What do you do when you have a whole weekend of football to broadcast, but YouTube TV is playing hardball with your carriage rights? If you’re Disney, the parent company of ESPN, you bring out the punter.
In this case, the punter in question is Pat McAfee, the longtime Indianapolis Colts special teamer who has since become a football pundit, a podcaster, and a popular creator on social media. After Disney and YouTube failed to reach an agreement on new carriage terms, the Mouse House brought the weekly pregame show College Gameday to McAfee’s X account, and the results were more extraordinary than a perfectly executed coffin corner kick.
According to Awful Announcing, McAfee’s Gameday stream drew 1.18 million unique viewers while tallying 1.37 million aggregate views and generating over 1.3 million minutes of watch time. McAfee, who joined the Gameday crew as part of a 2023 deal with ESPN, took a moment on his eponymous show to thank ESPN for the opportunity to stream such a notable program on his X account.
ESPN higher-ups have described McAfee as a “weapon” who can add a new dimension to the Gameday crew, and his X stream of the program explains why he’s such an X-factor for his employer. He doesn’t just reach Gen Z viewers with his youthful antics and his outsized presence on platforms like YouTube — he also opens the door to new distribution strategies and out-of-the-box ideas that give Disney leverage amid disputes like the YouTube TV feud.
McAfee’s strong showing on X isn’t just a boon for ESPN. He also provided a compelling case study that X can point to as the-platform-formerly-known-as-Twitter looks to level up its live streaming capabilities.
Disney might have more opportunities to try out offbeat strategies like this one, because the YouTube TV carriage dispute doesn’t seem as if it will be settled anytime soon. Disney thinks that YouTube is out to “eliminate competition,” while the latter tech giant claims that it only wants a “fair deal.”
If you want McAfee’s take on the whole situation, well, you should know that his opinions have gotten him into trouble in the past. In this case, however, his opinion is a simple one: He just wants everyone to kiss and make up.
After previously experimenting with pop-up storefronts, Meta has now opened up a business it describes as its “flagship retail space.” At the Meta Lab, located in the West Hollywood neighborhood of Los Angeles, visitors can peruse Meta’s line of VR headsets as well as other wearable devices, including the tech giant’s various styles of smart glasses.
With its push into the world of physical retail, Meta is answering a burning question: What can be done about the giant hole Reality Labs has burned in Meta’s wallet? After its wearable tech division lost $4.4 billion during the third quarter of 2025, Meta is looking for any solution that can juice Quest headset sales.
One of the factors informing that rebound is exclusive content. With VR releases from big names like James Cameron and Racka Racka, Meta hopes to convince consumers to splurge for a Quest device.
But exclusives can only get you so far, so Meta is also expanding the scope of its investment in wearables. Mark Zuckerberg’s Silicon Valley titan doesn’t just want to make powerful pieces of consumer tech — it wants to make advanced devices that feel stylish and cool. Smart glasses inspired by iconic brands like Ray-Ban and Oakley have not only hit the market, but have also enjoyed sustained praise as they head into their second-generation lines.
The Meta Lab is meant to look cool, too. With its sleek, minimalist architecture, the retail space feels like Zuckerberg’s answer to the iconic Apple Store. Once the stylish look gets visitors through the door, the versatility and technological prowess of Meta’s wearables will keep them shopping.
“Glasses are the ideal form factor for both AI and the metaverse. They enable you to let an AI see what you see, hear what you hear, and talk to you throughout the day,” Zuckerberg said during Meta’s earnings call. “And they let you blend the physical and digital worlds together with holograms.”
Can those awe-inspiring advancements turn the Meta Lab into a land of wonder and astonishment? If you want to test out the location for yourself, you can pay Meta a visit the next time you find yourself in WeHo.
Filed under: Articles, Featured, Homepage Feature, News by Sam Gutelle Comments Off on Meta expands retail footprint with flagship L.A. storefront full of wearable tech and VR devices
It’s a ritual as old as TV: A potential showrunner pitches their idea to a network. If execs like it, it gets greenlit–and the creator gets cash and production resources to make their project a reality.
Digital content creators don’t really have their own version of this pipeline. They did once, with YouTube Red, and they still can be picked up by streamers like Netflix or do a deal with companies like Spotter, where they license their back catalogs in exchange for a lump sum of liquid capital. But when it comes to making YouTube or TikTok videos, creators–especially up-and-coming creators–usually have to self-finance upfront.
