Creative Artists Agency (CAA) has signed Justin Watkins, Tubefilter has learned exclusively.

The bicoastal talent agency will represent Watkins, who is best known as the host of the ThinkNoodles YouTube channel. With videos that feature Roblox and other popular games, Watkins reaches more than 11 million subscribers on his flagship YouTube hub.

Watkins has been active on YouTube for more than a decade and has consistently delivered strong results. He averages 100 million YouTube views per month and more than one million views per YouTube upload. In total, the ThinkNoodles channel has pulled in 4.5 billion lifetime views.

In the ever-changing world of gaming videos, Watkins has stayed relevant by playing the hottest titles of the moment. Recent additions to his YouTube library often focus on Gen Alpha favorites like Garten of Banban, Poppy Playtime, and Rainbow Friends. His most-watched short-form video is a clip that features characters from those games, while his most-watched long-form upload features a playthrough of the lesser-known survival horror game Grandpa.

In its official announcement of the Watkins’ signing, CAA highlighted the creator’s family-friendly approach and the deals he’s made with companies like Lego and Disney. It’s a good time to be a brand-safe creator in the gaming community. In 2023, Roblox and Fortnite paid out more than $1 billion to in-game developers through their respective creator programs.

Watkins also connects with fans outside of the YouTube ecosystem. His videos can be found on free, ad-supported TV (FAST) hubs like Roku and Pluto TV. He also operates a Discord server where more than 25,000 of his fans gather to discuss their favorite ThinkNoodles content.

Other creators who have recently signed with CAA include Jaiden Animations, the chess-playing Botez sisters, and Reesa Teesa, who went viral with a TikTok series titled “Who TF did I marry?” Watkins is also represented by attorney Will Jacobson at Goodman, Genow, Schenkman, Smelkinson & Christopher.

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TikTok is souping up its search. The app has quietly launched a new feature that lets users look up TikTok Shop listings by using their photos as references.

Jonah Manzano, a social media analyst known for testing experimental app features, spotted the new TikTok search feature. On X, Manzano shared a snapshot of a pop-up tab that prompts users to “find similar objects with image search.”

TikTok search can take a photo to find similar products.
Take a photo:
1.Use your camera to take a photo of the product.
2.Make sure it’s centered in the frame against a plain background. pic.twitter.com/u3o4LwG9Fr

— Jonah Manzano (@jonah_manzano) May 28, 2024

There are several potential applications for the image search function. Some users will snap photos of specific products to see if those items (or similar, cheaper alternatives) are available for sale on TikTok Shop. The ecommerce hub already had its own search bar, but to use it, shoppers had to rely on text descriptions.

Searching with images is a cleaner and simpler solution that is already available on the world’s leading search engine. Google Lens offers similar capabilities to TikTok’s new feature.

TechCrunch notes that access to the TikTok Shop image search is limited to users in the United States and Southeast Asia (where TikTok operates an expansive ecommerce empire). If you live in one of those regions and have the latest version of the TikTok app, you should be able to spot a camera icon on the right side of the TikTok Shop search bar. Tapping that icon will bring up the new image search.

For the past two years, industry leaders like Google have been paying attention to TikTok’s viability as a search engine. To capitalize on that trend, the ByteDance-owned app updated its video descriptions to allow for the inclusion of more searchable keywords. In spite of that investment, TikTok’s Gen Z and young Millennial base cooled on the app’s search capabilities, according to a 2023 report from CivicScience.

Though some users may be losing interest in TikTok-as-a-search-engine, the app has plenty of reasons to continue development in that area. Search ads, which TikTok introduced last year, offer a valuable revenue stream for brands. Creators, meanwhile, can benefit from TikTok Search Insights, which reveal the most-searched topics on the app.

For TikTok, more searches lead to more data that can be applied to ads and creator-facing features. And with more support for search coming to TikTok Shop, more than 500,000 sellers in the U.S. are in line for potential sales boosts as well.

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For the 2022 iPhone App of the Year, things are getting real. Voodoo, a video game company best known for its library of mobile titles, has acquired social app BeReal.

The deal, which comes with an estimated price tag of €500 million (~$542.4 million), unites two Paris-based companies in the tech sector. Voodoo, which publishes casual games like Helix Jump and Hole.io, will add BeReal to its list of holdings. Voodoo’s games have been downloaded more than six billion times as of 2022.

BeReal has cooled off considerably since its hot start. The app first drew attention with its unique content model, which delivers daily, time-sensitive notifications that prompt users to share authentic snapshots of their daily activities. As the novelty of that format wore off, BeReal’s daily active user count declined. According to the New York Times, which cited data from Sensor Tower, BeReal’s DAUs fell by 61% between October 2022 and March 2023.

Even during BeReal’s peak, the app’s leadership team determined that strong revenue streams would be needed to survive in the crowded social media landscape. BeReal first explored the idea of monetizing through paid, premium features, but more recent initiatives have focused on branded content. Features called RealPeople and RealBrands allowed celebrities and companies to interact with the app’s user base. As this summer’s festival season commenced, BeReal added to its suite of products with RealEvents, which promised on-the-ground coverage from hotspots like Coachella.

Even with the French connection, a mobile game giant may seem like a strange bedfellow for BeReal. But the app’s focus on monetization helps explain why Voodoo is interested in it. The publisher is infamous for the large number of ads it serves to its players. BeReal potentially offers more inventory for ads, even though that push would undermine the “authentic” approach to content that first made BeReal a household name.

“BeReal achieved incredible user loyalty and growth, showing there is a universal need to share real, unfiltered experiences with close friends,” said Voodoo CEO Alexandre Yazdi in a statement. “We are very excited to bring our teams together and leverage Voodoo’s know-how and differentiated technologies to scale BeReal into the iconic social network for authenticity.”

According to Voodoo, BeReal has about 40 million active users, though the number of daily active users is likely much lower.

Aymeric Roffé, the CEO of Voodoo-owned social app Wizz, will become the BeReal CEO. According to Engadget, Outgoing CEO Alexis Barreyat will stay with the company “in the short term” before moving on to pursue other ventures.

