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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Our latest Gospel Stats Weekly Brand Report has it all: explosions, Ozempic, weird phones, the Mexico border, and a good old-fashioned history nerd dunking. As usual, MrBeast is #1, but there’s some new faces in our top 5 this week–and an unusual lack of sicence content! But don’t worry–our bonus vid has plenty of educational moments.
Check ’em all out here:
#1 $10,000 Every Explosion You Survive
Channel: MrBeast Gaming
Brand: DoorDash
Views: 16,557,683
In last week’s video, MrBeast wanted to know: Would you drown for $500K? This week, he’s taking it even further: Would you risk exploding for just $10K? But don’t worry–unlike last week’s vid sponsored by Jack Link’s, this week’s (sponsored by DoorDash) isn’t set in the real world. That’s because it’s from MrBeast’s secondary channel, MrBeast Gaming. Instead of contestants risking IRL harm, the only things in danger of exploding are their Roblox avatars. This competition is entirely virtual–but the cash prize is still in cool USD.
#2 Coulda Been Love Reunion
Channel: Druski
Brand: Ro, PrizePicks
Views: 7,466,830
Some reality shows wait years to get their casts back together for one last dash of juicy drama. Not Coulda Been Love. The dating show by comedian Druski took YouTube by storm, reaching top 5 in our Gospel Stats Weekly Brand Report multiple weeks in a row. It ended in March, but this week, Druski–who’s still fighting being named in a sexual assault case against rapper Drake–brings contestants in for a postmortem look at the six-episode series–all sponsored by daily fantasy outlet PrizePicks and telehealth company Ro, which offers drugs like Ozempic and Sparks. Druski makes sure to disclose that the drugs in Ro’s catalog “are permitted to be prescribed under federal law but are not FDA-approved.”
#3 I Tested the Weirdest Phones on the Internet.
Channel: Mrwhosetheboss
Brand: Bitdefender
Views: 4,966,911
This may be nostalgia talking, but we miss the days where phones were chunky, clunky, and distinct. It’s like the iconic 90s translucent technology: we didn’t appreciate it while we had it, and now everything is sleek and minimalist, aka samey and boring. Bring back Nokia bricks and the old Google Moment, which had a slide-out keyboard like something from Spy Kids. We’d pay big money for that these days. And so, it seems, would Mrwhosetheboss, who started a video investigating the “weirdest” phones he could find for sale on the ‘net, only to realize “there are far too many good ideas here for us to just leave them in the past.” His adventures are sponsored by cybersecurity software Bitdefender, which only paid for two videos this week: Mrwhosetheboss’s, and #1,086, a review of first-class service on airline Qantas from creator Kym Illman.
#4 US/Mexico Border with Arizona Sheriff – What’s It Like Now? 🇺🇸🇲🇽
Channel: Peter Santenello
Brand: Ground News
Views: 3,854,113
https://youtube.com/watch?v=YLmGuEuansw
Traffic at the U.S./Mexico border is a contentious topic, and Peter Santenello says he’s gonna cut to the heart of it. Santenello, who grew his YouTube channel making travel content and now makes human-centered stories with “no BS polarization or political angle,” as he says, travels to the border to get stock of the current situation. He interviews Yuma County sheriff Leon Wilmot about what the border looks like on a day-to-day basis, and his dispatch from the desert is sponsored by Ground News, a platform that seems in line with his stance on politics. It promises to “make it easy to compare news sources, read between the lines of media bias and break free from algorithms.”
BONUS #1,857 Artifact Jacker Tries to School Me in Archaeology (Scientists Weep)
Channel: World of Antiquity
Brand: Nolah
Views: 43,687
People love getting in fights on X. Go on there and you won’t make it 10 seconds without seeing a post where one person’s dunking on another. Sometimes that dunking pays off. Other times? Not so much. That’s the case for a man who (ironically) goes by the name DeDunking. He’s a YouTuber, and his online presence is all about being a “skeptic” who makes content about “alternate history.” Over on X, he tried to scrap with Dr. David Miano, ancient historian and host of the YouTube channel World of Antiquity. DeDunking’s claim? Miano doesn’t understand the “basic science” behind dating items, and so ‘his version’ of history can’t be correct. Well, get some popcorn, because Miano’s response is a 40-minute-long dissection of DeDunking’s claims–and it’s one heck of a watch. (And with a video this length, you might want to lie back, which makes Miano’s sponsor, mattress brand Nolah, the perfect fit.)
…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.