The latest contest comes from camera company Canon. The Canon First Cut Contest calls on digital creators to pitch their dream idea in a video up to three minutes long–and those videos will be judged by a panel of top creators, including Colin & Samir, Josh Richards, Michelle Khare, and Rory Kramer.
“We want to see your best pitch for your dream project. Create a video–whether it’s a trailer, proof-of-concept film, pilot episode, sizzle reel, or anything else your imagination dreams up,” Canon says. “Make sure you show us your storytelling skills and cinematic vision on screen. Skip direct-to-camera or talking-head-style pitches that just tell us what you have in mind.”
Creators should post their videos to YouTube, TikTok, and/or Instagram by 11:59 p.m. EST Nov. 21, and tag @canonusa with the hashtag #canonfirstcutcontest.
From there, entries will be winnowed down to just 12 videos. Each of the 12 finalists will be flown to Los Angeles for a screening and given what Canon calls the “ultimate creator kit”–an EOS R50 V camera and an RF-S14-30mm F4-6.3 IS STM PZ lens.
In LA, finalists will be hosted by creators Alisha Marie and Zane Hijazi, and will get to see their entries screened for judges.
Judges will select four grand prize winners, each of whom will get $25K and an hour of “one-on-one mentorship with one of our judges” to develop their idea further.
Interested creators can submit an entry form here (don’t forget to also post your video!).
Filed under: Homepage Feature by James Hale Comments Off on Canon’s $100,000 dream project contest taps Colin & Samir, Josh Richards, Michelle Khare, and Rory Kramer to judge
Billboardrecently published an article detailing the rise of AI-generated performers within the publication’s weekly music charts. Four genAI artists recently debuted on various Billboard rankings.
That vanguard is led by Xania Monet, a manufactured R&B singer created by designer Telisha “Nikki” Jones. The Mississippi native created Monet to turn her poetry into song, and the AI vocalist has since become the first known AI artist to get enough radio airplay to reach a Billboard radio chart, according to the publication. Monet reached #30 on the Adult R&B Airplay chart for the week of November 11.
Monet’s sudden success led to a fierce bidding war among recording industry execs who were eager to sign the AI act to their respective labels. Neil Jacobson’s Hallwood Media earned that privilege after paying a reported $3 million.
Despite receiving scorn from many working musicians and actors, AI artists are becoming more common within the world of mainstream entertainment. The team behind the agency Xicoia made a splash when it announced its plan to represent “hyperreal digital stars,” including the actor Tilly Norwood.
That move drew backlash in Hollywood, where — like in the music biz — many creative professionals see AI-generated characters as harmful creations that stand to usurp flesh-and-blood entertainers. On the other hand, some musicians prefer to see generative AI as a tool that can enhance musical composition and performance, just like a traditional instrument.
Here’s one thing that feels pretty certain: So long as AI artists are allowed to continue promoting themselves, they are virtual locks to carve out space on the Billboard charts. For more than a decade, those rankings have been weighted to incorporate traffic on platforms like YouTube, a policy that has turned viral ditties like the “Harlem Shake” and “Baby Shark” into chart-toppers. As AI-generated content claims territory among YouTube’s most-watched channels, it will surge in Billboard‘s accounting as well.
Billboard continually monkeys with its formula for incorporating YouTube views. Even with some updates, we can expect social video to continue influencing the music industry’s most notable rankings, which means that AI artists will continue to show up, too. If you want my personal feelings about that trend, here they are: If T-Pain can autotune his way to #1 with “Buy U A Drank,” then there’s room on the charts for Xania Monet.
Digital content platforms wouldn’t be possible–or profitable–without creators. Platforms know this, and in a few standout cases (like the talent-signing scramble after Ninja left Twitch for the ill-fated Mixer) we’ve seen just how far they’ll go to charm creators who pull big views and big ad revenue.
But there are also the little things platforms do to constantly remind successful creators that it wants them there. For over a decade, the undisputed king of creator recognition has been YouTube, which sends out plaques when creators reach various impressive subscriber milestones.
Spotify (which is heavily competing with YouTube in the video podcast space) recently copycatted the plaque idea–and then, last month, Instagram introduced its own unique take on creator nods: awarding golden rings (both IRL and on chosen creators’ profiles) to standout creators selected by a panel of professional creatives from across industries. However, as we wrote previously, most of the first 25 Rings winners were people who’ve made their names in careers outside of digital content creation–athletes, actors, singers, comedians, and traditional artists like photographers and illustrators, some of whom built their careers before Instagram was even a thing.