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Fidias Panayiotou is known for his practical jokes, so his latest career move is either a shocking pivot or the biggest prank of all. Panayiotou, a 24-year-old creator with more than 2.6 million subscribers on his namesake YouTube channel, will represent his home country of Cyprus in the European Parliament.

Panayiotou is best known for elaborate stunts in which he attempts to get handshakes and hugs from as many famous people as possible. He also made the news last year when he dodged fares and bills on a “free” trip to Japan.

Evidently, the criticism Panayiotou received for that video did not dull his popularity among his Cypriot base. By his own admission, he ran for office to get young people engaged in politics and to stick it to the “nerds” in Brussels. But in spite of his lack of political experience, he earned a result he described as “a shock.” The “Fidias factor” contributed to a 14% uptick in voter turnout over the previous European Parliament election, and Panayiotou finished with the third-highest percentage of votes (19.4%).

“The parties should take it as a warning that they must modernize and listen to the people,” Panayiotou said in the wake of his surprising triumph. “We are writing history. Not just in Cyprus, but internationally.”

Panayiotou’s call for modernization within European Parliament reflects the adversarial nature of the body’s relationship with social platforms. The E.U. has threatened Big Tech companies with fines since the passing of the Digital Services Act in 2022. More recently, a sweeping E.U. law established regulations for AI usage across the continent.

It may seem silly to counter those regulations by electing a prankster, but the idea of influencers as politicians is no longer just a punchline at internet award shows. In the United States, firearms enthusiast Brandon Herrera — who is known online as “The AK Guy” — fell just short in his attempt to primary Texas Congressman Tony Gonzales.

It won’t be long before the U.S. gets its own shocking result to match the one in Cyprus, and even now, creators have become vital resources on the campaign trail. That’s why both Joe Biden and Donald Trump are eager to reach young voters on TikTok, even though they both attempted to ban the app during their respective presidencies.

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Ben Potter, who built a devoted audience of comic book nerds on his YouTube channel, has passed away. Potter, who reached more than three million subscribers as the namesake and primary host of the Comicstorian YouTube channel, died suddenly on June 8.

Potter’s wife Nathalie announced his passing in a post on the Comicstorian X account. She said that he died in an “unfortunate accident” but did not offer additional details. He was 40 years old.

“To many of you, he was Comicstorian, voicing stories from across multiple different mediums,” Nathalie wrote. “To his loved ones, he was one of the best and most supportive individuals anyone could ask for. As a husband, a son, a brother, a friend, or even just a stranger, Ben was loving and genuine. He was someone who would listen and make time for his loved ones. He would do his best to make everyone laugh and make sure they were okay. He was our rock and he’d reassure his loved ones whenever they needed it.”

Potter’s lessons on the history and culture of graphic novels — which the Comicstorian channel description calls “audio dramas” — pulled in more than one billion total views. He was well-versed in the lore of both Marvel and DC superheroes. The most-watched Comicstorian video of all time is a two-and-a-half-hour epic that details the first five years of DC’s Injustice franchise. That video has received more than 20 million views to date.

Potter’s final video underscores the sudden nature of his death. He uploaded his last audio drama on June 8 — the same day he passed away.

On X, Nathalie expressed hope that the Comicstorian channel would “keep going” without its central figure. “I know he wouldn’t want it to end like this,” she wrote.

Hassan Khadair, a Comicstorian fan who became a regular contributor, mourned his “mentor” in an Instagram post. Khadair, like Nathalie Potter, expressed hope that the Comicstorian legacy will live on. “Benny was over a decade into a successful YouTube career and frankly he was just getting started,” Khadair wrote. “We had so much wonderful stuff planned and I hope to be able to carry on his legacy and honor him in whatever way I can for the rest of my life.”

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AMP‘s latest partnership is a real Banger.

The creator group, whose members include world-beating streamer Kai Cenat, has entered into a partnership with Bang Energy. The six creators in AMP — Cenat, Agent 00, ChrisNxtDoor, Duke Dennis, ImDavisss, and Fanum — will become brand ambassadors for Bang while consuming a lot of energy drinks along the way.

A press release describes the deal as “the largest brand partnership in Bang’s history.” Beyond their shared ambassadorship, the AMP boys will use their creativity to promote Bang and its products. Fans can expect to enjoy experiences and products sponsored by Bang and championed by the members of AMP (the group’s name is a shortened version of the phrase “any means possible.”)

Additional activations will take place at the AMP NYC Penthouse the group recently revealed. In a statement, Cenat said that the deal with Bang will allow him and his groupmates to execute the “big ideas” in their heads. The best-known AMP member has smashed streaming records on his path to Twitch immortality, and his profile only seems to grow with each passing stunt.

The first sip of creativity to come out of the AMP x Bang partnership is the intro video for the collab. In the clip, AMP members gulp down energy drinks and gain newfound powers as a result. Cenat learns to dominate the basketball court despite his short stature, Agent 00 gets a better hairline, and Davis somehow becomes Spider-Man.

John Nelson, the VP of Digital at talent management firm Night (which works alongside AMP), said that the intro video offers a taste of the fun to come. “The launch trailer, written and produced by [AMP CEO Shane Talbot] and BLACK SCREEN generated instant likes and positive comments, and was universally shared by major clip channels across all platforms,” Nelson wrote on LinkedIn. “Future activations will highlight the unique, organic way AMP creates partnerships.”

AMP, of course, is not the first creator crew to break into the beverage world. Logan Paul and KSI have landed a series of partnerships since establishing Prime Hydration in 2022. Cenat and co. are influential enough to roll out creator products of their own, but their deal with Bang is a reminder that working with an established business provides a different set of opportunities.

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In April, butter brand Danish Creamery partnered with Made In Network to deploy a marketing campaign with 10 top culinary content creators, including Babish Culinary Universe, Senpai Kai, and Jeanelleats. And, for a month straight, the videos produced by that campaign were some of the most-watched branded content across all of YouTube.

So, what set the campaign up to be so successful?

