Substack's curious leaderboards

Yes, I combed through 30 different leaderboards looking for peculiar Substack metrics and data. I found some tidbits that were interesting to me. And, no, I don't show up on any leaderboards.

To make the cut, your newsletter needs to be in the Top 100, but I don’t know if I trust the leaderboards.

This evening’s dispatch focusses on oddities I’ve recently found by reviewing various Substack “leaderboards.” (Since this article ended up being on the lengthy side, skimming will not hurt the author’s feelings, but the piece does include some interesting curiosities IMO).

• See also, this morning’s dispatch about Substack’s three new Leftist, TDS, All-Star authors, including Mayor Pete and Terry Moran.

Background/Basic Info/Caveats:

Substack publishes 30 Leaderboards. The most popular Substack newsletters are the categories of “U.S. Politics” and “News” but the independent writers’ platform also ranks authors in categories ranging from “Sports,” “Culture,” “Business,” “Technology,” “Science” and “Food & Drink.”

The category “Health Politics” would be of particular interest to my readers as this category includes scores of well-known authors I have dubbed “Covid Contrarians.”

However, as I discovered, numerous authors who I believe should be listed in the Top 100 of the “Health Politics” category (like myself) are not listed. For this reason, I think my effort to rank the “Top 144 Covid Contrarians” is superior to Substack’s leaderboards. (Note: my list is a work-in-progress and not a definitive list.)

According to Substack co-founder Hamish McKenzie, the content providers on Substack’s leaderboards are ranked according to “revenue,” which I take to mean by “paid subscribers” - not “total subscribers,” the overwhelming majority of whom are free.

Substack does provide broad parameters of the number of paid subscribers each author has via three different “badges.”

• A purple badge signifies “tens of thousands” of paid subscribers.

• A solid orange check mark signifies “thousands” of paid subscribers.

• Another orange check mark means this author has “hundreds” of paid subscribers.

Note: From quizzing different Substack colleagues who show up on Substack leaderboards, I’ve been able to confirm that “hundreds” of paid subscribers actually means “at least 100 paid subscribers” (not “at least 200 paid subscribers.”) The same with “thousands” of paid, which clearly means “at least 1,000 paid subscribers” and not multiple thousands (like 2,000 or more).

Also, I’ve noted it’s now harder to quickly ascertain the number of total subscribers a given author has. Until recently, I could just click on an author’s name and a line of text showed the author’s total subscriber numbers. Now, I often have to search through several links to obtain this information and, for several authors, I can no longer find this information.

This makes me wonder if someone at Substack might have taken note of my previous efforts to track Substack trends via changing subscriber numbers … and didn’t particularly like such projects and perhaps changed this feature to thwart similar projects.

Update: I’m experiencing difficulties finding subscription numbers while using my study desktop (Mac) computer. However, last night, I clicked on a few Substacks from my fancy new cell phone device and these numbers still showed up (like they used to on my desktop computer).

Health Politics Leaderboard …

As noted, this is the leaderboard (see link here) where most, but not all, of the “Covid Contrarian” authors are ranked by Substack.

By the Numbers - “Health Politics Top 100 Leaderboard”

Health Politics writers with at least 10,000 paid subscribers: 5

Health Politics writers with at least 1,000 paid subscribers:15

Health Politics writers with at least 100 paid subscribers, but under 1,000: 41

Health Politics Writers in the Top 100 who don’t have 100 paid subscribers: 39

(Note: For another detailed article on Substack subscriber trends, see this May article that listed the Top 25 Substack authors in all categories as well as provided subscriber info on popular “Substack Contrarians.”)

Comments:

• 39 authors listed in the “Top 100 in Health Politics” have yet to generate even 100 paid subscribers.

• 72 of “The Top 100 in Health Politics” have yet to reach 1,000 paid subscribers. (At No. 27 in the Top 100, Dr. Paul Alexander is the lowest-listed “Covid Contrarian” with at least 1,000 paid subscribers.

• Strangely, as of my mid-May analysis, several of the “Top 100” Health Politics authors had fewer than 750 total subscribers.

