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It's Tuesday and if you were surprised to see OpenAI's ChatGPT agent breeze past the "I am not a robot" checkbox during verification tests, you probably haven't been paying attention. |
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Today's News |
🦸 MrBeast gets into animation 💏 Double Date rules the global charts 📈 This week in Gospel's Brand Report… 🥊 Ibai KOs his own Twitch record 👀 A creator leverages unpredictability
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THE BIZ |
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MrBeast's plan to sell more toys: Turn them into an animated series |
The context: Back in the '80s, a swath of 2D-animated cartoons captivated kids with stories about cool heroes wearing cool outfits and driving even cooler cars. There was Transformers, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, and G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero. |
Aside from a shared animation style and target market, all those shows had one key element in common: they were made to sell toys. |
The series: Now, MrBeast is bringing that sales strategy into 2025. Announced at San Diego Comic-Con, MrBeast Lab: The Descent will star MrBeast as the head of a lab trying to stave off an invasion of "shadow monsters." A 90-second trailer offers a sneak peek at the upcoming animated Shorts series, which was created in partnership with Moose Toys (aka the producer of the MrBeast Lab toy line). |
That teaser also hints at the show's underlying purpose by giving viewers a glimpse of creatures that look suspiciously like MrBeast Lab Swarms toys (alongside a high-energy robotic sidekick, some Danny Phantom-esque villains, and a buff version of the wild cat from MrBeast's logo). |
The future: Moose Toys describes the series—which will premiere on its YouTube channel in October—as "another bold step forward in how Moose brings storytelling to life and turns our brands into iconic global experience." |
Given that animation is the biggest driver of young viewership on YouTube (just look at Cocomelon), we're curious to see whether MrBeast Lab makes a significant impact on toy sales—and whether this expensive method of advertising will catch on with other creator-aligned companies. |
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HEADLINES IN BRIEF 📰 |
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GOSPEL STATS 📈 |
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Top Branded Videos: Channel surfing like it's 2004 |
If you channel surfed your way through the early aughts, this week's Gospel Stats Brand Report might feel like a throwback. We've got MrBeast and Druski making next-gen reality shows, a true crime doc reminiscent of The First 48, and a Tokyo vlog that could easily have aired on the Travel Channel. |
🥇 #1. MrBeast x DoorDash: Survive 100 Days Trapped in a Private Jet, Keep It (112.4M views)
This week's Gospel Stats chart-topper scored nearly 10 times as many views as last week's #1 clip—which is a good indication that it's a MrBeast video. Jimmy Donaldson's latest cash-fueled challenge was sponsored by DoorDash, a frequent brand partner that was probably already well-known to a good chunk of the videos 112 million+ viewers.
🥈 #2. Dr Insanity x BetterHelp: How Cops Captured the Minnesota Mass Shooter (7.6M views)
Older subscribers to Dr Insanity might feel like they're settling in for a night of A&E when watching the true crime channel's videos. One of the hub's latest BetterHelp-sponsored uploads follows a similar format to TV docs by using crime scene footage, 911 calls, and body cams to paint a full picture of a zero-casualty mass shooting. |
🎰 #1,595. seeresan x Klook: My Work Life in Tokyo (57K views)
Japan's work culture has been a trendy topic on YouTube lately, with channels like Salaryman Tokyo showing the strict social rules that come with working at large, long-established companies. Luckily, seerasan has had a sunnier experience documenting her life as a full-time creator in Tokyo (with a little help from tourism company Klook, of course). |
Check out the full branded ranking here and head over to Gospel Stats for more YouTube sponsorship insights. |
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CREATOR SHOWDOWN |
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Ibai just KO'd his own Twitch record with nearly 10M concurrent viewers |
The event series: Each year, Ibai Llanos' influencer boxing showdown claims enough Twitch traffic to replace its predecessor in the record books. La Velada 4 reached astonishing heights in 2024 when it hauled in over 6.7 million peak concurrents—and now, La Velada 5 has once again upped the ante. |
In addition to the 80,000 spectators who watched IRL from Seville's Estadio La Cartuja on July 26, the official broadcast of La Velada 5 attracted over 9.3 million peak concurrent viewers—and that massive viewership represented only a portion of the event's total Twitch viewership. |
During the fight between Mexico's Alana "Alanalarana" Scarlett and Spain's Ari Geli, for instance, La Velada 5's combined Twitch traffic peaked at more than 14 million concurrent viewers (per Streams Charts). That number nearly claimed the record for peak concurrent traffic across all major digital streaming hubs, coming in roughly 5.5 million viewers behind the 2024 ASEAN Championship, a football tournament contested by Southeast Asian nations. |
The context: Chart-topping viewership is nothing new for Ibai. So, how does the Spanish streamer attract so much traffic year over year? Influencer boxing is huge in general, but when it comes to La Velada, one must also consider the power of the Spanish streamer community. |
For many Spaniards, Twitch is replacing traditional forms of entertainment—and La Velada goes far beyond just Spain. The series is a celebration of Spanish-language streaming content as a whole, with participants joining in from across the Hispanophone world, and musical performances ranging from YouTube chart-toppers like Puerto Rico's Myke Towers to Los del Rio, the pop group that turned the "Macarena" into a multiplatinum single. |
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WATCH THIS |
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This Shorts star has mastered the art of the tease |
The thumbnail tease: On YouTube, retention is key—and that makes the art of the tease a vital talent for short-form creators. Challenge creator Ben Azelart seems to have mastered that skill. |
When you look through Azelart's Shorts library, you're likely to see him in the middle of a dangerous stunt, seemingly one frame away from severe injury. That kind of imagery isn't unusual for challenge-focused creators, but Azelart's thumbnails suggest that even a casual waterpark visit could end in a fatal slip-and-slide. |
The stats: That kind of shock-based clickbait might not satisfy viewers hoping for a big dose of schadenfreude, but millions of fans still seem eager to see Azelart's extreme thumbnails in their feeds. The creator added 1.6 million new YouTube subscribers during our most recent seven-day measurement period, pushing his total following to over 43 million. |
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Today's newsletter is from: Emily Burton, Drew Baldwin, Sam Gutelle, and Josh Cohen. |
