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.
Subscribe for daily Tubefilter Top Stories
If you somehow weren’t aware the U.S. presidential election is tomorrow, the creators who made this week’s top 5 branded videos on YouTube are here to tell you. We have longtime fan favorite Epic Rap Battles with a fictional duke-it-out between candidates Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, plus a visit to Theo Von from Trump’s not-fictional running mate, JD Vance. But it’s not all about the polls: Sam and Colby‘s annual Halloween monster mash got not one, but two spots this week, and Mat Armstrong returns with another carVertical gig.
Check it all out right here:
#1 Surviving A Week in OUR Demonic School PT 2 (WE SPLIT UP)
Channel: Sam and Colby
Brand: Opera
Views: 7,513,084
Every Halloween, spooky things enthusiasts Sam and Colby return with a new seven-part series to mark “Hell Week”–the seven days leading up to fright night. (Also, for the past two Octobers, they’ve hit theaters with full-length films.) This year, they went to Farrar Elementary in Iowa, often referred to as the most haunted school in America. Like in much of their other content, the duo featured fellow creators–in this case the Sturniolo Triplets, who joined them for a hair-raising night in the long, dark corridors and desk-crowded classrooms. We won’t spoil too much, and we know Halloween is over now, but if you’re like us and aren’t quite ready to go into the winter holidays, this hour-long installment keeps spook season going.
#2 Surviving A Week in OUR Demonic School PT 3 (THE POSSESSION)
Channel: Sam and Colby
Brand: Dragon City
Views: 5,806,672
We already gave you the series rundown above, but for this episode, Sam and Colby are joined by frequent collaborators KallMeKris and CelinaSpookyBoo, and all four of them go hunting through the school for a potential demon (possibly not advisable). It’s rare that we have a creator hit the list twice, let alone in spots #1 and #2. What’s also interesting about this double feature is that these installments are not sponsored by the same brand. The video in spot #1 is sponsored by browser Opera, and this episode nabbed a deal from mobile game Dragon City. Both brands are oft-seen sponsors of YouTube content: Opera paid for nearly 20 other videos this week, and Dragon City paid for eight. As we glance through the rest of this series, Sam and Colby appear to have tapped in several other sponsors, and we’re betting those brands are pretty happy with the viewership results.
#3 Sen. JD Vance | This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von #540
Channel: Theo Von
Brand: Kalshi, PrizePicks, Füm, Tommy John, ShipStation
Views: 4,294,736
Podcasts are kind of having a moment in the leadup to this election. Joe Rogan got Donald Trump to sit with him for a nearly three-hour interview that debuted Oct. 25. Rogan then went on to pitch a fit because current VP Kamala Harris wouldn’t do the same: “They offered a date for Tuesday, but I would have had to travel to her and they only wanted to do an hour,” he tweeted. “I strongly feel the best way to do it is in the studio in Austin.” It ended up not happening, but Harris’s running mate Tim Walz went on SmartLess, and now Trump’s running mate JD Vance is on Theo Von for a two-hour talk. All of these interviews go into candidates’ political beliefs, but also (crucially, as some comments on Von’s video point out) dive into their personalities, asking them human-to-human questions. Like many other podcast episodes, this one is sponsored by numerous brands, including Kalshi, a company that lets people bet money on the election outcome.
#4 I BOUGHT A WRECKED ASTON MARTIN DB12 THEN REBUILT IT IN 24 HOURS
Channel: Mat Armstrong
Brand: carVertical
Views: 4,154,491
Mat Armstrong is back on the Brand Report–this time not with his Rolls Royce, but with a freshly totaled Aston Martin that he un-totals in just 24 hours. This hour-long video is right in line with the rest of Armstrong’s content; it blends his showy hosting style with real down-in-the-dirt mechanic’s work, showing with exquisite detail how Armstrong and his team gut the car’s damaged components and replace them with working parts. His work is, appropriately (and once again), sponsored by crash report database carVertical, which also paid for three other videos this week: #866, #945, and #1,283.
BONUS #5 Donald Trump vs Kamala Harris. Epic Rap Battles of History
Channel: ERB
Brand: Ground News
Views: 3,896,587
And now for the only video on this week’s report that isn’t over an hour long. YouTube mainstay Epic Rap Battles, which has been uploading history-inspired bops since way back in 2011, released their take on the 2024 election, and the track is a certified Trending hit on YouTube Music. With fellow content-maker @suburbanblvckgirl as Kamala Harris, rap battle creators EpicLLOYD and Nice Peter starred as Donald Trump and Joe Biden, respectively, delivering sick burns like “You are JD Vance’s beard level weird” and “Propping up Joe like it was Weekend at Biden’s.” This rap is capped by a final message from Teddy Roosevelt himself–all paid for by Ground News.
…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.