Note: I have 272 paid subscribers (+ 2 today!) and 7,560 total subscribers and my newsletter is NOT in the “Top 100” of Health Politics. (See more discussion below).

A few entrees that struck me as odd or interesting …. Igor’s Case Study …

As of mid-May, well-known (former?) Substack author Igor Chudov ranked No. 45 in the Health Politics Leaderboard.

The odd part of this listing is that Mr. Chudov hasn’t posted a new dispatch since January 18th, 2025 (five months ago). Before Igor’s Jan. 18th article, his next-to-last post was 44 days earlier on December 5, 2024. Igor also filed dispatches on November 23, 2024 and then August 16th.

In sum, Igor has posted no new articles in the last five months and only four articles in the last 10 months.

Still, he is in the Top 50 on the Health Politics Leaderboard and still has “65,000 total subscribers.” (As of yesterday’s ranking, Igor has moved down four spots to No. 49.)

I was worried that Igor might not be well. However, this morning someone cross-posted one of Igor’s X tweets and I can tell that Mr. Chudov seems to be very active on that speech platform.

For purposes of this analysis, I simply note that at least one author can fail to publish an article for five months (and publish only four articles in 10 months) and, somehow, not only not lose any subscribers, but gain subscribers.

When I published my initial list of Covid Contrarian authors on January 10, Igor had 62,900 subscribers. I updated the list four months later on May 7th, at which time Igor’s subscriber numbers had increased by 2,100 to 65,000 - despite Igor not publishing one article in these four months.

The apparent fact (?) Igor’s number of total subscribers is 2,100 more than it was six months ago suggests no free subscribers have “unsubscribed” and at least 2,000 new “readers” have subscribed … which I find … odd.

Another way to express the oddity of Igor’s “case study:” Igor has averaged adding 328 new subscribers/month in the last 5 1/2 months by publishing no articles. In contrast, I’m publishing 15 articles every month and have added approximately 1.3 new subscribers per article (about 20 per month), almost all of them “free subscribers.” It’s counter-intuitive, but maybe a new growth strategy would be: “stop posting new articles.”

Why isn’t my newsletter on this list?

In confidence, several “Covid Contrarian” colleagues have shared their paid subscription numbers so I know how my (now) 272 paid subscribers compares to those of at least a few well-known authors. (At the end of August 2024, I had 311 paid subscribers).

In an email several weeks ago, “Covid Contrarian” author Jessica Hockett told me her paid subscriber number and said it was okay to mention that she’d recently earned an orange badge by reaching “at least 100 paid subscribers.”

Jessica’s newsletter currently ranks No. 66 in the Health Politics category.

Without revealing her paid subscriber number, I think Jessica would be fine with me mentioning that my paid subscriber figure is (easily) more than double her figure. I also have approximately 250 more total subscribers than Jessica’s newsletter.

I’m not sharing this information to boast, but to pose this question: Why isn’t my newsletter in the Top 100 in the “Health Politics” category? Per my educated guess, I must have more paid subscribers and total subscribers than approximately half the authors who are listed in the Health Politics “Top 100.”

Jessica offered one possible answer by informing me that Substack authors have to designate which category they wish to be ranked. Per Jessica, in the author’s “settings” fields, authors can specify the category they’d like to be listed in, allowing one’s newsletter to possibly break into a Top 100 leaderboard.

While I’d previously not done this, three weeks ago I found this “setting” field and typed in “Health Politics.” Three weeks later, “Bill Rice, Jr’s Newsletter” still hasn’t shown up in the Top 100.

Pro tip to other Substack authors …

It’s possible many “Covid Contrarians” might not be listed in the Top 100 because they haven’t added this “subject” or category data in their own settings. (Then again, I’ve now added this category info and my newsletter still isn’t listed).

Not only does this omission raise more questions about the validity of Substack’s leaderboards, this omission is also keeping my newsletter from coming to the attention of readers who are interested in the same topics I write about.

That is, being listed in a “Top 100” certainly can’t hurt one’s marketing efforts. Furthermore, I note that Substack heavily promotes its leaderboards. For example, when a reader clicks on Jessica’s site, he might get a message that says Jessica’s Substack is “No. 66 in Health Politics.”

