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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We’re not sure what’s up with 2024, but many of the top videos on our latest Weekly Brand Report seem to have a vaguely apocalyptic flavor to them. This week’s report welcomes MrBeast back to the #1 spot with a video done in his new, slower style (more on that: we broke down the difference in # of editing cuts between an old MrBeast video and this one). We also see podcasts continuing to pull big numbers, educational content making a strong show, and a playful bonus video brought to you by one of the most consistent sponsors of video game creators.
Check it out right here:
#1 I Survived 7 Days In An Abandoned City
Channel: MrBeast
Brand: Cirkul
MrBeast is back, and he’s roughing it with Kris, Chandler, and Mark Rober in an abandoned city for an entire week. (See what we mean by apocalypse flavor?) You’ve probably noticed there are some weeks where MrBeast isn’t at the top of our Weekly Brand Report. Those weeks are when MrBeast doesn’t publish a sponsored video. When he does post, he’s light years ahead: this video brought a whopping 122 million views, while the #2 video brought just over 8 million. Let’s be clear, 8 million is nothing to sneeze at, but MrBeast, with his audience of over 244 million subscribers, seems uncatchable. His shuttered city survival adventure is brought to YouTube by water enhancement brand Cirkul, which only sponsored him this week.
#2 Tucker Carlson: Putin, Navalny, Trump, CIA, NSA, War, Politics & Freedom | Lex Fridman Podcast #414
Channel: Lex Fridman
Brand: ZipRecruiter, Listening.com, HiddenLayer, LMNT, Athletic Greens
We’ve mentioned it before: podcasts are becoming a serious thing on YouTube. The Kelce brothers’ show made regular appearances on our Weekly Brand Reports before and during the Super Bowl (and the whole Taylor Swift thing). Now Lex Fridman‘s long-running podcast has brought on fired former Fox host Tucker Carlson to discuss, as Fridman describes, “Putin, Navalny, Trump, CIA, NSA, war, politics, and freedom.” The three-hour episode is–like most podcasts–sponsored by a range of brands, including ZipRecruiter, Listening.com, HiddenLayer, LMNT, and Athletic Greens.
#3 The Trillion Dollar Equation
Channel: Veritasium
Brand: Eight Sleep
It’s mathin’ time. Curiosity-driven channel Veritasium makes our #3 spot this week with a video about the Black-Scholes/Merton equation, which (per Veritasium) is a “trillion-dollar equation” responsible for “the world’s best investments.” You–thankfully, for us–don’t have to be a mathematician to understand the impact of this equation on the financial sector–at least, not after you watch Veritasium’s video. He brought in MIT professor Andrew Lo to help explain the the Black-Scholes/Merton equation, how predictions affect the stock market, and why derivatives are very underrated. The deep dive is sponsored by bed heating/cooling company Eight Sleep, which also sponsored video #183 this week.
#5 The Paradox of an Infinite Universe
Channel: Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell
Brand: Brilliant
That’s right. More math. And this is where the apocalyptic feel comes back in. Although this time we’d say it’s kind of an awe-inspiring apocalypse. Just something to think about: the edge of all we know. The cliff of the universe. Or is it the edge? That’s the question German education/animation channel Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell probes this week, chronicling the life of the universe from its birth 14 million years ago to the death it may someday face. This existential exploration is sponsored by educational brand Brilliant, a frequent partner of Kurzgesagt and a sponsor of 39 other videos this week.
BONUS #1293 How Undying BROKE Dead by Daylight
Channel: Ardetha
Brand: Manscaped
As we promised, our bonus video this week gets a little playful. And it also takes us to the edge of the (fictional) universe, where video game Dead by Daylight kidnaps brave Survivors (like Ellen Ripley from Alien, Steve Harrington from Stranger Things, and Nicolas Cage himself) away to a mysterious shadow realm and pits them against killers like Michael Myers, Ghostface, and Chucky. In this video, YouTuber Ardetha takes a look at one of the game’s underrated player perks, and it’s all sponsored by Manscaped, the men’s grooming brand that consistently sponsors dozens of gaming videos every week.
…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.