Creators on TikTok are about to have a different experience: The short-form platform announced this week that it’s launching the first-ever TikTok Awards show in the U.S.
Taking place Dec. 18 at the Hollywood Paladium in Los Angeles, the TikTok Awards will have a theme of “New Era, New Icons,” and will recognize creators across 13 categories, including Creator of the Year, Video of the Year, Storyteller of the Year, and the TikTok For Good Award (which gives a nod to humanitarian/educational efforts).
If this all sounds familiar, it’s because TikTok held creator awards shows in 21 regions last year. This is just the first time the awards are coming stateside.
“The trophies presented on stage will beam a colorful glow upon the creators defining this new era of culture encompassing many areas, including fashion, beauty, sports, TV and film, and new forms of entertainment,” TikTok said in a statement.
As you probably know, the creator industry has a small number of awards shows already, including our own long-running Streamy Awards, so we’re curious to see how this show sets itself apart–and how it’s received by TikTok’s young audience base. (It is nice to see a platform pioneer its own show instead of begging the Emmys year after year to let it in, unlike a certain other video destination.)
One thing we see off the bat is the presence of TikTok’s ecommerce ambitions: It’s handing out an award called “Immediately Added To Cart” that’s sponsored by TikTok Shop; a second award, Rising Star of the Year, is sponsored by top-dollar Shop seller e.l.f. Cosmetics (which is also the presenting sponsor for the entire show). TikTok’s hyping its own editing software as well, giving out a “CapCut Award,” presumably for stylish post-production.
But this show is also about what viewers want. They’ll play a key part in selecting winners, with public voting opening Nov. 18 and closing Dec. 5.
Folks who want to tune in can see the show streamed Dec. 18 on TikTok’s app and on Tubi.
Here’s the full list of categories and nominees:
Creator of the Year
Adam W (adamw)
Alix Earle (alixearle)
Brooke Monk (brookemonk_)
Keith Lee (keith_lee125)
Kristy Sarah (kristy.sarah)
Video of the Year
Bretman Rock (bretmanrock)
Chris Finck (chrisandfinck)
Ron Clark (ronclark__)
Taylor Timinskas (taylortiminskas)
TurkuazKitchen (turkuazkitchen)
Rising Star of the Year (sponsored by e.l.f. cosmetics)
Caleb Hearon (calebsaysthings)
Drewkey5000 (drewkey5000)
Jeremiah Brown (findjeremiah)
Eddy Nieblas (soyeddynieblas)
Sydney Jo (thatgirlsydjo)
Breakthrough Artist of the Year
Alex Warren (alexwarren)
Katseye (katseyeworld)
Laufey (laufey)
Ravyn Lenae (ravynlenae)
Sombr (sombr)
Storyteller of the Year
Jordan Howlett (jordan_the_stallion8)
Katie Van Slyke (katievanslyke)
Logan (logagm)
The Lawn Tools (thelawntools)
Tineke Younger (tinekeyounger)
TikTok For Good Award
Alexis Nikole (alexisnikole)
Cybersecurity Girl (cybersecuritygirl)
Sam Hyun (samueljhyun)
Sasha Hamdani, MD (thepsychdoctormd)
Zach and Pat Valentine (valentinebrothers)
My Show is On Award (Film & TV)
Monse (cvnela)
Dayane Chrissel (dayanechrissel)
Reece Feldman (guywithamoviecamera)
Just The Nobodys (justthenobodys)
Matt Ramos (supes)
MVP of the Year (Sports)
Brittany Wilson Isenhour (brittany1wilson)
Mariah Rose (mariahcrose)
Matt Kiatipis (mkiatipis)
Mo Ali FC (moalifc)
Okay Slay Award (Fashion/Beauty)
Glamzilla (glamzilla)
Katie Fang (katiefanggg)
Meredith Duxbury (meredithduxbury)
Wisdom Kaye (wisdm8)
Immediately Added To Cart Award (presented by TikTok Shop)
Mark Rober wants to use his specific set of skills to make educational material more palatable for today’s students. During an appearance on Tubefilter‘s Creator Upload podcast, Rober discussed his plan to put together a science curriculum that will be distributed for free to classrooms.
