Launched in 2015, MasterClass has quickly become a tour de force in the e-learning world.
In this article, we’ve compiled a carefully curated list of the top MasterClass statistics and facts from recent and credible sources.
You’ll find MasterClass statistics on:
- The company itself
- Funding and valuation
- MasterClass courses
Let’s get started!
Key MasterClass stats
- MasterClass was launched 12 May, 2015 by David Rogier and Aaron Rasmussen
- In May 2021, MasterClass raised a Series F funding round (led by Fidelity) of $225 million
- This round of funding is said to have more than tripled the start-up’s valuation (in one year) to $2.75 bn
- Within the first four months of launch, MasterClass sold courses to more than 30,000 customers
- The longest MasterClass is Chris Hadfield with 29 videos and a run time of 7 hours and 47 minutes
- The most watched MasterClass lesson is Chris Voss, former FBI negotiator, sharing his thoughts on tactical empathy
- The most popular classes in the pandemic were Chris Voss on the Art of Negotiation and Vogue’s Anna Wintour teaching a creativity and leadership course
- There were weeks during the pandemic where demand for MaserClasses spiked by over 1,000%
- A quarter of MasterClass students say that taking MasterClass courses has changed their lives
Wondering how MasterClass compares against its competitors? See statistics on: Udemy, Coursera, edX, Cohort Based Learning and Skillshare.
Company
- MasterClass was launched in 2015 by David Rogier and Aaron Rasmussen and is headquartered in San Francisco.
- David Rogier is CEO
- It has over 500 employees (LinkedIn)
- It has increased its workforce by more than 100% since 2019 (Privateequitywire)
- MasterClass won 2 Webby awards in 2020, which according to the New York Times is the Internet’s highest honour (WebbyAwards)
Class statistics
- MasterClass started with just 3 instructors, including Dustin Hoffman and Serena Williams (PRNewswire)
- Within the first four months of launch, MasterClass sold courses to more than 30,000 people (Hollywood Reporter)
- There are now 100+ MasterClasses across 9 categories (April 2021)
- Each class features about 20 video lessons, with an average of 10 minutes per lesson (LinkedIn)
- Most MasterClasses are between 3-4 hours hours long
- The longest MasterClass is Chris Hadfield with 29 videos and a run time of 7 hours and 47 minutes
- Daniel Negreanu Teaches Poker with 38 video lessons and a run time of 7 hours and 40 minutes comes in second, followed by Gary Kasparov teaches chess with 29 videos at 7 hours and 20 minutes
- The shortest MasterClass is Tony Hawk teaches skateboarding, with 16 video lessons and a run time of 1 hour and 41 minutes
- The most watched MasterClass lesson ever is Chris Voss, former FBI negotiator, sharing his thoughts on tactical empathy (TechCrunch)
- The most popular classes in the pandemic were Chris Voss on the Art of Negotiation and Vogue’s Anna Wintour teaching a creativity and leadership course
- There were weeks during the pandemic where demand for MaserClasses spiked by over 1,000% (CBS News)
- A quarter of MasterClass students say that taking MasterClass courses has changed their lives (TechCrunch)
- Rogier claims he now turns away nine out of 10 people who want to offer courses (Forbes)
- In 2021, MasterClass hopes to add 50 new celebrity courses to its lineup (CBS News)
- To increase engagement MasterClass has produced stand alone “Quick Lists” that curate best bits from a range of instructors around a common theme. They usually have around 5 videos around 3 minutes long that clock in at around 15 minutes
Financials
- MasterClass was started with $1.9m in funding led by Harrison Metals (Crunchbase)
- MasterClass’ total funding to May 2021 was $475m (Privateequitywire)
- There have been 7 rounds of funding – seed to Series F (Privateequitywire)
- In May 2021, MasterClass raised a Series F funding round (led by Fidelity) of $225 million (Privateequitywire)
- This round of funding is said to have more than tripled the start-up’s valuation to $2.75 bn (CNBC)
- During the pandemic, MasterClass doubled its sales (TechCrunch)
- It is rumoured that MasterClass celebrity instructors are paid around $100,000 up front and receive 30% of the revenue the classes generate (Hollywood Reporter)
- MasterClass charges a $180 annual subscription fee for users to access its library of content (TechCrunch)
- The subscription model was responsible for 80% of the company’s revenue in 2018, and is now responsible for 100% of its revenue (TechCrunch)
MasterClass search volume
The most popular MasterClass courses by monthly Google search volume in the US
Instructor | Search volume |
Gordon Ramsay | 7420 |
deadmau5 | 3410 |
Neil Gaiman | 3140 |
Garry Kasparov | 2250 |
Daniel Negreanu | 2200 |
Neil deGrasse Tyson | 2020 |
Timbaland | 1770 |
Hans Zimmer | 1700 |
Aaron Sorkin | 1550 |
Chris Voss | 1260 |
(Search data obtained from Ahrefs, April 2021)
Website traffic
- MasterClass averages 9.88M visits to its website per month (Similarweb)
- The trend in early 2021 was that traffic was increasing by 7% per month (Similarweb)
- The US (47%), UK (6%) and Canada (6%) are driving the most traffic to the site (Similarweb)
- 60.8% of MasterClass’ traffic is from search (Similarweb)
- MasterClass has over 823K YouTube subscribers
Frequently asked questions
MasterClass launched on May 12, 2015
In April 2021, MasterClass was valued at a $2.75 billion
Chris Voss on the Art of Negotiation is the most popular MasterClass
Chris Hadfield with 29 lessons totalling 7 hours and 47 minutes
MasterClass’ total funding to March 2021 was $236.4M
Tony Hawk teaches skateboarding, with 16 video lessons and a run time of 1 hour and 41 minutes
Sources
- https://www.linkedin.com/company/master-class
- https://winners.webbyawards.com/search?searchTerm=Masterclass
- https://www.prnewswire.com/news/masterclass/
- https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/what-masterclass-online-courses-pay-lure-hollywood-stars-as-teachers-993159
- https://www.cbsnews.com/news/masterclass-in-a-class-of-its-own/
- https://www.forbes.com/sites/susanadams/2020/05/20/masterclass-just-raised-100-million-to-produce-more-celebrity-edutainment/?sh=237ddec34288
- https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/masterclass/company_financials
- https://www.similarweb.com/website/masterclass.com/
- https://www.axios.com/masterclass-new-funding-25-billion-valuation-f75521cd-3a85-4215-b4fa-c2ae48da9765.html
- https://www.cnbc.com/2021/05/13/masterclass-more-than-triples-valuation-in-one-year.html
- https://www.privateequitywire.co.uk/2021/05/14/300253/masterclass-raises-usd225m-series-f-funding-round

Liz Hurley has 30+ years of high school teaching experience and is one of our senior writers here at Learnopoly.