The fact I’m not listed in the Top 50, 60 or 100 is clearly detrimental to my efforts to grow my Substack subscribers.

Regarding the question of whether my omission may be intentional, I can’t say for sure. I definitely wouldn’t complain if my newsletter did generate more awareness from readers who perfectly match my target market.

A sample of Health Politics Top 100 newsletters with surprisingly few subscribers

No. 72 - Dr. David Cartland - 1.8K total subscribers … also “No. 24 Rising in Health Politics.” While this might be an excellent Substack, I note that 1.8K total subscribers wouldn’t make the Top 150 of my “Covid Contrarian” list.

No. 83 - As of May 10, Substack author Maureen Dolon Bala (“The POOP”) ranked No. 83 in Health Politics leaderboard. The POOP had a grand total of 343 total subscribers.

Bala was also No. 59 in “Rising in Health Politics” (authors can also make the “Rising” lists, which many of my colleagues have never made either).

I went to Bala’s Substack and saw that her May 9th article generated one “like” and no Reader Comments.

No. 86 - Rob Wipond, the author of “PsycheForce Report,” had 776 total subscribers - good enough to place him at No. 86 in the “Top 100” (and No. 30 in “Rising in Health Politics.”)

Note: Mr. Wipond’s April 15th dispatch generated eight likes and three Reader Comments.

No. 99 - A Substack titled “Break the Needle” had generated 733 total subscribers, which was enough to crack the coveted Top 100.

No. 100 - The Substack “Themme Fatale” had 769 total subscribers, good enough to be the last newsletter in the Top 100. (The site was also No. 64 “Rising in Health Politics.”)

Bio info for “Themme Fatale:”

“Artist, Clown, Art Clown. Award-winning sideshow and drag artist disabled by Long COVID and yelling about it.”

Note: This Substack newsletter was rising up the charts despite the fact the author hadn’t made a post since Jan. 26, 2025.

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Below No. 66 Jessica Hockett, no Health Politics writer had earned an orange checkmark badge, signifying at least 100 paid subscribers .. Except for author Jamie Reed, who was No. 95. Why Reed has at least 100 paid subscribers but still ranked below approximately 25 authors who didn’t have this many paid subscribers is unclear.

Jamie Reed’s bio info:

“Whistleblower from a Pediatric Gender Center in the US. MS Clinical Research Management. Lesbian.”

MY Comment: I added this info only because identifying one’s sexual orientation seems to be fairly common in author bios.

Worth mentioning …

Pat’s Unlearning Corner - was ranked No. 4 “Rising in Health Politics.” This Substack had 2.4K subscribers, which is still 5,100 fewer than my Substack.

Pat’s bio is interesting:

“I’m pat (she/her) - a Black, Afro-Carribean therapist, educator, and founder of the Liberatory Wellness Network (LWN). Writings on radical mental health, liberation, somatics, politics & other musings of the empire.”

Oddities from Substack’s CULTURE leaderboard …

Writing in the “Culture” category is apparently much more lucrative than writing in “Health Politics” as 98 of 100 “Culture” authors have earned badges that signify at least 100 paid subscribers.

The authors who rank No. 94, 95, 96, 97, 98 and 100 all have at least 1,000 paid subscribers. In “Health Politics,” no author below No. 27 had at least 1,000 paid subscribers.

Several authors who made my “Covid Contrarian” Top 150 actually made Substack’s “Culture” ranking, including Dr. Naomi Wolf (No. 16), Jon Rappoport (No 25), James Howard Kunstler (No. 55) and Celia Farber (No. 93).

Five Culture writers had at least 10,000 paid subscribers, the same number as Health Politics.

*** (Please share with your favorite Substack authors!) ***

This is strange - Dunning vs. Kunstler analysis

Bob Dunning, the author of “The Wary One” and another of the legions of Substack authors who lean toward the socialist side of the political spectrum, ranks No. 59 in Culture and has “thousands of paid subscribers.”

The odd feature of Dunning’s newsletter is that he has only 6,100 total subscribers (1,500 less than I do).