Rober told Creator Upload hosts Lauren Schnipper and Josh Cohen about his effort to shift his focus and resources toward initiatives that benefit society as a whole. That mindset has extended to Rober’s work with his science kit brand CrunchLabs, which now includes enriching summer camp programs and educational material made and presented through Roblox.
To help educators benefit from his mission, Rober is bringing his academic knowledge into schools. The engineer-turned-creator projected that it will take his team about three years to compile a science curriculum appropriate for students between third and eighth grades. When that material eventually arrives (at an estimated cost of $55 million) it will be a free resource for flustered teachers who are struggling to adapt to challenging classroom environments.
“These poor teachers, they actually pay money for content that’s not good, and they’re paying their own money,” Rober said. “We’re just going to put [our curriculum] out there. I think it’s the most important thing I’ll do in my whole life.”
To achieve his goal of making the curriculum entertaining as well as informative (or “hiding the vegetables, as he put it), Rober will deploy “all the tricks we learn on YouTube” while also calling in some special guests. He cited Cristiano Ronaldo and MrBeast as two big names who will appear alongside Rober in his classroom content.
Rober is not the first creator to understand that his professional skills have enormous potential in the classroom. If today’s kids learn better from brainrot than from traditional materials, then experienced entertainers can make a difference by commanding attention in the classroom. That’s how Arizona State University ended up teaming up with Crash Course to bring YouTube-style videos into syllabi.
Colleges and universities have taken notice of the creator economy, with schools like Syracuse and East Carolina launching programs for aspiring influencers. Rober is showing that such an investment can eventually make its way back to classrooms, where overstimulated students can learn in a way that better suits their needs.
Filed under: Articles, Educational, Featured, Homepage Feature, News by Sam Gutelle Comments Off on Mark Rober is creating a science curriculum for schools, and he’ll give it to teachers for free
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.
This week, we’ve got the usual right next to the unusual: MrBeast in the #1 spot (and the #2 spot), but Jesser coming in third with a sponsor we don’t typically see. Follow that up with Mrwhosetheboss getting things rich, and as for the closer? You’ll just have to wait and see.
Check out the top 5 videos in our latest Gospel Stats Weekly Brand Report right here:
MrBeast is known for his attention-grabbing, algorithm-pleasing video ideas (and his particular style of thumbnails), but you’ve gotta admit one thing: When he says he’s going to be charitable, he is going to be charitable. In this video sponsored by Lowe’s, he worked with nearly 20 different rescues, sanctuaries, and conservation organizations to help save 1,000 animals from disease, territory overcrowding, and more.
We’ve gotten used to seeing MrBeast’s videos sponsored by his candy company Feastables, but this vid makes it clear he’s still teaming up with big brands. That being said…
…he is still sponsored by Feastables this week, over on his secondary channel MrBeast 2.
As we’ve written previously, Feastables is expanding a lot this year, and its latest product rivals the classic Reese’s Halloween treat: a chocolate peanut butter pumpkin. In true MrBeast fashion, his gang marks the occasion by getting together to carve up a 2,000-pound pumpkin. We get the whimsy, the art, the vision, but…that thing could’ve made so many pies. RIP. (Yes, thanks for asking, we are already dreaming about Thanksgiving.)
As usual, MrBeast is the only one sponsored by Feastables, but we’re wondering if that will change now that we’re shifting into the biggest buying season of the year…
It’s not often that we see television networks sponsoring digital content, but Jesser has managed to pull just such a deal. This NBA2K enthusiast turned top sports YouTuber has seen major growth over the past couple years. He’s basically become an ambassador for basketball on the internet, and it’s clear the big guys are taking notice.
His video this week is sponsored by NBC, which has exclusive rights to air NBA games on TV and on its streaming service Peacock. Like many other top sponsored videos in recent months, Jesser’s is a Short, and is focused entirely on his brand partner–in this case, with our host attempting to sink increasingly difficult baskets while telling viewers where they should catch the next NBA matchup.
Jesser is the only creator to score an NBC partnership, but we’re curious if the network will expand its digital marketing based on this impressive (~12 million views!) viewer response.
The internet has coined a wonderful saying: “If I won the lottery, I wouldn’t tell anyone, but there would be signs.” Well, if I won the lottery, this video would be my sign. Like (I’m assuming) many people, I’m content with whatever phone my carrier will give me for free, some $30 earbuds, and a dollar store charge cord. If I won the big bucks, though? I might snap up some of the tech Mrwhosetheboss uses in this video.
