Welcome to our rundown of the most-watched branded YouTube videos of the week.
We’re publishing this snippet of a larger Gospel Stats Weekly Brand Report in order to analyze sponsorship trends in the creator economy. Any video launched in tandem with an official brand partner is eligible for the ranking.
And – as the name up above would imply – all the data comes from Gospel Stats. If you’re interested in learning more about Gospel – and which brands are sponsoring what creators on YouTube – click here.
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Last week, the educational channel Kurzgesagt surprised us by becoming the first channel of 2024 to supplant MrBeast at the top of our Gospel Stats Weekly Brand Report.
That trend didn’t last long. This week, MrBeast star Jimmy Donaldson is back on top of our ranking with a video that showed a legacy publication the inner workings of a modern media company.
#1 Face Your Biggest Fear To Win $800,000
Channel: MrBeast
Brand: Shopify
As part of Time‘s cover story on the MrBeast empire, the centenarian news magazine traveled to North Carolina to witness the making of a MrBeast video. The result of that production process is the video embedded above, which stands as yet another case study of Donaldson’s sponsored content prowess. Shopify is often the partner that benefits from MrBeast’s unique blend of extreme video ideas, big-budget sets, and zippy editing. The ecommerce brand has had so many lucrative partnerships with MrBeast that it has even started giving some of them away to other advertisers.
#2 Why It Was Almost Impossible to Make the Blue LED
Channel: Veritasium
Brand: Brilliant
As Derek Muller tells it, the blue LED was only invented because of a young engineer with a big idea. That innovator’s journey had to start somewhere, and if he were to embark on a similar path today, his career in STEM may have started on Brilliant. The digital learning platform is a regular sponsor of YouTube’s most-watched educational channels, including Muller’s Veritasium hub. Brilliant can’t guarantee that its students will learn enough science to spawn new inventions, but they can at least familiarize themselves with the topics featured in their favorite YouTube videos.
#3 Why Russia Tried to Block This Canal
Channel: The B1M
Brand: Brilliant
Speaking of Brilliant, here it is again! The second full week of February was especially kind to the serial YouTube advertiser. During that week alone, 20 newly-uploaded sponsored videos featured Brilliant tie-ins and got at least 25,000 views. The channels featured in that marketing blitz include familiar names like Veritasium as well as up-and-comers like The B1M, which snagged a Brilliant sponsorship for one of its many videos covering topics like geography and civics. While the other videos featured on this page run for ten minutes or longer, this one clocks in just under nine.
#4 13 Most EVIL Tech Fails
Channel: Mrwhosetheboss
Brand: Opera
The partnership between Mrwhosetheboss and Opera is a perfect fit between an esteemed gadget reviewer (real name Arun Maini) and a web browser that is looking to recruit tech-savvy users. Opera has become a regular presence in this ranking thanks to a wide-reaching campaign that touts its efficiency-focused features. Maini’s team-up with the brand goes one step further, since it includes a custom version of Opera. Not everyone who watches this video will be interested in the “Mrwhosetheboss version” of Opera, but even if a small portion of the creator’s 18 million subscribers get curious, it will be a win for the web browser.
#1,462 SpaceX Just Removed Multiple Engines from Ship 28
Channel: Matt Lowne
Brand: Star Trek: Fleet Command
What kind of people enjoy playing turn-based strategy games? The team behind Star Trek: Fleet Command is asking that question on YouTube. Three videos promoting the game ended up in our Gospel Stats Weekly Brand Report, and two of those clips — including the one uploaded by Matt Lowne — broach the topic of long-distance space travel. Because as the old saying goes: If you want to leave Earth on a rocket, you might be the distant ancestor of Captain Kirk himself.
As for the third video? There’s no spaceflight in there, but there are politics, and that’s an equally big part of Star Trek lore.
…and there’s a lot more data where that came from. If you’re interested in learning more about Gospel – and which brands are sponsoring what creators on YouTube – click here.
