Now we’re the Entertainment State.
Social-media stars are turning into one of New York’s biggest exports, with the state producing the second-largest number of top influencers across the US, according to a survey.
Around 11% of America’s biggest influencers, or 62 of the country’s rich and famous online oracles, call the Empire State home — and most are born-and-bred city slickers with a combined 2 billion followers.
“It’s the big city. If you can make it here, you can make it anywhere — that kind of bulls–t,” said Danny Mondello, a Staten Island foodie with a thick accent who’s better known on TikTok as Cugine, to The Post of the phenomenon.
“People love New York. It’s just the place people want to be or think they want to be.”
The only state experiencing a heavier influencer boom is California, according to a number-crunching report by sports-betting big BETMGM, which researched the birthplaces of the world’s top 2,000 creators.
The Golden State can boast having produced 25%, or 140, of the country’s 560 top influencers.
The US overall produces 28% of the world’s biggest creators.
New York creators generate more than 2 billion followers, while California has a collective 7.5 billion.
Some of the biggest stars across YouTube, TikTok, Instagram and Twitch include already established bold-faced names such as Kylie Jenner and Paris Hilton — but New York also boasts a noticeable interest in average Joes such as Mondello.
The 29-year-old started his social-media journey while in college in the Hudson Valley, but his following exploded in 2021 when he returned home and began capturing content about his life in the Big Apple.
His cooking and foodie videos are especially popular, with the influencer pointing out that the videos about classic New York staples such as pizza, sandwiches and bagels do especially well.
Mondello said his heavy accent is also a major draw for his 2.6 million TikTok followers, likening their fascination to his and that of other New York influencers’ content to how previous generations tuned into the seminal Big Apple-based TV “show about nothing” — “Seinfeld.”
“People like New York. People like New York movies. People like the idea of New York, so why not follow what it looks like to be in New York?” said Mondello, who will soon celebrate the year-anniversary of his popular sandwich shop, Casa Cugine, in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.
Another local influencer, Louie Fevola, said his followers are drawn to his authenticity, which is inherent in New York culture.
The lifelong Brooklynite said he thinks New York natives stand out for producing an unsanitized version of life that “transplants” try to filter out.
“They don’t have that je ne sais quoi that New Yorkers have. We live here, we breathe here, we know the streets, we are the streets. We have like the fearless factor because of that,” said Fevola of Williamsburg.
As with Mondello, Fevola said his Big Apple accent has boosted his popularity.
“I talk about literally anything and everything, and people just eat it up,” he said.
The Brooklyn influencer started his online success talking about movies and slowly evolved to capturing living in the five boroughs — including by making martinis on the subway platform while enduring the excruciating wait for the L train and racking up thousands of followers along the way.
Fevola’s fans are a mix of New Yorkers and those who have only dreamed of visiting the Big Apple. He said he likes to think both subgroups find comfort in the glimpse of life in the city.
“This is literally the greatest city in the world. New York is the center of the universe, in my opinion, and I think in a lot of other people’s minds,” he said.