Well, first, “The internet loves butter,” Ryan Mack, Made In Network’s Chief Commercial Officer, tells Tubefilter. “Butter is just popular. So it was easy to make the case to say, ‘Hey, not only is your product high-quality, but recipes that are butter-forward, they just work. They just perform.”

Despite all this, though, “There was no brand being the internet’s favorite butter,” he says.

So, when Made In Network–a Nashville-based media company that works with around 30 creators who collectively have 150 million followers and drive 1.5 billion views per month across YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram–started conceptualizing this campaign with Danish Creamery, that was the angle they took.

“It’s an opportunity space,” Mack says. “So we, with them, said we were going to set out to architect the broadest possible range of creator collaborations and channel integrations as possible for Danish Creamery, to make Danish Creamery the internet’s favorite butter.”

Made In Network also did something else crucial: While it shot for the “broadest possible range” of channels and viewers, it worked with creators to keep the feel of Danish Creamery’s brand messaging consistent through all the clips.

It was able to do that because it operates on a TV network-esque model. It refers to its creators’ content as “episodes” and promotes itself as “bigger than TV.” (In our conversation, Mack cites Nielsen’s recent data showing YouTube now commands 10% of all living room TV watch time.)

“We are very active in the development, creation, and publishing of our programming with our creator partners,” he says. “There is a bit of an assumed, ‘Let’s make it possible’ dynamic between us. Peeling back layers a little bit on the network structure, we’re very much a studio and a publisher. And so, with these brand deals, we’re constantly commercializing the programming that we’re creating, and this got slotted.”

Basically, once Made In Network had partnered with Danish Creamery, it went out to its creators to let them know it wanted to slot the butter in their upcoming videos. “It’s like, ‘Hey, [Babish], this is what we’ve got on tap.’ Then it jumps right to, ‘Aren’t we doing a couple episodes of Botched coming up? Can this fit in?’ ‘Hey, this is actually high fit.’ That slides right into our business as usual between us and our partners,” Mack says.

Made In Network creators began deploying their Danish Creamery-sponsored videos in the first week of April. Immediately, those videos started showing up on our Gospel Stats Weekly Brand Report, where, each week, we take a data-driven look at what brands are getting the most eyeballs across all of YouTube.

Senpai Kai’s Why Garlic Bread in Restaurants Taste Better was our #5 most-watched branded video for the week of April 1-8, with over 2.1 million views in that timeframe. The next week, it was Jeanelleats at #66 with This is NOT a baguette (1 million views). Then, in the weeks after, a double feature from Babish: Every Way to Screw Up a French Omelette at #119 (570K) and Classic Fettuccine Alfredo at #196 (407K).

So far, the campaign has generated over 8 million views. Visits to the Danish Creamery website have increased by 250%, and the brand’s search engine traffic is up over 127%, it tells Tubefilter.

Made In Network and Danish Creamery say there are two vital things that have made the campaign so successful. Mack says it was game-changing that Danish Creamery planned this entire campaign around creators, instead of considering their part a bolt-on to marketing across other mediums like TV.

“How many of these briefs are executed as add-ons or purely part of a media mix?” Mack asks. “Whereas with this, it was super high-up in the discussion at the table to say, ‘Hey, there’s a new world of interesting ways to find consumers. Where is our audience today?'”

Danish Creamery identified creators as a way to reach passionate foods, and took “a big swing” investing in partnerships with them, he says.

Priya Kumar, Vice President of Marketing at Danish Creamery, adds that another important component was giving creators control of using the product in their videos.

“What we’ve learned is not to dictate recipes and product usage,” she says. “These creators are all cooks in their own right, and allowing them the freedom to experiment and develop recipes to share with their audience has been a way to produce unique and inspiring content.”

She says Danish Creamery plans to continue this campaign “at least through the end of 2024.”

Mack says this campaign was proof positive of Made In Network’s “primary agenda, which is to continue to demonstrate the power of this world in marketing and brand-building.

“This is not an add-on feature to a brand program,” he says. “This is a go-to-market strategy to get in front of tens of millions of viewers. That is the most important piece: to bring a product to market with this, rather than burying this inside a media mix. It’s proving to be wildly effective.”

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Welcome to Millionaires, where we profile creators who have recently crossed the one million follower mark on platforms like YouTube, TikTok, and Twitch. There are creators crossing this threshold every week, and each of them has a story to tell about their success. Read previous installments here.

This past January, AJ Befumo and his son Big Justice went to Costco.

The video they recorded there got 10 million views on TikTok, almost overnight. Their follower doubled, shooting up by more than 10,000 people.

It was then that they decided: they were “Costco guys.”

And in the six months since that first viral video, they’ve filmed dozens more, driving tens of millions of views and pushing their account up over 1.2 million followers. They’ve established their own lingo with their follower base–is something a “boom” thumbs up, or a “doom” thumbs down?–became Cameo‘s top creators, brought in mom Erika and sister Ashley to work on content, and just signed with Night Media.

So, what’s the whirlwind been like for them?

@a.j.befumo We’re Costco Guys‼️ #costco #father #son #family #bigjustice #boom ♬ original sound – A.J. & Big Justice

“The thing is we learned somewhere along the way what our audience wants, and we give it to them every day. We call it the Boom. It’s happiness. It’s laughter. Just like when someone is sick and goes to the doctor, just like when someone’s hungry and they go out to eat, when someone needs some happiness, they come to us, and we give it to them,” AJ says. “It’s happiness, it’s laughter, it’s positivity, and we call it the Boom. It’s really been great. It’s been very rewarding.”

He credits Big Justice with being the catalyst for their growth on TikTok. He originally started the account to promote his work in the mortgage industry, but then Big Justice asked if he could make an appearance.

“I asked him, ‘Can I be in a video?’ I think we were at the table. He tried a burger, and I was introducing him, and he got millions of views. He was used to getting 10 views,” Big Justice says, with AJ immediately laughing. “He was like, ‘All right. This isn’t my work channel anymore. This is our channel.’”

That was in 2022. Together, they plucked away at making videos until January, and that big viral moment. Now they’re riding that wave as far as it’ll take them, making as much content across TikTok, YouTube (73K followers), Snapchat, and Instagram (114K) as possible. They’re also, as we mentioned, on Cameo, where they currently film between 3 and 5 videos per day for fans.

