and counted how many of them repeat each number. Several of those pages give Substack figures we could not find in anything Substack or a news outlet published, so we left them out. Each number here was checked against the producer's page on September 24, 2026; where we could not open the producer's own page, we cite the page that reported it. Open rates from different email platforms are not comparable: each measures its own customers, and Apple's Mail Privacy Protection inflates opens. Forecasts are marked as predictions. SponsorHawk numbers come from two files in the product's dataset: a directory of 424 newsletters with self-reported subscriber counts and open rates, and 8,917 newsletter sponsor placements. Two journal papers had usable counts; both are content studies of news publishers' newsletters from 2021.

SponsorHawk numbers new on this page:

• The median newsletter in SponsorHawk's directory has 22,000 subscribers; the middle half have 7,500 to 85,000. Newsletter directory in SponsorHawk's dataset: 424 newsletters with self-reported subscriber counts, slot prices and open rates; 418 list a subscriber count.
• 27.8% of newsletters in SponsorHawk's directory (116 of 418) have fewer than 10,000 subscribers, and 24.4% (102) have 100,000 or more. Newsletter directory in SponsorHawk's dataset: 424 newsletters with self-reported subscriber counts, slot prices and open rates; 418 list a subscriber count.
• Newsletters under 10,000 subscribers list a median open rate of 45% in SponsorHawk's directory, against 34% for newsletters with 100,000 or more. Newsletter directory in SponsorHawk's dataset: 424 newsletters with self-reported subscriber counts, slot prices and open rates; 418 list a subscriber count.
• TLDR carried ads from 112 different sponsors in SponsorHawk's placement data, more than any other newsletter; The AI Report was second with 77. Sponsor-to-newsletter placement records in SponsorHawk's dataset after removing non-newsletter placement types and duplicate rows; newsletters and sponsors merged by normalised name.
• The median newsletter in SponsorHawk's placement data had 6 different sponsors, and 136 of 390 newsletters (34.9%) had 10 or more. Sponsor-to-newsletter placement records in SponsorHawk's dataset after removing non-newsletter placement types and duplicate rows; newsletters and sponsors merged by normalised name.
• The 10 newsletters with the most sponsor placements carried 22.2% of all 8,917 placements in SponsorHawk's data, led by Product Hunt (316) and TLDR (256). Sponsor-to-newsletter placement records in SponsorHawk's dataset after removing non-newsletter placement types and duplicate rows; newsletters and sponsors merged by normalised name.

All 42 statistics as a CSV: newsletter-statistics.csv.

Cite this page

SponsorHawk, “Newsletter 2026 Statistics (Updated September)”, updated September 2026, https://sponsorhawk.com/research/newsletter-statistics

To cite one number, link its anchor: each statistic has one, for example https://sponsorhawk.com/research/newsletter-statistics#stat-1.