Top 5 Branded Videos of the Week: Whiskey with Mister Rogers on a desert island

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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If you’ve been tuning in to our Gospel Stats Weekly Brand Reports, you’re probably not surprised to see MrBeast in the #1 slot. He’s there almost every week, by a truly incredible margin: His latest sponsored video got 100 million views, while the #2 video came in at just over 5 million. But what is different about MrBeast’s appearance this week is that it’s doubled. Not only is his main channel our top video, but Beast Philanthropy, the channel he launched in 2020 to support his nonprofit food bank, produced video #3. Other top videos this week include math (it’ll be fine, we promise), a bite out of Apple, and a sip of whiskey with Mister Rogers.

#1 7 Days Stranded On An Island
Channel: MrBeast
Brand: Western Union

Remember that time MrBeast bought an island? Well, now he’s stranded on one. In his latest video–which is 22 minutes, on the long end for his near-weekly uploads–he and a handful of buddies spend seven days roughing it, learning to suck it up and suffer  with sleeping on sand, avoid deadly tree sap, and get down and dirty with catching and cooking their own food. He also tossed in a promo for his recently revamped chocolate brand: the gang snacked on Feastables s’mores over an open campfire. But this video isn’t sponsored by Feastables; it’s sponsored by Western Union, which doesn’t appear to typically sponsor creators. (Fintech sponsorships often come from creator-forward startups aiming to disrupt long-established presences like, well, Western Union.) MrBeast’s video is its only sponsorship…for now.

#2 Why is this number everywhere?
Channel: Veritasium
Brand: Brilliant

Yes, here’s the math we promised (or threatened?). As much as we talk about MrBeast being a regular feature on our Weekly Brand Report, Veritasium has made a strong showing, too. Since the start of 2024, Veritasium (aka science educator Derek Muller) has made quite a few of YouTube‘s most-watched sponsored videos, many of them math-related. And while we might not be entirely smitten with math, we can appreciate a good look under the universe’s hood–and that’s exactly what’s up in this latest Veritasium vid. Like many of his uploads, it’s sponsored by educational brand Brilliant

, which also sponsored nearly 60 other videos this week.

#3 Changing the Lives of 600 Strangers
Channel: Beast Philanthropy
Brand: Lectric eBikes

Welcome to #3, aka MrBeast 2: Electric Boogaloo. No, no, all joking aside, this video comes from MrBeast‘s philanthropy channel, where all AdSense money generated goes to Beast Pantry, the nonprofit food bank he operates in his home state of North Carolina. The channel has had a longstanding partnership with Lectric eBikes, which around this time last year donated dozens of electric bicycles for MrBeast and his team to distribute to water deliverypeople in Kenya. After making that donation, it went on to sponsor 13 Beast Philanthropy videos, and in this one, it donates $600,000 worth of electric bikes to people around the world who need reliable transportation.

#4 Apple’s $3500 Nightmare
Channel: Eddy Burback
Brand: Displate

So, lots of people now have a $3,500 Apple thing strapped to their face. And that thing is a good launch point for discussing where we’re at with technology. Too many of the “groundbreaking advancements” we’ve seen in tech over the past few years–crypto, NFTs, now genAI producing text, images, video, and voice–have produced a smorgasbord of hot, rotting, scammy garbage with a side order of ethical and legal nightmares. Those nightmares are what Eddy Burback peers straight into in his latest upload, which is about the Apple Vision Pro but also about no tech bigwigs learning that the movie Her is, in fact, not aspirational. The video is sponsored by collectible company Displate, as are 8 others this week.

BONUS #1,662 What did Mr. Rogers taste like?
Channel: Whiskey Tribe
Brand: Factor

Mister Rogers is no longer with us, but that doesn’t mean the world has stopped needing him. Not speaking for anyone else here, but we remember being kids and plonking down in front of the TV to watch Fred Rogers teach us to be good and kind neighbors–and sometimes, with everything happening around us, we still need reminders that goodness and kindness do exist in the world. The latest video from the liquor experts at Whiskey Tribe is a biographical dive into Rogers and what he was like off-camera, as well as what his perfect drink would be. It’s sponsored by meal kit company Factor, as are nearly 80 other videos this week.

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…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.