As for what’s next? No spoilers: “There’s a lot on the way,” AJ says. “There’s a lot more AJ and Big Justice coming your way, and we’re bringing the Boom.”

Check out our chat with them below.

@a.j.befumo We Bring The BOOM! 💥 Part 2‼️ #song #father #son #family #fun #bigjustice #boom 🎵 @Rj Pasin 📷 @CameraManKyle ♬ original sound – A.J. & Big Justice

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Tubefilter: To start with, let’s pretend that somebody’s reading this and they’ve never seen your videos, they don’t know who you are. Give me a little bit of introduction about the two of you and how you ended up on social media.
AJ: Do you want to jump in first?

Big Justice: It all started about last Christmas. We posted a video and now it’s about 30 days and about 2 million views. He started video trying to boost his other business.

AJ: I was in the home mortgage business.

Big Justice: He was in the home mortgage business, so we started making videos for that. Then I asked him, “Can I be in a video?” I think that we were at the table. He tried a burger, and I was introducing him, and he got millions of views. He was used to getting 10 views.

AJ: [laughs]

Big Justice: He was like, “All right. This isn’t my work channel anymore. This is our channel.”

Tubefilter: Just instantly, huh?

AJ: When you know, you know.

Big Justice: We were doing 1,000 views, maybe we got to 100,000 every once in a while. It took about 30 days, we got 10,000 followers off that video, and a million views. That was what boosted us. Then, on our mom’s birthday, we wanted to get meatballs, that’s what she wanted.

AJ: That’s now about a year later. When we went up to New Jersey, that was around Christmas of ’22. We worked on our channel for about a year, and now this is in January of ’24.

Big Justice: We had about 13,000 followers. Then, my mom wants meatballs for her birthday. We go to Costco. We said, “Oh, let’s record. Let’s go to Costco.” It gets 10 million views. We had over 10,000 followers the next day. Then, I don’t know, we made the idea that’s like, “Let’s do, we’re Costco guys.” Then we did the whole script. We got it all ready and now we’re the Costco guys.

AJ: That’s the story. [laughs]

Tubefilter: I think the meatball video was the first one I saw, right as it went viral.

AJ: I think the catch on that one was, “Are we going to be over or under $350.” We got so many guesses, and everyone stuck around to the end to see.

Big Justice: Yes, at least one million views on every single one of our Costco videos.

AJ: We had our first ever Costco Snapchat, we got 400,000 views.

Tubefilter: Oh really? On Snapchat? Wow. Interesting.

Big Justice: We did one the other day, the Mother’s Day one. That’s already at 200,000 on Snapchat.

Tubefilter: That’s pretty interesting to do that kind of traffic on Snapchat. Are you doing this full-time now?

Big Justice: Yes.

Tubefilter: No more mortgages? This is your job now?

AJ: This is my job now. I’m still holding my position there, my job there, but I told the company, “Look, I’ll manage what I built there, but I’m no longer actively building on now over here.” They get it. They understand.

Tubefilter: When did you go full-time? When did you have that discussion?

Big Justice: When we had many followers, and we started doing other stuff like Cameos, and we started getting great deals, so we just went all in on this.

AJ: It was about month ago.

Tubefilter: About a month ago? Got it. Yes, I saw you guys do Cameos together and separately. That’s really interesting.

AJ: For a point in time, we were the number one Cameo in the world. Quite truthfully, it’s by choice that we’re not right now, because Big Justice is still in school and plays on two baseball teams, so there’s only so much we can do.

Tubefilter: I was going to ask–what is your production schedule like?

AJ: Yes, we do have to manage that. I usually pick him up from school at about 2:30.

Big Justice: Usually, Thursdays we record.

AJ: Yes, Thursdays, we record, weekends, we record. We get the recording in. I would say we’re probably recording at least an hour a day, two hours a day. We’re probably recording about 10 to 15 hours a week. Then I’m able to handle the editing team. I’m able to handle the posting, and the comments, and all that. I would say at this point…We were at one point spending about two or three hours a day on Cameo. That’s why I say by choice, we backed up on that. It was crazy. We really worked our way out of that one. I would say right now we got about three to five Cameos a day, and that’s manageable. That takes us about a half hour.

Tubefilter: What made you join Cameo in the first place?

AJ: They relentlessly reached out to us. [laughs]

Tubefilter: Really?

AJ: They do not take no for an answer. The first three times they reached out, I wasn’t quite sure it was for us. Then they finally said, “Just give it a try.” They’re awesome. I’m happy we got our rep over there. Shane, he’s amazing. They really support us very well. Really, if there’s ever anything going on, like if someone is saying that maybe they weren’t happy with the volume on their video or something, they basically say, “No, no, no. AJ and Big Justice are awesome. It was a mishap. We’re going to rerecord it.” Everybody’s happy. Another five-star review.

They have great technology. They have great software. It makes it so easy to work with them.

Big Justice: One time, we did 20 Cameos–

AJ: Oh, no.

Big Justice: –and we were at shower time, I’m ready go to bed, and it’s 9:00, and then everybody texts us. “The sound didn’t work. The sound didn’t work.” And we had to do them all again. We were up till 10 o’clock.

AJ: Yes, sometimes the Apple device picks up the microphone as a headset instead of a microphone, so that’s what happened, but we got through it. We banked it out.

Tubefilter: Technology. So you do that. You do Snapchat. Can you talk a bit more about your multi-platform presence?

Big Justice: Snapchat, we’re at 20,000. YouTube, we just hit 40,000, and TikTok we’re about to hit 1.2 million.

AJ: The thing is we learned somewhere along the way what our audience wants, and we give it to them every day. We call it the Boom. It’s happiness. It’s laughter. Just like when someone is sick and goes to the doctor, just like when someone’s hungry and they go out to eat, when someone needs some happiness, they come to us, and we give it to them. It’s happiness, it’s laughter, it’s positivity, and we call it the Boom. It’s really been great. It’s been very rewarding.