He tries nearly $300,000 worth of products that weren’t made for us grubby-handed peasants, but for the uber rich. Are these products always practical? Not necessarily. Are they always beautiful? Mostly! But what about the biggest question of all: Are they always better?
That’s where Mrwhosetheboss’s sponsor Anker comes in. Anker sells power banks, chargers, and pretty much every other mobile accessory you can think of, and its placement within Mrwhosetheboss’s video is very smart. He tries out the shiny luxury gadgets for viewers to get a little secondhand tech-head euphoria, but then also puts those products up for a performance test against Anker’s much (much, much, much) cheaper offerings.
So…which is better? You’ll have to see for yourself.
Our man Sam Gutelle did a great job chronicling the controversy of Shane Dawson, so we won’t rehash it here. What drew us to this video is not necessarily that Dawson is in it, but that he’s in it with another restaurant conspiracy. I think we can all agree it was simpler times back in 2019, when Dawson lit up the ‘net with an allegation that Chuck E. Cheese “recycles” uneaten slices of pizza by reassembling them, Victor Frankenstein style, into a new pie that’s sent out to unsuspecting customers.
And this video (where Dawson appears on husband Ryland Adams‘ multi-brand-sponsored podcast The Sip with Ryland Adams and Lizze Gordon) brought us back to those simpler times. For a moment, we time-traveled back to a day where this was the most-argued-about thing online. Ah, nostalgia.
Anyway, the current conspiracy du jour is whether Arby‘s is 3D printing its new steak nuggest. The world has changed too much for us to experience the thrilling intrigue Chuck E. Cheese once gave, but hey…it’s something.
…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.
Filed under: Articles, Brands, Featured, Homepage Feature, News by James Hale Comments Off on Top 5 Branded Videos of the Week: MrBeast, Mrwhosetheboss, and some 3D-printed nuggs
If you want to rock some cool items while playing your favorite video game, but you don’t want to actually play the game to unlock those cosmetics, Kick has a proposal for you: Watch your favorite streamers, and you can earn in-game rewards just by tuning in.
That’s the gist of Kick Drops, an on-platform function expected to launch on November 13. Drops rewards users who watch streams of particular games for a certain amount of time. The first game to offer Drops to Kick denizens is Rust, a survival game with a strong following on Steam. Beginning on the 13th, Rust‘s audience of Kick viewers will have access to exclusive skins and items, including the Kick–themed Hazmat suit pictured above.
Streaming mega-star xQc helped Kick announce Drops by dressing in the green Hazmat suit during an introductory event at the DreamHack Atlanta convention. “Drops marks a pivotal step in bridging gameplay and livestreaming on Kick — fueling a more interactive, rewarding, and connected experience for creators, brands, and audiences,” said Kick Head of Operations Ryan Webb. “This Rust drop is just the beginning.”
Kick isn’t the first platform setting up this type of system. On Twitch, viewers have been claiming Drops for more than a decade, and Discord has gotten in on the fun with its Quests. So in one sense, Kick is playing the copycat with its latest announcement.
Now Kick is showing that it has something to offer developers, too. The platform worked with Rust dev Facepunch Studios to bring its first Drops campaign to life, and in a press release, the company noted that publishers can benefit from a “highly effective channel for launching new content, driving sales, and encouraging long-term player retention by distributing rare digital assets.”
Kick Drops figures to be a win-win-win, so long as the titular platform can keep its new feature under control. Twitch’s Drops system has been abused in the past, so if Kick is going to avoid that issue, it needs to make sure it has its growing community under control.
[Editor’s Note: Tubefilter Charts is a weekly rankings column from Tubefilter with data provided by GospelStats. It’s exactly what it sounds like; a top number ranking of YouTube channels based on statistics collected within a given time frame. Check out all of our Tubefilter Charts with new installments every week right here.]
Scroll down for this week’s Tubefilter Chart. 👇
A well-known family channel squeaked past the competition to tie MrBeast at the top of the Global Sub Top 50 ranking. Vlad and Niki is in the driver’s seat and now has more than 147 million subscribers in all.
The channels populating the first Global Sub Top 50 of November all earned at least 250,000 new subscribers during the seven-day period that included Halloween weekend. Those numbers may seem downright spooky, but depending on your point of view, the scariest part of this chart may be the influence of generative AI.
