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. You can also download our YouTube 2025 Sponsorship Landscape Report here.
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‘Tis the season for festive holiday beverages, and some of YouTube’s biggest channels are raising their glasses. MrBeast led the way with an assortment of hot drinks on offer, while a handful of other sponsored videos depicted boozier methods for keeping warm.
Each family is different, but if your folks like sharing cozy meals with each other during December, read on. Millions have already used these videos as inspiration for their seasonal recipes. Will you join the club?
#1 Survive 30 Days Trapped In The Sky, Win $250,000
Channel: MrBeast
Brand: Starbucks
Views: 99,136,105
You might have an odd or idiosyncratic family, but at least your holiday home isn’t a glass platform suspended hundreds of feet in the air. That is the setting for the latest extreme challenge organized by MrBeast. Jimmy Donaldson marooned two of his fans on the floating island and promised them $250,000 if they could make it 30 days without falling off or giving up.
If that sounds like a raw deal, you don’t know the half of it — but Donaldson did afford his contestants one key concession. Midway through the challenge, a floating Starbucks counter arrived on the platform, complete with a barista. The nation’s largest coffee chain may not seem that exciting or novel on the ground, but for contestants who are battling boredom and fatigue, a little pick-me-up does quite nicely.
Will this video convince me to patronize local Starbucks establishments? If the winner will share her $50,000 gift card with me, I’d gladly take her up on it.
#2 Done with the boring traditions – @EspolonTequila is our new tradition!
Channel: Leo Gonzalez
Brand: Espolón Tequila
Views: 28,556,484
While MrBeast serves coffee to his fans, Leo Gonzalez is delivering a different source of holiday season warmth. While all his friends are sipping on eggnog and hot cocoa, he is enjoying a nice frosty margarita.
Yes, the quintessential summertime cocktail is an unusual choice for Christmas. That doesn’t mean, however, that Gonzalez’s chosen tipple is unwelcome in December. Some beverage brands known for their wintertime concoctions, such as the beer company Great Lakes Brewery, serve up Christmas-themed drinks in July. I
f Christmas is permitted to encroach on the rest of the calendar, then it’s only fair for summertime favorites to get their day in the winter sun. Espolón’s inversion of existing marketing trends is clever, and Gonzalez is the perfect spokesman for the switch-up.
#3 That’s Not the Hot Cocoa I Wanted
Channel: MrBeast 2
Brand: Feastables
Views: 21,051,297
Alright, let’s go back to something a little more traditional. We’re still in the realm of holiday season sweets, but we’re swapping the beverages for a little candy. MrBeast’s Feastables rolled out a new product ahead of the new year, and it distills the flavor of hot cocoa into a chocolate bar.
If you want to test how close the Hot Cocoa Crunch is to the real thing, you could always melt it down, but with that bit of rulebreaking, you might end up taking whipped cream to the face like MrBeast does in the ad. Perhaps the perfect pairing is the Feastables bar dipped in one of those Starbucks coffees you bought with your $50,000 gift card.
#4 Magic on the new @IHOP Value Menu, available every day! #IHOPPartner
Channel: Zach King
Brand: IHOP
Views: 18,437,276
This week’s Brand Report has given us Starbucks for a pick-me-up, tequila for an aperitif, and Feastables for dessert. But what about breakfast? To cover the most important meal of the day, we have to turn to the longtime master of short-form special effects and his brand partner.
Zach King’s IHOP spot is convenience at its finest. Wouldn’t it be great if you could order your pancakes and more and have it show up before your server even leaves your table? Santa should turn over Christmas present delivery duty to Zach King — with his creative form of wizardry, he could cover the entire world and still make it home in time to feed himself a pancake breakfast.
BONUS #2,473 This matcha cocktail is the goat…or should I say the cow?
Channel: BarChemistry
Brand: Almond Cow
Views: 28,448
So if you’re keeping track, so far in this column, we’ve had coffee, margaritas, chocolate, and pancakes. That all sounds delicious, but it’s not exactly the lightest meal you can eat.
That level of excess is typical of the holiday season. Yuletide indulgences are so intense that many people choose to forgo certain vices during the month of January.
Creators like BarChemistry are saying “why wait that long to treat your body a bit better?” His holiday cocktail is make with hazelnut milk that he made himself using the flagship gadget sold by his sponsor, Almond Cow. As he puts it, almost everything in the drink is good for you (except for the vodka).
Other creators are also using the Almond Cow to cook up healthy (and, in some cases, vegan) treats for their revelry. These campaigns are a good reminder that you don’t have to be boozy or sickly sweet to advertise your product during December. Some people could go for something a bit lighter, and that’s where the Almond Cow comes in.
…and there’s a lot more data where that came from. If you like our Weekly Top 5, you’ll love everything else Gospel has to offer. Start with our newly released YouTube 2025 Sponsorship Landscape Report, which you can download right here.
