Russell Brand is more popular than ever after rape and abuse allegations

Despite allegations of rape, sexual assault, and emotional abuse from four women last year, Brand is thriving online (Picture: Rumble)

Russell Brand is becoming increasingly popular on YouTube and his audience is more engaged than ever despite allegations against him, Metro.co.uk can exclusively reveal.

The 48-year-old comedian has gained 140,000 YouTube subscribers since rape allegations were brought against him four months ago, and he is 31% more popular, according to his average likes.

Worryingly, despite allegations of rape, sexual assault, and emotional abuse from four women last year, Brand is thriving online.

A report from The Times, The Sunday Times and Channel 4 Dispatches published on September 16 2023 detailed alleged victims’ stories, in which they accused Brand of the crimes when he was at the height of his fame from 2006 to 2013.

The Get Him To The Greek actor vehemently denied all allegations, and said any sexual encounter was ‘consensual’. He is currently under investigation.

Over the years, Brand shifted from being a comedian and actor – playing a large part in shaping late-noughties pop culture on comedy panel shows, chat shows, and in films – to a political campaigner and commentator.

A joint investigation into Brand by The Times, The Sunday Times and Channel 4 was released in September (Picture: Lester Cohen/Getty Images for The Recording Academy )

He has existed in a parallel universe on podcasts and YouTube since around 2015, where he could be found spouting conspiracy theories and attempting to undermine the mainstream media.

Some people have suggested, in hindsight, Brand has been building a cult following that distrusts the mainstream media since 2017, perhaps in preparation for the allegations being published.

Now, Metro.co.uk can reveal that, in spite of these very public allegations, Brand’s online following on his main platforms does not appear to have been tarnished. In fact, the data shows he is gaining in popularity.

Since the allegations came to light, Brand’s average number of likes on his YouTube videos increased by 31% from 23,284 in the four months leading up to the accusations going public, to 30,610 since the day of the exposé.

This isn’t because he’s been posting more videos, and thus driving more engagement on his page; the amount of videos he’s posted since the allegations has actually decreased by 35%, yet his followers are more loyal than ever before.

It’s also impossible not to notice the huge spike in his YouTube trendline, which came when 352,860 people liked his video in response to the allegations, simply titled ‘So…’

This is 15 times more likes than he would usually expect to garner from a video.

Brand denies all allegations against him (Picture: Jeff Spicer/Getty Images)

In it, Brand asked his subscribers to follow him on alternative video platform Rumble, and talked about the dangers of online ‘censorship’.

Across the week the allegations were published, Brand’s YouTube gained 10,000 subscribers.

On September 18, two days after initial reports, the Channel 4 documentary, Russell Brand: In Plain Sight: Dispatches, aired and was watched by 1.8million people.

In the week following, Brand gained 40,000 subscribers to his channel.

However, it’s fair to note that this increase could be out of interest in Brand growing over this time due to the headlines surrounding him, rather than endorsements. Also, his subscriber trendline was already on a steady upward trajectory for all of 2023 before the allegations.

But online, Brand’s followers are more engaged than ever (Picture: Cassandra Hannagan/WireImage)

While it’s hard to be sure whether Brand is gaining followers because of the allegations, it is fair to say it is at least happening in spite of them. His YouTube popularity hasn’t been dented at all.

At the time of writing, Brand has gained 140,000 followers since the allegations became public, with 6,730,000 today, and 6,590,000 on September 10.

Indeed, YouTube did demonetise his page in the days after the joint investigation; so, while his following on the video site is on the up, his wallet has suffered a reported £1 million annual blow from the move.

Enter right-wing video site Rumble, the platform Brand has been using for two years alongside YouTube, ever since one of his videos on the latter was removed from the site for breaching medical misinformation in 2022.

On Rumble, Brand has 1.8 million followers – ironically, this number indicates he is reaching just as many people on Rumble as the Channel 4 documentary did.

Here, his wallet – as well as his popularity – is looking pretty healthy.

Content creators on Rumble – an app that claims to be ‘immune to cancel culture’ – can expect to earn anywhere between $0.002 per view to $3 to $20 for every 1,000 views, according to The Stock Dork.

Creators have the opportunity to make even more cash if they attract various advertising bids on their videos, so income from the video site, which prides itself on ‘free speech’ and no demonetisation, does fluctuate.

Brand posted a pre-emptive video on Rumble and YouTube the day before the allegations were released in September. In the video, the comedian discredited the incoming ‘serious allegations’ as ‘a litany of astonishing, rather baroque attacks’.

Since the investigation, Brand has made a killing on Rumble.

If Brand received $0.002 per view, his 61 million views and counting since the allegations have made him $123,444 (£97,055).

If he’s in the $3 to $20 per 1,000 views margin, he’s earned between $185,167 (£145,556) and $1,234,446 (£970,000) on Rumble since the allegations were made – and that’s before the platform’s unpredictable advertising bonuses, so it could be more.

In the wake of the investigation, Caroline Dinenage, the Conservative chair of the culture, media and sport committee, wrote to Rumble’s chief executive, Chris Pavlovski, over concerns that Brand ‘may be able to profit from his content on the platform’.

Rumble’s response said it was ‘deeply inappropriate and dangerous’ of parliament to ‘attempt to control who is allowed to speak on our platform or to earn a living from doing so’.

The years-long investigation by the three outlets came after comedian Katherine Ryan revealed to Louis Theroux there was a well-known sexual predator on the comedy circuit still at large – and the stories were an ‘open secret’ in the industry.

Comic Daniel Sloss spoke out for the investigation, though many big-name comedians have remained tight-lipped on the subject.

Metro.co.uk exclusively revealed Fearne Cotton unfollowed Brand on Instagram following the allegations.

Ed Byrne later told us he thought the sexual predator problem was more of a TV issue, not a comedy industry one.

‘With Russell Brand for instance,’ he said. ‘He was on the comedy circuit for a wet day. That guy was a TV presenter. He very quickly was on the fast track to TV.

‘The stuff he allegedly got away with, he allegedly got away with because he was a TV star.’

He continued: ‘I know he was a comedian, but to me it’s more about tolerance for this kind of behavior in the TV industry.’

One alleged victim of Brand claims the St Trinian’s actor raped her up against a wall at his home in Los Angeles and he later apologised over text after she told him: ‘When a girl say[s] no it means no.’

A second woman alleges that Brand assaulted her when she was 16 and at school, and he was 31.

She says she had to punch him in the stomach to make him stop after he ‘forced his penis down her throat’.

A third woman claims that Brand threatened to take legal action against her if she told anyone about him allegedly sexually assaulting her while she worked with him in Los Angeles.

Another woman claims that Brand ‘forced a finger inside of her’ after becoming angry when he found out she had spoken to an ex-boyfriend.

She claims he also forced her to brush her teeth so hard and make her gums bleed so she would taste ‘anonymous’ to him.

A lawsuit filed in New York in November is the only accusation to be made against Brand in court, brought by a woman who accused him of sexually assaulting her on the set of Arthur in 2011.

In the UK police are investigating claims made in and since the September exposé, and Brand has not been arrested, charged, or found guilty of any crimes.

Got a story?

If you’ve got a celebrity story, video or pictures get in touch with the Metro.co.uk entertainment team by emailing us [email protected], calling 020 3615 2145 or by visiting our Submit Stuff page – we’d love to hear from you.

MORE : Russell Brand questioned under caution by police over multiple sexual offence allegations

MORE : Russell Brand hit with more complaints over his behaviour at the BBC

He’s thriving online.