I became interested in learning more about this Substack author when Substack’s PR department emailed me a profile story on Dunning about 13 months ago. The article noted that the Davis, California columnist (who is in his early 80s) was almost immediately going to make “six figures” from his new Substack.

From the profile article and my own research, I learned that Mr. Dunning had been fired from his columnist job at the local paper and the community rallied to support his new Substack.

Per my best estimate, Dunning quickly generated at least 1,571 paid subscribers but, at the time, had approximately 5,300 to 5,500 total subscribers.

What made Mr. Dunning’s success story so unique is that approximately 30 percent of his total subscribers seem to be paid. (The paid ratio for most Substack authors seems to range from 1 to 4 percent. My paid ratio is approximately 3.5 percent, down from 4.9 percent 10 months ago).

For context, as of June 24th, “Covid Contrarian” James Howard Kunstler has 30,000+ total subscribers - approximately 5 times the number of Dunning. As of early May, Dunning was ranked higher (or right next to) Kunstler in the “Culture” Leader Board. (Today, Kunstler is No. 55 and Dunning ranks No. 59).

You tell me; which author is more popular?

Based on the metrics of “likes” and “Reader Comments,” Kunstler’s articles are vastly more popular than Dunning’s ultra-liberal articles.

In June, Dunning posted 10 articles at his Substack.

Here are the numbers of “likes” each article generated: 10, 13, 39, 23, 58, 40, 20, 35, 24.

Average “likes” per story: 26.2

So far In June, James Howard Kunstler has posted seven articles.

Here are the numbers of “likes” each Kunstler article generated: 472, 481, 577, 522, 611, 541, 282.

Average “likes” per story: 498

Comments:

James Howard Kunstler’s stories generate 19x more “likes” than Bob Dunning’s stories.

Kunstler also generates from 500 to 1,000 Reader Comments with a typical story while Dunning typically averages about 10 to 15 Reader comments (not counting his own comments).

Indeed, based on “likes” and Reader Comments, Kunstler is one of the most popular “Covid Contrarian” authors. Strangely, though, Kunstler’s published total subscriber number (30,000) hasn’t grown by one subscriber since May 7th.

That is, one of the most popular, right-leaning, Trump-supporting, “Covid Contrarian” authors has experienced no growth in his Substack while Terry Moran, Robert Reich, Dan Rather, Paul Krugman, Heather Cox Richardson and now “Mayor Pete” often add thousands of subscribers with every new story or podcast they post.

Comparing Mr. Dunning’s metrics to those of my buddy Mark Oshinskie …

An “apples-to-apples” comparison might be a comparison of Mr. Dunning’s Substack to that of my friend and “Contrarian” colleague, Mark Oshinskie. (Mark has approximately 5,800 total subscribers compared to Mr. Dunning’s 6,100.)

I know Mark averages at least 140 “likes” per story and has produced many articles with more than 125 reader comments.

Based on reader “likes” and comments, Mark (who has 300 fewer total subscribers) clearly has a far-more-engaged following of satisfied readers than Bob Dunning. However, Substack chose to write a glowing profile on the ultra-liberal, Mr. Dunning and not Mark Oshinskie (or James Howard Kunstler).

Indeed, IMO, one glaring tell about the true politics of Substack’s founders is that the company (to the best of my knowledge) has never commissioned its PR department to write a profile/success story about any “Covid Contrarian” authors … and it was this cohort of writers that probably saved the money-losing company five years ago.

Also, per my informed estimate, Bob Dunning likely has10 times more paid subscribers than Mark Oshinskie, which might suggest (oddly to me) that liberal readers are vastly more likely to support their favorite writers with paid subscriptions than conservative readers. (Or maybe the “bots” or AI prefer the liberal writers?)

As a footnote, I’d note that two authors Dunning recommends - a former Pulitzer Prize winning cartoonist and Wendy Weitzel, who Dunning once worked with at his previous newspaper and who’s also started a Substack newsletter, both banned me from subscribing to their newsletters. I was also banned by Dan Rather’s Substack.

I note this after spending hours reading liberal Substack authors, all of whom are positive democracy and “freedom” in America are threatened because President Trump was elected president seven months ago.