Tubefilter: It seems very important to you guys to make positivity part of your content.

AJ: Oh, no doubt about it. We get asked very often how we deal with haters, and our answer to that is–

Big Justice: We’ll post another video tomorrow.

AJ: We’re posting another video tomorrow.

Big Justice: When we’re out in public, there’s people that whisper, but they’re scared to take a picture with us. My daddy’s like, “You guys must want to take a picture.” It’s so funny.

Tubefilter: That probably makes people feel comfortable to come talk to you.

AJ: Hey, if you can make somebody’s day, that’s awesome. Their faces light up, and– You sense it now at this point. You sense that they’re over in a corner, and looking over and keep looking back. Then we’re like, “Yes, it’s us. Come on over.”

Tubefilter: AJ, have you been interested in content before? You’re the one who entered this with your mortgage company. What’s your background with social media?

AJ: I have always loved being in front of the camera, and I wish social media was available to me at this guy’s age. I was a professional wrestler for many years, and I didn’t want to go to the WWE for that. That wasn’t for me. I didn’t want to be on that schedule. When I wrestle, I really want to wrestle on my own terms. I want to choose my own opponents. I wanted to choose where I was going to wrestle. I really wish I had social media back then. I think I could have been very successful.

I am so grateful right now. I am so thankful and so grateful to be where we are right now because growing up and being Big Justice’s age, I had this passion. I had this desire that I wanted to entertain. I wanted to make people happy.

My family is so awesome. I absolutely love my family. I got the greatest upbringing ever. But they just didn’t understand this passion. They were very business-oriented. That’s what they do. That’s what they understand. They didn’t understand this passion I had. I don’t think we really had the resources back then. We didn’t have social media. Now I have a son that shares that same passion. For me, to be able to have these resources to provide this for him, the world is his. The world belongs to Big Justice, and I want to be here to support him as much or as little as he wants.

Tubefilter: I think a lot of people can connect with the experience of having interests their family didn’t understand. The fact that you are now being embraced by this community online and that you’re able to work with Big Justice, and the two of you have this bonding instead of it being a division, is very cool to see.

AJ: Thank you. It’s a dream. We’ve been smiling every day.

Tubefilter: Where do the two of you get your video ideas from?

Big Justice: Brain.

Tubefilter: [laughs] Are you inspired by any other creators? Do you ever take suggestions from your audience?

Big Justice: A bit of both.

AJ: A little bit of both. I guess sometimes we do see some inspiration out there and say, “Hey, you know what? We can AJ and Justice this up.”

Then, some of our audience does, for instance, there is one right here right now that we recorded yesterday where we did a review of cookie dough, and someone from our audience said, “Next video, cook a batch and eat a batch raw, and tell us what’s the Boom, and what’s the Doom.” Yes, our audience does give us some ideas.

The truth is, everything is an idea. I don’t stop. I can’t get to all the things I want to record. I gave Michael [Gordon] our list this weekend of everything we want to record. I don’t know how I’m going to get through it all. The ideas just never stop. The ideas just never stop. They’re always flowing.

Tubefilter: Which is great. That’s a great position to be in. When did you sign with Night?

AJ: I guess that’s about a month ago now. We’ve been here about a month, and it’s been awesome. We did a collaboration with Tommy, The Food Guy. I don’t know if you’ve ever interviewed Tommy, if you’ve ever met him, awesome guy. Been there with us from the beginning. Love the guy. He said to us, “Okay, look at my profile and make your profile just like mine. Put that email address right there in the profile.” We do that. The minute we do that, we got reached out to by– I can’t account how many agencies.

There was one agency– I got to tell you because I forget who they are at this point, but they were great. We enjoyed connecting with them. We were about to go with them. This was a Thursday, and all of a sudden Sydney from Night reaches out to us and says, “Michael wants to meet with you.” I wrote back, “Well, we got to hurry up, because we’re about to make a decision.”

She’s like, “Okay. One o’clock tomorrow, we meet with Michael.” We were blown away. Thank god that we put that email address there. Thank god that Sydney reached out that day. Friday we made that decision, and here we are. There’s no looking back. We couldn’t be happier.

Tubefilter: You probably can’t talk about too many spoilers, but have you gotten production support, anything else so far?

AJ: We have a bunch more coming up. We have to do some with sneakers and stuff.

Big Justice: Sneakers, I’m so excited for.

AJ: We’re going to be doing a little bit with that. Night Media has given us everything we need. A lot of the production stuff we’re able to handle on our own. We do have our own editing team. We do record on our own. We do have the resources we need for that. Anything that we need along the way though, as far as hosting support, as far as the proper way how to put the content out there, Night Media has been– Oh boy. We couldn’t be happier.

Tubefilter: Tell me a little bit about your college tours, if you can.

AJ: Well, we were invited by someone that’s part of the channel now. This all started out as a young fellow named Angelo.

Big Justice: President Angelo.

AJ: He’s now president.

Big Justice: He’s the president.

AJ: Angelo is a sophomore over at Florida Atlantic University. I got to tell you, another thing that was just like a stroke of luck like we talk about this email address. We get 2,000 messages a day. All of a sudden, I see this message from this guy Angelo, “Come to Florida Atlantic University, do Boom or Doom in the cafeteria.” I think, “All right, great. This is a great idea.” I meant to get back to him, but then I didn’t for some reason. I don’t know, we got busy with something.

Now I’m at Florida Atlantic University getting a haircut, and the barbershop is right in the main walkway, and it’s all glass all over the place. We’re right there getting our hair cut and a kid, Italian kid, curly hair stops, looks, jaw drops. He runs to the barbershop. “AJ, Big Justice, it’s me, Angelo.”

Now, Angelo’s with this crowd that’s all jumping up and down. “Can I get pictures with them?” Angelo’s like, “Sit back, sit back. I’m trying to do business.”

Anyway, the kid’s awesome. We go to FAU, we do the Boom or Doom.

Big Justice: It blows up like 5 million views.

AJ: It blows up.

Big Justice: Then, this guy from–

AJ: Miami.

