Question mainly in the title. Just wondering if the data that I saw is accurate and what the experience is in terms of revenue from other authors.
Bear in mind what time period that is across.
For example, check the total sales of some of these (released earlier this year) or a long term favourite like
As I am not an author I am not really placed to make an opinion about sales, Elements, quality etc. but after years of experience here, I would still imagine that if you can create something that is of high quality and original, functional design, then there is still sales potential in most categories.
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Let’s see…:
1-Every single category on Envato Marketplaces will soon added to ELEMENTS.
(If you don’t know what “ELEMENTS” is, please just look at the top of the screen on ThemeForest. Basically, it’s a monthly sign-up program that sells tens of thousands of items for a NonSense price like $29 - Yes, you’ve heard right ; customer gives $29 and can download any item they wish with a price like that 
)
That means, a day will come very soon, that no matter which category you choose to upload, you will have an unbeatable competitor which gives items like yours for almost free. And THEY will promote it non-stop while also eliminating all of your marketing efforts (Because those Elements banners are everywhere no matter how hard you advertise your items. Those spammy banners are also on your own items’ pages ; just check any author’s item page and you’ll see huge Elements Banner - So how to promote your items when a big banner continuously shouts “Hey I have thousands of items for almost free” on your own item’s page? Think about this ; a customer lands on your item’s page, and then then sees that banner 
)
2-You will waste months to upload here, where future is not promising, especially when you consider the continuous negative attitude of Envato towards their authors.
3-Envato may close any of the marketplaces or any services whenever they wish. No one guarantees even a tiny bit of “Future Reliability” here, and even the continuous ELEMENTS banner on top is giving me enough negative signals. Just look at the case with “PhotoDune” ; they deleted the photos of their own authors with a single email message, and other than that, they handled the situation unbelievably unprofessionally. Imagine that one day you woke up to a morning to read an email that reads…: “Thanks for your contribution bla bla but we are deleting your portfolio” - What would you feel?
4-And let’s don’t forget about the taxes. I don’t know where you are from, but according to the TAX TREATY between your country and U.S.A, you are also obliged to pay between 0% - 30% tax from each one of your items sales (Valid for the sales to USA). So, it’s pure luck here. Some pay “0” tax, and some pay 30% which is a real killer.
In these circumstances, if it still makes sense for you to upload here, then upload and see what happens
My Suggestion: Build your own business. Trust no one.
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Those top html items are beasts 
1000+ demo & html page builder, could new author catch them?
It’s a valid point that these are quite exceptional cases but nevertheless - if a new author brings something strong to the table then I would still think that they could catch up .
Of course, it won’t happen overnight, but it didn’t for these examples either