Livvy Dunne, Flau'jae Johnson ranked among Forbes Top Creators for 2024

The LSU Tigers have had some of the biggest stars in NIL over the past few years. Notably, that includes gymnast Livvy Dunne and basketball star Flau’jae Johnson.

Now, Dunne and Johnson are being recognized nationally by Forbes. The pair are both on Forbes’ list of the Top Creators for 2024, which is a compilation of the 50 online content creators or influencers who have the biggest impact on the platforms they use.

To put the list together, Forbes estimated gross earnings, follower counts, engagement rates, and entrepreneurial activities of online content creators who use platforms like YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram. From there, creator marketing firm Influential helped with its input to come up with the rankings.

Livvy Dunne ranks 31st on the list. The LSU gymnast announced her return to the program for next season over the summer. However, that doesn’t mean she’s going to slow down with her content creation. Forbes listed her earnings at $3.9 million while noting she has 3.91 million followers on social media. On top of that, Forbes also pointed to her appearance on The Money Game as helping to boost her reputation.

Flau’jae Johnson then appears on the list at 37th. She is listed by Forbes as having $7 million in earnings and 4.2 million followers on her social platforms. However, she has a notably lower engagement percentage than Dunne, only scoring 1.87% compared to Dunne’s 13.40%, which likely impacts how the two appear in Forbes’ rankings.

For Johnson, one of the most impactful ways she can share her voice is through her music and she signed a massive record deal with Jay Z’s Roc Nation in January. However, she also recently emphasized that these opportunities have come through focusing on her play in basketball.

“This is what I always tell people. They think like, ‘Oh my gosh, you’re getting all these NIL deals. You’re getting all this money.’ But if I wasn’t doing somewhat good on the court, that wouldn’t be a thing,” Johnson said. “At the end of the day, they still want to sponsor me because I’m a good athlete and we win. So I think you have to win in order to get the best deals. We won the national championship, best deals of my life because we had so much exposure. I think you have to keep the main thing the main thing. You focus on that, and then everything else just seems to fall in line.”

For both Dunne and Johnson, changes in NIL have been a major reason why they’re able to expand their personal brands. Thanks to college athletes being able to monetize their name, image, and likeness, both of them have been able to help boost their profiles, especially as they’re allowed to appear in advertisements, promote products, and sign deals.

The On3 NIL Valuation is the industry’s leading index that sets the standard market NIL value for high school and college athletes. A proprietary algorithm, the On3 NIL Valuation establishes the overall NIL market and projected 12-month growth rate for an Athlete by measuring two categories: Roster Value and NIL.

Livvy Dunne has an On3 NIL Valuation of $4 million. That ranks her first in NIL Valuation among college gymnasts and is second on the On3 NIL 100 list, which ranks every college and high school athlete by NIL value, only trailing Shedeur Sanders of Colorado.

For her part, Flau’jae Johnson has an On3 NIL Valuation of $1.5 million. That’s first among women’s basketball players and it’s 25th on the On3 NIL 100.

Dunne and Johnson both continue to work on new NIL deals beyond the brands they already work with. For Dunne, that recently saw her partner with Jake Paul’s W men’s care brand. Meanwhile, Johnson had the opportunity to record alongside Lil Wayne.