Big Justice: –-Miami, he reaches out to us. That video also blew up. We got a million views.

AJ: Now we’ve been getting reached out to by multiple colleges to come to their dining hall to do a Boom or Doom. We’re trying to make a tour out of it. We’re going to see what happens with Big Justice with school and baseball and everything and try and fit it in.

Tubefilter: You guys are going to have quite the schedule.

AJ: It really helps that Erika, the mother of Big Justice, and Ashley, my daughter, Big Justice’s sister, are now involved and part of the channel. They did not embrace it at first. They did not embrace it at first. At first, there was a little bit of fear. There was a little bit of, “What did you guys do here? We’re not normal anymore.” [laughs]

Tubefilter: How did that change for them? How did they end up coming in?

AJ: I think they started to realize, “Okay, this is it. This is what these guys are doing, and nothing’s stopping them.” Also, I think being a part of some of the brand deals with us, being part of some of the creation with us, being part of all the benefits that come with this, the restaurants, everything else, they started thinking, “Oh wow, this is a fun life.” Also, the fact that the mother of Big Justice is now working with us full-time, I think that was a big one too.

Big Justice: It was a Boom!

AJ: It was a Boom.

Tubefilter: What has been your favorite part of this whole experience of becoming creators and being online?

Big Justice: Meeting Preston. I watched him, I watched his brother Josh. I looked up to these people. Then, they reached out to us and they’re like, “Do you want to come meet us?” and I’m like, “What?” Then it’s a Friday after baseball. They’re like, “Okay. We’re talking about Sunday.” I’m like, “What?” It’s so crazy.

Tubefilter: What about you, AJ?

AJ: For me, it’s the happiness that we’re able to bring. For me, it’s seeing everybody when they see us and the way their faces light up, and the happiness that we can bring to this world because we know it’s needed.

Tubefilter: What are you looking forward to in terms of where things go from here?

Big Justice: Keep bringing happiness to people, keep making the videos, and hopefully it never stops. I hope when I’m older, I keep making them. We’ll keep making them.

AJ: I just want everyone to believe in the Boom. I want everyone to believe in the Boom, because when we do get those negative comments out there, that’s somebody that isn’t happy inside. We want to bring that Boom, and we want to bring that happiness, and let everyone realize that we’re meant to be happy. We are really meant to live happy, and I want everybody out there to live happy.

Tubefilter: Absolutely. Perfect. I think that’s it from me then. Is there anything else that you guys would want to talk about? Anything else you want people to know about you, your family?

AJ: I would want everyone to know that there’s a lot on the way. There’s a lot more AJ and Big Justice coming your way, and we’re bringing the Boom.

Filed under: Articles, Featured, Homepage Feature, Millionaires, News by James Hale
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[Editor’s Note: Tubefilter Charts is a weekly rankings column from Tubefilter with data provided by GospelStats. It’s exactly what it sounds like: a top number ranking of YouTube channels based on statistics collected within a given time frame. Check out all of our Tubefilter Charts with new installments every week right here.]

Scroll down for this week’s Tubefilter Chart. 👇

We witnessed a record-breaking performance in this week’s Global Top 50.

For the first time in the 2020s, a single YouTube channel has gotten more than 1.3 billion views in a single week. You can probably guess which record-breaker reached that mark, and if you’ve been keeping up on your Tubefilter, you may even know how he managed to pull it off.

Chart Toppers

MrBeast is the big dog in this week’s Global Top 50. Days after passing T-Series to become the most-subscribed channel on YouTube, Jimmy Donaldson’s primary hub collected 1.31 billion monthly views to become the #1 channel in our worldwide ranking. No other channel has even crossed the one billion threshold in 2024, and only two channels managed to get even half of MrBeast’s weekly traffic. I guess becoming YouTube’s most-subscribed creator provides the viewership bump to end all viewership bumps.

For only the second time since April, Anaya Kandhal is out of the #1 spot in the Global Top 50. The Indian family channel, which is led by the titular, adorable youngster, settled for second place even though it picked up 853.9 million weekly views. That’s one of the highest second-place sums we’ve ever seen in our charts. During any other week, we’d expect little Anaya to continue her streak of top finishes, but the first week of June was MrBeast’s moment, and so the chart’s pole position belongs to him.

ToRung is sitting in third place in the Global Top 50. The Vietnamese comedy hub has found a formula that works on YouTube Shorts. The channel’s punchlines may not show up until the last few seconds of its videos, but ToRung’s ridiculous thumbnails provide plenty of setup before the videos even start playing. By drawing in traffic with crazy images, ToRung was able to reel in 739.7 million weekly views during the first full week of June. 35 of the 50 channels in the chart didn’t even receive half of that amount.

T-Series is in fourth place in the Global Top 50. Though that would represent an all-time high for most of the channels that cracked the chart, it is a rare low for the Indian record label, which typically finishes first or second in our weekly ranking. It was a tough week overall for T-Series. It fell to fourth and lost its subscriber crown to MrBeast. At least it still has a captive audience of South Asian viewers, who delivered 642.2 million views during the week that was.

MaviGadget rounds out this week’s global top five. The YouTube Shorts hub focused on machinery and equipment counted 597.5 million weekly views.

Top Gainers

If your only exposure to Indian culture is our Global Top 50 ranking, you might think that the world’s most populous nation has no interests other than Bollywood dance routines and moralistic children’s content. But during the first week of June, India’s YouTube community found itself focused on a category that’s quite different from those two: Politics.

On June 4, the results were announced in India’s national elections. Prime Minister Narendra Modi won a third term, but his political party lost more than 60 seats in the national legislature.

The surprising result drove Indian viewers to political channels en masse. One of the main beneficiaries of that traffic was TV9 Bharatvarsh, a five-year-old network that broadcasts in Hindi. Individual TV9 YouTube videos covering the election have received more than four million views since they were first published on the 4th.

On the whole, TV9’s official YouTube channel collected 250.9 million views during the first full week of June. Thanks to that monumental increase (TV9 more than doubled its YouTube traffic week-over-week), the local broadcaster moved up more than 300 spots in our ranking, topping out in 40th place in the Global Top 50.