Not all AI content on YouTube Shorts is slop
Sure, most of it might be, but as the calendar turned from October to November, we saw a rare exception to that rule. AI Jesus, meet AI fighter jets.
The company developing a new-and-improved class of unmanned fighter is Shield AI, and its name does a pretty good job of explaining what it’s all about. The aerospace and defense firm is applying artificial intelligence models to military weaponry to build the arms of the 21st century. That may sound a bit like Stark Industries, and sure enough, Shield AI has a YouTube audience that’s capable of matching the latest superhero movie.
During our most recent seven-day measurement period, Shield AI added 441,000 new subscribers, pushing its lifetime total into seven digits. While most of our chart entrants thrive on Shorts, Shield AI’s biggest view count has come on a long-form video: The company has picked up 13.8 million views on an introductory clip that shows off the capabilities of its AI-powered fighter.
Of course, this is YouTube we’re talking about, and if Shield AI wants to stick around in the charts, it will need to embrace Shorts at some point. That transition has already begun. Through brief vertical videos, Shield AI can show footage of its technology in action.
Even if Shield AI had no use case for short-form video, it would still want to have a presence on YouTube’s TikTok rival. AI is such a powerful buzzword on Shorts that channels can get millions of views by invoking it. That’s what Shield AI is already finding with its early forays into the world of vertical feeds.
On Shorts, Shield AI will have to contend with the most brazen foe of them all: Slop. Channels that post AI-generated content, such as JoyToons, can reach millions of viewers while requiring only a fraction of the investment that would be required to build a single automated fighter jet.
Slop doesn’t seem like Shield AI’s game, but the firm can still make use of the AI boom while it’s still active. They say that a rising tide lifts all boats, which means that even the most sophisticated use of AI can benefit from association with silly slop videos like that one.
Channel Distribution
Here’s a breakdown of the Top 50 Most Viewed channels this week in terms of their countries of origin:
United States: 18
India: 9
South Korea: 3
Indonesia, Russia, and Spain: 2
Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Egypt, Hong Kong, Japan, Mexico, Pakistan, and South Korea: 1
This week, 37 channels in the Top 50 are primarily active on YouTube Shorts.
As always, keep up to speed with the latest Tubefilter Charts and all our news by subscribing to our newsletter. You’re going to love it. 👉 Newsletter.Tubefilter.com.
[Editor’s Note: Tubefilter Charts is a weekly rankings column from Tubefilter with data provided by GospelStats. It’s exactly what it sounds like; a top number ranking of YouTube channels based on statistics collected within a given time frame. Check out all of our Tubefilter Charts with new installments every week right here.]
Scroll down for this week’s Tubefilter Chart. 👇
The calendar changed from October to November, but the leader of the Global Top 50 chart stayed the same. Double Date, an Australian couple channel that got more than 1.9 billion weekly views, is still the most-watched channel among all active YouTube hubs.
The benchmark for entry into the ranking continues to rise. This week, channels needed at least 336 million weekly views to break into the Top 50. Here’s how YouTube’s standouts reached that mark:
Want viewers to watch your long-form videos? Just play Roblox.
When I peruse the ranks of short-form superstars in search of channels to feature in this column, one audience growth strategy seems to be most common: Channels attract viewers through a simple call-to-action — usually one that includes buzzwords like “oddly satisfying” or, lately, “Kpop Demon Hunters” — and then keep the new fans around with more relevant content. That’s how companies like ElaFrame have turned oddly satisfying Shorts into free marketing material.
The initial call to action can be based around almost anything, from a “happy family” to a “cool gadget.” In the case of the #37 channel in this week’s Global Top 50, Roblox is the draw that turns heads.
The creator in question goes by the name FishCat, though her channel in the Global Top 50 is titled Catfish Blox. That hub is fairly typical as far as Top 50 gaming destinations are concerned: Its short-form library collects millions of views per day (and 374.1 million weekly views in our latest count) by delivering quick hits of pixelated entertainment. Some contact with Gen Alpha memes is present (hello, Italian brainrot), though viewers seem to be most entertained by the bases FishCat designs for herself.
Where things get really interesting in on the Catfish Blox homepage. That’s where FishCat links to her main channel, which she implores fans to “pls watch.” It seems like it’s harder for FishCat to get eyes on her long-form Roblox content, but that’s where she wants her audience to be, so she’s increasing her Shorts activity to indirectly draw attention to her longer work.
