Envy won't go away but it'll eventually be less intense as you get more confident in your skills. At least for me, when I realized that I worked my ass off for years to hone my current skills I thought it'd be a disrespect to my hard work if I let myself be discouraged by the work of others.
When I look at other successful creators, it'd always be obvious to me why they have a huge following, even if I don't really think their works are that good. There is always a reason why their works are famous. We really should see them as examples we could learn from.
Maybe they delivered the hook and conflict on the first episode and it instantly attracted readers? Maybe the artwork is beautiful? My first episode only got me 10+ subs but our progress isn't always the same. I remember pewdiepie saying in one of his videos that not a lot of people viewed his first uploads but now he's the top youtuber!
Believe me, envy will always be there even if people notice your stuff lol. I've been on trending, top romance, staff picks and sometimes I still feel it. But the envy is manageable and it doesn't discourage me from working.
Yes, I don't mind it...at least for now. My comic is only 3 months old with 18 short episodes so it'd be unrealistic to expect success immediately. I know my skills still need a lot of improvement before I could even begin to make a successful comic. I look at these popular creators and it's obvious they're lot more skilled than me in some areas, and that's totally fine! I'll just accept that, move on, then work on my comic.
sure. but look at your current skills then ask yourself, are you even capable of reaching those number of readers? I think that caring too much about those 'numbers' without any real direction is pointless.
It's also really easy to get envious because we don't know what sacrifices these successful creators did to get where they are. But you do know how hard you worked and how much you improved so the only person we should be comparing ourselves to is our past selves.