Think of the stereotypical social media influencer. Young. Background with bright ring light. Trending sound. An apartment with decorative items purposely placed on camera facing surfaces. Clean. That image is not wrong exactly but embarrassingly incomplete in 2026.
Some of the most watched, most shared and most commercially potent creators on TikTok, Instagram and YouTube are in their 60s, 70s and 90s. They are being dubbed silver influencers and granfluencers, and the figures behind their rise are not anecdotal. They represent one of the largest demographic shifts that the creator economy has ever produced, and the brands who understood this first are reaping the benefits.
THE NUMBERS THAT MAKE THIS IMPOSSIBLE TO MISS
GWI’s 2026 social media report confirmed Gen X and Baby Boomers are now using platforms like Instagram, TikTok and X, in addition to the Facebook and YouTube they already knew. That platform diversification matters because it means older audiences aren’t just watching on YouTube. They are fully engaged on the platforms that shape cultural conversation in 2026.
The number of social media users aged 55 and above has risen by 61.7%, according to BrandNation. Such growth rates are not found in a mature market without a real change in behaviour.
That group now makes up about 20% of the global social media user base. One out of five. And the creator side of that equation is growing even faster than the audience side. Billo’s new data reveals that creators aged 45 and older more than doubled their share of the company’s creator marketplace from 2022 to 2025, while total creator volume across older demographics increased by more than four times.
The world’s influencer marketing industry will surpass $30 billion in 2026. In this expanding market, older creators are grabbing more and more of brand partnership budgets, and surpassing expectations in ways that have the industry taking notes.
WHAT IS A SILVER INFLUENCER?
This word is used to describe creators generally 50 years old and above but many of the best examples are well beyond that. They create content for nearly every genre that younger creators do: makeup tutorials, fashion, cooking, comedy, fitness, relationship advice, day in the life content, travel. “There’s been a dominance of younger creators for a long time on social media but now, a lot more, we are seeing older influencers,” said Professor Eleri Rosier from Cardiff University Business School, explaining why they are resonating so widely. “They are popular because they make content that appeals to followers of all ages, content that is real, relatable and refreshingly free of pretence,” she says.
That’s no accident. It tells you something about who these creators are, and what they’ve endured. Decades of life experience tends to produce a particular kind of confidence that doesn’t perform for the camera quite the same way that a 22-year old optimising for likes does. The audience senses it right away.
THE CREATORS WHO ARE SHAPING THE CATEGORY
- GRANDMA DRONIAK
94-year-old Lillian Droniak, aka “grandma of the internet” with 15 million followers on TikTok. She’s been featured on national television and says creating content makes her feel young again, inspiring millions of fans with her humour and honesty. She dishes out witty dating advice, funny takes on ageing, and an authentic personality that can’t be faked. e.l.f. Cosmetics worked with her on a campaign that sold product at a rate their own team called unexpected. She didn’t need a trending audio or a designed set. She had nothing but her voice to give and the crowd bought it right away.
- BRUNCH WITH BABS
Babs Costello, 74, became a TikTok sensation with her warm cooking tutorials and mum hacks. Her daughter began coaching her during the pandemic, and Brunch with Babs now has over 4.2 million followers on TikTok and over 2 million on Instagram. She is a grandmother of eight and shares recipes for comfort food, household hints and smart life advice. Her genuine appeal earned her collaborations with brands in the food and health care industries, as well as a book deal. Costello explained her rise by saying: when everyone was separated from their families during the pandemic, she offered what a curated lifestyle account couldn’t. ‘I played a note,’ she told me. There’s this older lady just doing normal things, being normal. I think it gave them an anchor in that period, a little bit.”
- THE OLD GAYES
Robert Reeves, Michael Peterson, Bill Lyons and Jessay Martin have built a following of nearly 11 million on TikTok, charting their lives and friendships with warmth, humour and the kind of ease that comes from not really caring what anyone thinks of them. Their content is fun but also quietly challenges assumptions about the way older gay men navigate the world. They have a published book and an active rolodex of brand partnerships. They have an audience outside of other gay men or their age group. It captures demographics in a way few highly curated accounts do.
- BADDIE WINKLE
Helen Van Winkle, 94, is the original granfluencer. Baddie Winkle, who has over 3 million Instagram followers, is known for her flamboyant fashion, neon outfits and irreverent catchphrase “Stealing your man since 1928.” She shattered age stereotypes by dressing exactly as she pleased in colours most would shy away from at any age, and an audience built on her joy.
WHY THEIR CONTENT SUCCEEDS WHILE MOST CONTENT FAILS
2026: The creator economy is saturated. But millions of people are posting every day across every platform and the average piece of content is fighting for three seconds of someone’s attention before they scroll away. What makes it different is not the production value or the audio trending at that moment. That is authenticity.
Perhaps the granfluencers have appeal because their videos are so different from the usual highly curated, aspirational content that clogs our feeds. In a world where everything else looks like a brand presentation, it’s startling to see a 75-year old actually telling a joke, with no performative production. It stops the scrolling in the most honest way.