In the case of FishCat, there is continuity between the long-form and short-form hubs: Both offer Roblox gameplay. One could imagine, though, that a short-form Roblox hub could be linked to a completely different long-form destination. Were that to happen, Roblox would become the next oddly satisfying or Italian brainrot: A short-form cheat code that can even extend to other formats.
Roblox certainly has the community to make that shift work. Channels like Rumi Blox have been surging over the past month, suggesting that Roblox’s ten digits of 2025 payouts are just the beginning.
Data via Gospel Stats
I would prefer to keep the Roblox content on the Roblox channels, and vice versa. But if YouTube is going to tip the scales to favor short-form hubs, I won’t be surprised if creators turn their Shorts channels into glorified marketing engines.
Channel Distribution
Here’s a breakdown of the Top 50 Most Viewed channels this week in terms of their countries of origin:
India: 22
United States: 10
Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, Pakistan, and South Korea: 2
Brazil, China, Egypt, Germany, Indonesia, Taiwan, Türkiye, and Vietnam: 1
This week, 41 channels in the Top 50 are primarily active on YouTube Shorts.
As always, keep up to speed with the latest Tubefilter Charts and all our news by subscribing to our newsletter. You’re going to love it. 👉 Newsletter.Tubefilter.com.
I’ve spent years watching how fans move culture. Whether it’s hip-hop heads selling taped freestyles off mixshows, music nerds blowing up message boards with debates, or UPROXXleveraging social media to help artists break through on platforms, the same rule always applies: Tapping the power of real fans will carry you further than just shouting at everyone at once.
Here’s where we as marketers need to start: The burden is on us to step into fans’ worlds, not the other way around. The most powerful cultural moments now come from meeting fans where they already are–whether it’s Cardi B turning the New York subway into a promo channel or Daft Punk re-emerging inside Fortnite.
Why This Moment Matters
Fans run culture now. They don’t wait for anyone to tell them what’s cool — they decide it in real time. They clip, share, and remix faster than any algorithm can predict. We can see who shows up, what they care about, how they spend, even what they snack on. That’s why “meeting fans where they are” isn’t just smart. It’s the only move left.
Cardi B Textbook Album Release Built for 2025
Cardi B’s latest album release looked like a throwback with a 2025 twist — a full-court media blitz done entirely her way:
Back to her roots: Voiced NYC subway announcements, turning commutes into album promotion.
Massive stunt: Staged a Guinness World Record drop at Walmart with drones releasing her record.
Guerrilla moment: Walked Manhattan streets selling CDs and vinyl by hand — a literal street team.
Tour announcement: Capped it off with a full concert tour.
Viral marketing: Turned memes from her court appearance into album cover art sold on her site.
The results were staggering: +1,306% daily U.S. channel-view growth, +484% YouTube views, and 1.8 million new TikTok followers. By the time the music hit, fans had been seeing her everywhere. They were primed. All they had to do was press play.
Daft Punk × Fortnite: Music’s Power to Bridge Generations
Daft Punk proved that the same rule applies in virtual spaces.
Their Fortnite experience wasn’t a concert — it was an interactive world. It blurred nostalgia and discovery in real time, proving that music still connects generations better than any algorithm ever could.
For longtime fans, it was closure — a final encore after years of silence. For Gen Z, it was Discovery (pun intended): a cinematic first encounter with one of music’s most innovative acts.
The impact was immediate:
🎧 +25.9% Spotify listener growth (25.1 M monthly)
▶️ +41% YouTube lift (73 M + in September)
💬 +84% TikTok likes (8.3 M total)
🔍 +312% Google searches — their biggest spike in a decade
But the real story wasn’t in the data — it was in the emotion. (Yes, another pun.) Fans called the event “a perfect final concert,” a global-yet-personal goodbye. Parents who grew up on Homework and Discovery logged on with their kids, who were hearing Daft Punk for the first time.
It’s no coincidence they partnered with Epic. Daft Punk fans over-index 2.26× for gaming, with affinities that map to modern fandom: Nintendo, Marvel, PlayStation, Star Wars, DC, art & design, and film.
They understood what so many artists miss — that music today isn’t just heard, it’s experienced.
Brands Are Learning the Same Lesson
This isn’t just about artists. Brands are realizing that the most powerful move is to step directly into fan culture.
Take UPROXX × Sparkling Ice’s Sparkling Sessions. From the Coachella desert to the Manhattan skyline, we’ve created can’t-miss nights of music, culture, and signature cocktails.
