Have you heard? Streamer Stable Ronaldo made $1.2 million in a month — or did he?

Each week, we handpick a selection of stories to give you a snapshot of trends, updates, business moves, and more from around the creator industry. This week, one of the biggest creators on the internet is reminiscing about the past, while another is looking forward to the future.

Creator commotion

PewDiePie gets banned by…himself? Felix Kjellberg earned a brief timeout on Twitch after broadcasting his old YouTube videos on loop. His decision to restream content 24/7 violated Twitch’s terms of service, even though he only played his own content. If he had replayed this old stream, his ban would’ve probably been longer than a few minutes.

MrBeast is preparing for his own death. The top creator on YouTube is building up a backlog of videos that can be released post-mortem in the event of his untimely demise. That may sound morbid, but he’s not the first creator to adopt this strategy. The Double Rainbow guy is still uploading years after his 2020 passing.

Markiplier is in a TV show (somewhere). The gaming creator has a starring role in Edge of Sleep, but he’s not allowed to announce the project’s host platform until its release date. Anyone want to place bets? What are the oddsmakers saying about Edge of Sleep?

The biz

How much money did Stable Ronaldo actually make in September? The streamer accidentally revealed September Twitch earnings that totaled $1.2 million. Per the leaked stats, he streamed 690 hours during the month, or approximately 23 hours a day. We definitely have some questions, and they’re not even about the money. Did he really spend an entire month streaming all day, every day? And if he did, was the reveal of his earnings actually an accident? If I bagged seven figures in 30 days, I’d want people to know about it.

Games Done Quick wants to raise millions for hurricane relief. The organization known for blockbuster speedrunning sessions is back with another charitable event. Between October 11-13, GDQ speedrunners will go live to rustle up donations for communities affected by Hurricane Helene. submissions.gamesdonequick.com  are now open.

Is Jack in the Box’s “Gaming Box” an answer to Lunchly? Like MrBeast, Logan Paul, and KSI, the fast food chain is offering a combo that includes multiple snackable items and an energy drink (a Red Bull, in this case). The promotion is probably not a direct response to Lunchly, but it has received far less criticism than the creator-led effort.

Platform headlines

YouTube’s creator awards are shrinking. As the Google-owned hub tightens its belt, it is reducing the size of the plaques it gives to creators who achieve subscriber milestones. The awards are now 30% smaller than they used to be. Somehow, that feels right. Getting one million subscribers was a much more impressive accomplishment

in 2012. It’s only right that those pioneers get bigger plaques.

TikTok duels Merlin. The firm that negotiates licenses on behalf of indie labels claims that TikTok walked away from negotiations. The platform could lose songs by Nirvana and Phoebe Bridgers as a result, but at least those removals won’t affect TikTok’s now-defunct music service.

ByteDance’s AI video generators are taking over. PixelDance and Seaweed are still in private beta but could be released after the U.S. election. Maybe the American government should worry more about ByteDance’s breakneck scrapling than TikTok’s standard operations. But alas…

Politics as usual

Texas is suing TikTok. Lone Star State Attorney General Ken Paxton is accusing TikTok of exploiting the privacy data of underage users. Texas doesn’t have the best record when it comes to social media regulation, but as former Texas Governor George W. Bush once said, “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me…you can’t get fooled again!”

Snoop Dogg is teaching kids about the power of the vote. The rapper’s hub for animated family content, Doggyland, is releasing a very special episode called “Election Day.” As someone who bumps the Affirmation Song daily, this is huge news for me.

More than one million people watched the Harris-Trump debate on a stream that wasn’t affiliated with a news network. So says the Times. Twitch’s favorite political pundit, Hasan Piker, drew more than 170,000 concurrent viewers for his debate coverage. I’m ready for the next step up: HasanAbi for debate moderator!

The internet is a strange place

Heidi Klum brings the Modelverse to Roblox. The beauty icon is the latest celebrity embracing the power of sandbox world creation. On one hand, fashion and the metaverse have a history with one another. But at the same time, do we really need to install a virtual catwalk on a platform used predominantly by young children?

Troye Sivan’s childhood home is up for sale. You can live at the house where the creator-turned-pop star filmed his coming-out video and many others. You don’t have to become a bedroom vlogger if you move into the place, but why wouldn’t you? It worked out well enough for Troye, who is currently lighting it up on stage with Charli XCX.

An Argentine nun is bringing Catholicism to TikTok. Josefina Cattaneo wants to make Catholicism cool again. She’ll have her work cut out for her if she wants to bring young people into a faith that is responsible for many atrocities, but she’s great at dance challenges, so that’s good.