Addison Rae, dancer and social media personality, received over 197.9 million views on TikTok for her #wapchallenge video, which has accumulated to a whopping check of approximately $3,237.
Easterling’s dance video to the song “WAP,” by female rapper Cardi B featuring Megan Thee Stallion, had earned over 18 million likes, over 500 thousand comments and over one million shares.
From the high kick to the splits, Easterling had the opportunity to gain this money because TikTok started paying its creators.
For instance, Dextero reported that creators are paid “around 0.02/0.03 cents per 1000 views they get on an upload.
Furthermore, when her video reached a bit over 107 million views, “she’d made over $3,210 off the number of views alone,” Dextero said.
She posted the video on Aug. 22, which depicted her in a nice home, alone in a room, doing the challenge choreography. She smiles the whole time and she’s wearing a black sweater with blue pants.
The caption under the video said, “i had to do it before my mom did…goodnight dc @besperon.”
Easterling is no stranger to making money. Forbes said that she brought in “an estimated $5 million last year,” which made her the highest paid TikTok creator.
Easterling owes this success to Item Beauty, her makeup brand, and her deals with companies like American Eagle.
“Typical deals to do her own branded merchandise and sponsored content” made up “two thirds of her estimated earnings,” Forbes said.
There were numerous versions of the infamous “WAP” dance that began circulating on TikTok. One of the early versions was created by Choreographer Brian Esperon on Aug. 8, just a day after “WAP” went viral, according to Vulture.
“commenters started dedicating their lives to learning the splits,” Vulture said.
Other well-known dance videos were from Nia Sioux, former Dance Moms star, and Raymond Torres, who made a dance to Megan’s second verse, Vulture said.
Addison Rae, whose full name is Addison Rae Easterling, is a Louisiana native. She is one of the most famous TikTok creators on the app. She is only 19 and has managed to amass 59.2 million followers.
Therefore, this puts Easterling as the 2nd most followed TikToker following Charli D’Amelio, the 16-year-old social media personality and a fellow dancer, who has 84.8 million followers.
“At night, usually I look at the sky and I’m like, what is my life?” Easterling said to the Wall Street Journal.
Also, on Easterling’s Tik Tok account, @addisonre, she has 3.6 billion likes.
Since its release, “WAP” debuted at no. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and remains there.
“We already went gold in 1 WEEK,” wrote Megan on Instagram on Aug. 14.
“WAP” was released on Aug. 7 and the song “drew 93 million U.S. streams” in the week ending Aug. 13, which is “the most for any track ever in its first week of release,” Billboard said.
Thanks to TikTok, other creators can earn money for posting short videos, and as long as Easterling continues to dance, she may increase popularity and wealth.
“TikTok is what got me to where I am,” she said.