Multi-generational appeal is another consistent surprise for brand partners. “Those older creators aren’t just talking to that older demo,” said Ed East, founder and group CEO of influencer agency Billion Dollar Boy. “They speak to a younger demographic as well, those same stories that they’re creating. Grandma Droniak or Brunch with Babs are not a replacement for grandparents, and they’re not for younger audiences. They’re watching because the content is actually good and the personality is actually compelling.
The loneliness angle is real as well. After the lockdown was lifted, the loneliness epidemic persisted and people of all generations found solace and connection with one another on social media. Especially the warm, genuinely interested silver influencers, filled a gap that younger creators often did not.
THE REASON WHY BRANDS ARE FINALLY PAYING ATTENTION
For years, the marketing industry has been pouring the majority of its creator spend into Gen Z and, increasingly, Gen Alpha. The logic was paper sound: get to the young before their brand loyalties set in. But the 2026 data is complicating that picture a lot.
Edelman developed Longevity Lab, a group of influencers from the entertainment and fashion verticals, age 55+ to serve as brand ambassadors. Brands like Progresso Soup, Harmless Harvest and e.l.f. Cosmetics are publicly citing older creator partnerships as part of their strategy. The most obvious cultural bellwether is the Super Bowl, and Michelob Ultra’s ad starred actors Willem Dafoe and Catherine O’Hara. Eugene Levy starred in Little Caesars. These are not nostalgia casts. They are data-driven strategic decisions that prove older faces hold attention and drive purchase behaviour.
The economics of the audience matter here too. Consumers 50 and over account for a disproportionate amount of consumer spending. They may not be the most followed demographic online, but they are often the most financially influential. If a brand is ignoring them, it’s leaving money on the table. That’s costly thinking when you hear someone on your team say TikTok is a “young person’s game.” The platform does not care how old your creator is. It is important that they can hold attention and inspire action.
The changing landscape of the celebrity business is also visible in this trend. There’s a clear parallel here in the silver influencer space, where older creators are increasingly approaching their platforms as real businesses with brand deals, book contracts, product lines, and speaking gigs as the conversation about how celebrities are building business empires outside of their entertainment careers heats up.
IMPLICATION FOR THE FUTURE OF SOCIAL MEDIA
The silver influencer trend is not a trend. It reflects two permanent structural changes that are not going to reverse themselves.
The first is demographic. Ageing populations in the United States, the United Kingdom and most developed markets. The share of people 55 and older is increasing and will continue to increase for decades. That means the audience for older creator content is growing on its own every year.”
The second one is cultural. The 2026 creator landscape is building a backlash against overproduced content and silver influencers are the most authentic iteration of the counter to that aesthetic. They are not raw because they don’t have the production skills. That’s honest because they know themselves and they have life experience so they don’t have to perform. That quality is increasingly rare, and increasingly valuable.
What’s interesting is how that fits into the general nostalgia that has been a feature of 2026 culturally. The viral 2026 is the new 2016 trend that captured a particular collective yearning for a more human and less monetized internet. Silver influencers are another manifestation of that same instinct, people who are building online communities not because they are trying to game an algorithm, but because they have something to say and an audience that wants to hear it.
If the entertainment trends driving how Gen Z consumes content have taught us anything, it’s that authenticity trumps production value when someone has to choose. Silver influencers always win through authenticity.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
- WHAT IS A SILVER INFLUENCER?
A silver influencer is a social media content creator who is over 50 years old. They are also sometimes referred to as a granfluencer when they are 60, 70 or older. They create content in all the same categories that younger influencers do, including fashion, beauty, cooking, fitness, humour, and lifestyle. They are real, they resonate with a multi-generational audience and they are of increasing commercial value to brands that want to reach beyond Gen Z consumers. - WHO’S THE MOST FAMOUS SILVER INFLUENCER IN 2026?
Grandma Droniak (Lillian Droniak) is the most followed senior creator on TikTok with 15 million followers. The Old Gays come in just under 11 million. The Very Cool Grandpa has 10.2 million. Babs Costello (Brunch with Babs) boasts 4.2 million followers on TikTok and over 2 million on Instagram, with a cookbook deal and several major brand partnerships under her belt. Baddie Winkle (Helen Van Winkle) has over 3 million followers on Instagram and is the original granfluencer. - WHY ARE SILVER INFLUENCERS APPEALING TO BRANDS?
Older creators reach multi-generational audiences; their content is not restricted to others of their age group. They’re trusted by followers of all ages, they command a segment of the market with significant consumer spending power, and they consistently exceed expectations in conversion metrics. Edelman, Billion Dollar Boy and big brands like e.l.f. Cosmetics, Progresso Soup and Harmless Harvest have all publicly pledged to older creator partnerships. - HOW FAST IS THE SILVER INFLUENCER MARKET GROWING?
The silver influencer market is growing at a rapid pace. The number of social media users over 55 years has grown by 61.7% in the last few years. In one major creator marketplace, the share of creators age 45+ more than doubled from 2022 to 2025, and total creator volume across older demographics grew more than four times. According to GWI’s 2026 social media report, older demographics are now active across TikTok, Instagram and X, not just Facebook and YouTube.
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