Though TV9 keeps its videos focused on current events, it does have some commonalities with the other Global Top 50 entrants based in India. As its name implies, it caters to the non-English-speaking Bharat community, which has become a driving force in the world of Indian YouTube (just ask Anaya Kandhal).

TV9’s most-watched YouTube video even references the Shorts buzzwords “couple” and “child.” Not even news broadcasters can keep away from the top trends on YouTube’s TikTok competitor.

Channel Distribution

Here’s a breakdown of the Top 50 Most Viewed channels this week in terms of their countries of origin:

• India: 15 channels in the Top 50.
• United States: 14 channels in the Top 50.
• Pakistan and Russia: 3 channels in the Top 50.
• Canada, Hong Kong, Japan, and Vietnam: 2 channels in the Top 50.
• Bangladesh, China, Czechia, El Salvador, France, South Korea, and United Arab Emirates: 1 channel each in the Top 50.

This week, 38 channels in the Top 50 are primarily active on YouTube Shorts.

As always, keep up to speed with the latest Tubefilter Charts and all of our news at Tubefilter by following us on Twitter, becoming a fan on Facebook, and watching our videos on YouTube.

Filed under: Articles, Homepage Feature, News, statistics, Statistics, Web Series, YouTube, Youtube Chart by Sam Gutelle
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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.

It’s MrBeast’s world. We’re all just living in it.

June 2024 has been an astonishing month for the world’s most popular creator. He caught T-Series to gain the title of most-subscribed YouTube channel, hit the #1 spot in our Global Top 50 after getting more than 1.3 billion weekly views, and reached the top of our Weekly Brand Report as well. Oh, did I mention the month is only ten days old? There are plenty more opportunities for Jimmy Donaldson to continue adding to his impressive YouTube repertoire.

#1 $10,000 Every Day You Survive In The Wilderness
Channel: MrBeast
Brand: Samsung, Zaxby’s

MrBeast’s latest chart-topping sponsored video might be a metaphor for his career on YouTube. Once upon a time, all of us viewers were wandering through the proverbial woods. Then, MrBeast showed up with a briefcase full of money, and YouTube has never been the same since. His latest video features a pair of sponsors. Samsung has been one of Jimmy Donaldson’s regular sponsors for months, while Zaxby’s is a newer entrant to the MrBeast universe. The Southern chicken chain recently partnered with Donaldson for a Feastables-themed promotion across its locations.

#2 14 most AWKWARD Tech Fails of all time
Channel: Mrwhosetheboss
Brand: Bitdefender

Arun Maini is wading into the wonderful world of rage bait. The tech reviewer known as Mrwhosetheboss was one of the creators who went viral for his negative review of the much-maligned Humane AI Pin. Now, he’s following up that viewership success with a similar video that runs through some of the least successful tech products of all time. Luckily, Maini’s sponsor isn’t on the list. His latest foray into our Weekly Brand Report is brought to us by Bitdefender, a digital tool that helps its users identify and root out scams.

#3 How Scammers Steal Your Card Info
Channel: Zack D. Films
Brand: Ridge

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7D-zAvGxRnY

Speaking of scammers, Zack D. Films is examining a dastardly trick for his entry in this week’s Report. The fast-rising Shorts creator has opened up plenty of sponsorship opportunities since he broke into our Global Top 50, and his latest collab is with Ridge, the wallet company that has brought on Marques Brownlee in a creative role. Apparently, the heavy-duty exterior of Ridge’s signature product contains an RFID shield to protect your personal data from IRL phishing attempts. The more you know!

#4 MARCUS RASHFORD SPENT THOUSANDS MODIFYING HIS ROLLS ROYCE .. NOW I HAVE TO DO THE SAME
Channel: Mat Armstrong
Brand: carVertical

It’s time for the next chapter in the saga of Mat Armstrong and Marcus Rashford’s totaled car. Armstrong has made two previous appearances in our Weekly Brand Report; both of those videos related to the Rolls Royce Wraith previously owned by Rashford. The Manchester United forward wrecked his vehicle, but Armstrong is now restoring it by adding in all the bells and whistles. His project will cost him hundreds of thousands of dollars, but luckily for him, his YouTube traffic is helping him recoup some of those costs.

BONUS #1,939 Spend The Day With Me In New York
Channel: Lizzy Hadfield
Brand: J.Crew

What’s next for J.Crew? The retailer known for its preppy looks has had a long fall since its days as an archetypical mall anchor. After filing for bankruptcy in 2020, J.Crew is turning to YouTube to find its next generation of spokespeople. Fashion creator Lizzy Hadfield partnered with J.Crew for a vlog that depicts her day in New York City. You can still find J.Crew locations in the Big Apple, but the chain doesn’t have nearly as many locations as it once did. This is its only sponsorship in the latest Weekly Brand Report, but maybe YouTube videos are about to become its next big thing.

…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.

Filed under: Articles, Brands, Featured, Homepage Feature, News by Sam Gutelle
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Instagram head Adam Mosseri answered some tough questions about the platform’s lack of creator monetization in a 90-minute sit-down with Colin and Samir—including telling them programs like the Reels Play Bonuses were “burning money” and resulted in lower-quality content.

The longtime YouTube duo took Mosseri through a series of questions about other aspects of Instagram–How has short-form video changed the platform? How involved is Mark Zuckerberg? What makes a post do well in terms of reach? How far is Insta going to take this whole “embracing AI” thing?–but also spent a decent chunk of the chat on how Instagram struggles to get creators paid.

In talking about what Instagram is doing to improve things for creators (“We work hard, contrary to popular belief, on trying to keep them happy,” he quips), Mosseri says it’s primarily focusing on things like combating harassment and improving reach.

As for revenue, that “matters a lot, but actually to a very small subset of creators,” he says.

“The vast majority of creators are very small, and they’re too small to monetize in a meaningful way. And so, yes, they care about monetization, they want to hear about monetization, but it’s actually not the thing they can or should really focus on,” he says.

Colin is quick to point out that when he and Samir told their YouTube creator friends about the interview date with Mosseri, “They were so interested in revenue. I think, for us, we come from this culture of revenue share.”

