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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In this week’s Gospel Stats Brand Report, MrBeast makes a bad guy rich, a skilled linguist gets one over on a potential date, Veritasium (once again) probes the universe, Airrack gets a little illegal, and How to Train Your Dragon really, really didn’t need a remake.
Check ’em all out here:
#1 Find This Briefcase, Win $10,000
Channel: MrBeast
Brand: The Bad Guys 2 from DreamWorks Animation & Universal Pictures
Views: 120,848,810
Sometimes being a bad guy pays off. To celebrate the Bad Guys sequel, DreamWorks Animation and Universal Pictures bought the biggest influencer on YouTube, and let him do what he’s best at: giving people absurd amounts of money if they can complete challenges. The movie follows an animal gang of master criminals–and so, for this sponsored Short, MrBeast scripted a pop culture reference-laden burglar chase scene fit for any action movie…and it doesn’t end the way you think it will. As is common with the big-ticket brands that sponsor MrBeast, DreamWorks and Universal only paid for his video this week. But, though this is the only Universal-sponsored video, it’s not the only time Universal makes our list, so read on!
#2 She played him in 3 languages 🗣️#sponsored
Channel: Victoria Pfeifer
Brand: Airlearn
Views: 14,100,131
One of the biggest company categories we see in YouTube sponsors is education. Businesses like Brilliant and MasterClass tap into YouTube’s thriving DIY community. This week, language-learning app Airlearn joins the class, sponsoring a Short from lifestyle creator Victoria Pfeifer. In a brief skit, Pfeifer follows someone who’s unlucky in love: After spotting a cute girl, they introduce themself, but she says she doesn’t speak English. Since she’s Latina, they assume she speaks Spanish, and zip off to use Airlearn to become fluent. When they return, though, she reveals she’s Brazilian–so speaks Portuguese, not Spanish. No problem, though–she’s got a crush on our main character, and in the time they were away, used Airlearn to learn English. It’s a pretty cute ad for a practical product, and also the only Airlearn-sponsored video this week.
#3 The Strange Math That Predicts (Almost) Anything
Channel: Veritasium
Brand: Brilliant
Views: 5,248,975
Speaking of Brilliant…We can always count on Veritasium to make us question our universe. We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: We’re not math people. But Veritasium has a way of explaining math that even us language arts devotees can understand. This video (sponsored, as we mentioned, by education company and frequent Veritasium partner Brilliant) starts with a history lesson, revealing how a Russian feud led to mathematician Andrey Markov building the process for determining a certain type of probability. This isn’t the kind of math you’d learn in middle school, but judging by Veritasium’s viewership numbers, ~5 million people are happy to go back to school.
#4 How Long Could You Secretly Live in a Waterpark?
Channel: Airrack
Brand: OpusClip
Views: 5,360,469
We’ve noticed lots of beach resort/waterpark content popping up lately, from Ed Chapman and Jack Pembrook‘s sagas about trying to profit on all-inclusive holidays to the usual summer uptick in Disney FOMO bait. Airrack‘s contribution? Trying to “secretly live” in a waterpark. This video actually isn’t too far off another Pembrook upload, where he tried to live in a luxury resort undetected, and for free. Airrack’s goal is to pay for one ticket into Splashway Waterpark & Campgrounds in Texas, and then remain there for as long as possible. Will he succeed? Will security call the cops? Is it really worth having to sleep on the ground under the slide tubes? All this and more within…
BONUS #185 so, that How To Train Your Dragon remake…
Channel: Alex Meyers
Brand: Raycon
Views: 576,737
Yeah, so, live-action remakes of animated movies tend to be bad. Almost universally bad. Lion King? Awful. The Little Mermaid? Rough. Don’t even get us started on Lilo & Stitch. In most cases, it seems like these dead-eyed live-actions aren’t made so much for the love of the story, but for the love of box-office bucks. But, you’ll notice, all those films came from Disney. So what would happen if another studio tried to turn one of its biggest animated films into a live-action? Well, it’s also bad. We know our opinion is subjective here, but animator/film critic Alex Meyers agrees. Thanks to sponsor Raycon, he’ll talk you through why it was a baffling decision to make this movie in the first place, and how some of the choices made in the development process are even more baffling. Why can’t we just leave animated masterpieces alone?!?!
…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.