Per my observation, it’s the liberal authors - favored by Substack - who ban people like me because these authors don’t like my Reader Comments, and also, regularly call for ever more censorship of “disinformation spreaders” like myself.

A few of my favorite Covid Contrarians are ranked in the International Leaderboard

One of my favorite “Covid Contrarian” authors is Simulation Commander, who last I checked, was No. 40 in the International category (Update: Now No. 49).

The author of Screaming in the Void has 6.4K total subscribers, and has added approximately 200 total subscribers in the last 5 1/2 months. This modest growth might be typical for “Covid Contrarians.” I suspect, but don’t know for a fact, that SC’s paid subscriber numbers have tailed off significantly in the past year, like most “Covid Contrarians.”

When I checked the International Leaderboard several weeks ago, I made a note about No. 42, Jennifer Steil, who was ranked two spots below SC. She had 613 total subscribers compared to SC’s 6,400. Ms. Steil’s May 15th post generated seven “likes” and two Reader Comments.

For what it’s worth, the top Substack in the International category was a newsletter authored by Tim Mak, who had 161K+ subscribers including “tens of thousands paid.”

Mr. Mak’s bio was interesting:

“Founder, Counteroffensive.News — a Kyiv-based publication that uses human interest stories to relay the news of the war in Ukraine.”

No. 70. in the International Category was my Substack buddy (and yet another “Covid Contrarian”) ExcessDeathsAU, who had 5.6K total subscribers. I seem to remember a post from Excess DeathAU where he mentioned he had fewer than 50 paid subscriptions.

If you read a dispatch from ExcessDeathsAU, you’ll definitely be left with the impression that trends in Australia continue to be horrifying.

Food & Drink - Recipes sell!

I was surprised to note that Food & Drink seems to be one of the most popular (and lucrative) Substack categories.

The top four authors each have purple badges, signifying “tens of thousands” of paid.

The top Food & Drink author, Caroline Chambers, had 493,000 subscribers as of early May - far more than the top three “Covid Contrarian” authors.

All but two of the Top 100 newsletters in this category have at least 100 paid subscribers and the majority have “at least 1,000 paid subscribers.”

U.S. Politics is Substack’s most popular category …

The category “U.S. Politics” features at least 25 newsletters where authors have at least 10,000 paid subscribers, more than any other category. Per my best guess, maybe 90 percent of these newsletters would be considered liberal or anti-MAGA.

Matt Taibbi is No. 9, Mary L. Trump is No. 22, The Huckabee Post is No. 39.

Robert Reich, who has approximately one million total subscribers, only ranks No. 11 in “U.S. Politics.” (Interestingly, Reich’s current subscription numbers don’t pop up like they used to … at least on my desktop computer).

Top 2 in ‘History’ …

1. Darryl Cooper (“The Martyr made Substack”) - 168K subscribers (updated through today).

2. Adam Tooze: 157K subscribers - Columbia University professor.

Note: Only two “history” writers have earned purple badges, signifying at least ten thousand paid subscribers. If Adam Tooze has 157,000 subscribers and at least 10,000 are paid, his paid ratio is at least 6.4 percent (but probably higher).

So far ‘Sports’ is whiffing on Substack …

I would have thought Sports would be a very popular category, but, so far, it’s not. Former NBA great Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who is not shy about sharing political opinions, is No. 1 in this category with “thousands” of paid subscribers. No Sports newsletter has earned a purple badge yet. I just found Kareem’s subscriber numbers via the Substack ap on my phone. He has 236,000 total subscribers.

No. 2 in “Sports” is John Canzano, who has only 47,000 total subscribers.

Conclusion …

• The 30 Substack Leaderboards represent 3,000 newsletters. I’m not sure how many professional and “citizen journalists” publish Substack newsletters. Some articles previously cited the figure 35,000, but other sources say there might be 50,000 authors/newsletters.

• Per my research and best estimate, probably 98 percent of these newsletters have from 1 to 50 subscribers. I do know a huge number of “newsletters” have fewer than five subscribers.

While making the Top 100 in a given category might be a big deal to many authors, personally, I wouldn’t put too much stock in these leaderboards.

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*** (The button that allows authors to move up the leaderboard - supposedly). ***

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