Mosseri invites the pair to tell him that he’s wrong about how important monetization is to creators overall, but says it seems to matter most to large creators, “and large creators are disproportionately important, because they reach more people.” He also agrees YouTube and its AdSense program are “best in class” at creator monetization.

So what about Instagram’s own monetization program? It shut down the short-form video-specific program Reels Play over a year ago, and since then, its only form of creator monetization has been occasional, invite-only bonuses–like its recent Spring Bonus, available to some creators in the U.S., Japan, and Korea–that offer lump sum payments for making content.

Originally, those bonus payments focused mostly on video content, but now Instagram is incentivizing photo posts, too–and that’s because “it’s much easier to make those programs ROI-positive for photos than for videos,” Mosseri says.

One concern Instagram has about its monetization program, he says, is that content produced by creators to earn bonuses tends to be lower quality than Instagram’s other content that was produced for free. “That drop [in quality] is much lower for photos than for Reels,” he adds.

Yet another concern is something Mosseri calls “replacement value.” When Colin chimes in to mention that he would be incentivized to make more or different content to earn higher bonuses if Instagram would be transparent about why it was paying X amount of dollars for Y amount of viewership, Mosseri challenges him.

“The trick is, though, it’s not just about your viewership. It’s about the replacement value. So let’s say you made 10 Reels through the program, and they all got really good views. But if you hadn’t made them, we would’ve had just as much engagement from [content by Samir] that wasn’t paid for,” Mosseri says. “From an Instagram business perspective, the ROI is negative 100%. So if we paid you $1,000—making up numbers now—for 10 Reels and the replacement value was $0, you would look at your Reels and be like, ‘They all got 500,000 views, and these are the CPMs, you owe me X.’

“It’s like, yes, but from a business perspective, if we hadn’t paid you $1,000, we would’ve made the exact same amount of revenue,” he says. “Then we’ve actually just burned $1,000.”

Figuring out creator monetization has been slow going for Instagram because each time it distributes these bonuses (once every couple of months, often around holidays), it measures whether the content produced by creators who got paid “actually [increased] revenue for the app,” Mosseri says.

The platform is currently “iterating” with the bonuses it’s delivering in the U.S., Japan, and Korea, and will continue iterating for the foreseeable future, he adds.

We think the full interview is worth watching, but if there’s one thing you walk away with, it’s this: Instagram is lagging way behind competitors like YouTube and TikTok when it comes to getting creators paid for their work, and it’s probably going to be “iterating” until it can figure out a way for itself to make more money in the process. It’s also hoping creators will continue sharing their work on its platform while earning income from brand deals, which it estimates are a $15 billion business for them annually.

One of Mosseri’s final comments on the monetization matter? “Rev share’s not the only way to make money as a creator.”

Filed under: Homepage Feature, Instagram by James Hale
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Offbrand is venturing beyond its roots. The company co-founded by streamer Ludwig Ahgren alongside Nick Allen, Nathan Stanz, and Brandon Ewing, which began in 2022 as a live production company, is launching an Offbrand Games unit. Jason “Thor” Hall, a developer who is known for streaming on the Pirate Software account, will play a big role in Offbrand Games as the company’s new Director of Strategy.

Offbrand Games releases will feature Ludwig’s “stamp of approval”

Ahgren announced Offbrand Games with a video on his Mogul Mail channel. The man known by the mononymous moniker Ludwig threw some irreverent jabs at existing creator products as he revealed his next business venture. 

“I’m not going to announce that I’m making a chocolate bar or a hydration drink,” Ludwig said. “I like making things that I like playing and so we’re announcing today that Offbrand is adding a new vertical. We’re entering a new foray with Offbrand Games.”

Ludwig is riding a wave of creators who have become game publishers. Reviewer Dunkey made headlines in 2022 with a new company called Bigmode, and his publisher has since produced some impressive results. Streamer collective OTK has also thrown its weight behind indie titles.

The game publishing industry is rife with issues, but Offbrand Games hopes to serve developers by putting their needs ahead of the desire to maximize profits. That approach, Ludwig hopes, will provide devs with a “stamp of approval.” It will be a sign that “you can trust us.”

Avast, ye!

Ludwig is not the only streamer attaching his personal credibility to the Offbrand Games project. Hall, who worked at Blizzard Entertainment (now part of Activision Blizzard) before becoming the CEO of Pirate Software, has drawn widespread attention for his takes on the gaming industry. Clips from his streams have received millions of views on platforms like YouTube Shorts, and Ludwig described him as “the guy when it comes to game development YouTube.”

Hall’s forays into streaming paid off in a big way earlier this year, when he set the record for the biggest “Hype Train” on Twitch. It’s estimated that Hall’s surge of subscriptions and bits brought in more than $500,000. 

Ludwig believes that he and Hall can bring the “A24 feeling” to game publishing by building a portfolio filled with hyped and beloved titles. The first game coming out of the publisher will Rivals 2, a platform-based fighting game that will be released during the fourth quarter of 2024.

Change is also coming to Offbrand’s corporate structure.

Ludwig’s announcement video for Offbrand Games is titled “I sold my company.” That statement is technically true, since Ludwig has relinquished his ownership stake in Offbrand. But rather than selling the firm to a third party, the 28-year-old creator is giving back to his employees. 

Offbrand is becoming a worker-owned cooperative, which will allow all of its staff members to have a say in its operations and corporate decision-making. From Ludwig’s point of view, the reasoning behind this transaction is simple. “I’m good, money-wise,” he said.

Don’t expect the shift to a worker-owned structure to fundamentally change Offbrand’s nature. At the end of the day, the company is the same entity it was when it first launched in 2022: It’s a studio that builds cool stuff for streamers. 

But starting now, Offbrand’s productions will no longer be limited to speedrunning fundraisers and award shows. It will also put on some events that promote the games it publishes in-house. It’s becoming a bigger, more expansive company, and its workers are in line to benefit from that growth.

Filed under: Articles, Featured, Homepage Feature, News by Sam Gutelle
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