This past week, our Sparkling Sessions 2.0 tour touched down in Austin during ACL — the live-music capital of the world — with headliner Adrien Nunez, whose breakout hit “Low Road” is redefining country. Fans packed into the Austin club for a day that blurred the lines between concert and community — sipping custom cocktails, grabbing exclusive merch, and dancing to surprise DJ sets.
It wasn’t another branded event. It was a fan-built experience, a moment people lined up around the block to be part of.
The takeaway is simple: music and artists aren’t just part of culture — they’re the center of it.
We already know who shows up to a concert before the first note plays. The data tells us the age, habits, and lifestyle signals. The same is true for videos, streams, and shorts — the audience profile is already mapped.
That’s why the smartest brands don’t treat fandom as a gamble. They treat it as infrastructure.
If you want to reach people — in person or digitally — start with the artist. Because fans aren’t just gathered around the music; they are the distribution system that carries it everywhere else.
When you meet them where they are, you’re not just showing up in the culture — you’re part of the reason it moves.
Filed under: Homepage Feature by Jarret Myer Comments Off on The Next Wave of Fandom: Meeting Fans Where They Are
Podcasts are forecast to command nearly $2.5 billion in ad revenue this year–but podcast advertising agency Oxford Road says that number could be nearly $1 billion higher if podcasts were better about giving brands standardized ROI measurements.
That number comes from Oxford Road’s Chief Audio Officer Summit, held in SoCal this past July. For that summit, it gathered 75 people it calls “brand decision makers” (including “six of the top 10 spenders in podcasting”) to hear from podcast creators and strategists. During the event, Oxford Road asked those decision-makers what key issues they’re facing in the podcasting world, and why they aren’t investing more money to reach podcast listeners.
The results? A full half of respondents said their brands are holding back on buying podcast ads because of “limitations in performance data.” 71% of respondents said that current measurement tools available for podcasts are less useful than tools available for other channels.
As The Hollywood Reporterlays out, podcast advertising has undergone several morphs during the COVID listening boom. Originally, podcasts relied on affiliate marketing via promo codes, and those make it easy to see exactly how many listeners are purchasing products after the show (unless Honey is involved…). In recent years, brands have been able to track podcast ad engagement and sell-through with things like ‘pixels’ (aka little bits of transparent code) and URLs embedded in a podcast’s RSS feed.
“Now you’ve got one show on three different players that are all doing different ways of measurement, and some of those are not compatible with pixels, and so there’s a lot of chaos, and advertisers are trying to catch up with that and triangulate,” Dan Granger, Oxford Road’s CEO, told THR.
Respondents at Oxford Road’s summit cited video podcasts as being particularly difficult re: measuring success. “76% of brands would increase their podcast investment if attribution for YouTube podcasts matched that available for audio,” Oxford said in its What Brands Want 2025 report. “Nearly a quarter would grow spend by 50% or more.”
Video podcasts have one more sticking point for brands, too. Over half of respondents said they struggle to find a universally accepted definition for “podcast” now that players like YouTube and Spotify are proliferating video content alongside the standard audio-only shows.
“55% said a consistent definition of ‘podcast’ is important, given growing confusion across audio, video, influencer, and YouTube teams, and challenges with budget allocation, channel management, and attribution,” Oxford reported.
The solution here is standardization.
“I think that what’s going to be necessary is for the players to move toward each other and agree on standards and practices, so that the data that I get out of the RSS distribution, fundamentally, is the same and looks the same as what I get from Spotify and from YouTube,” Granger explained.
That being said, it is apparently still possible to track podcast ad performance based on hard sales data–and Oxford Road spent 12 months gathering that data to release its first official list of the ORBIT Top 15 Podcasts Measured by Ad Performance. ORBIT stands for the Oxford Road Benchmark Intelligence Tool, which Oxford Road says “measures actual customer acquisition costs, return on ad spend, and sales results from real campaigns.”
“Podscribe can tell you who’s advertising. Magellan can estimate spend,” Granger said in a statement. “ORBIT shows you which shows made money and which ones lost it. We factor in what advertisers paid, what they were trying to achieve, and whether the investment paid off. That’s the difference between counting impressions and measuring profit.”
Based on ORBIT’s data, Oxford Road found that Dungeons & Dragons sensation Critical Roleis the #1 top-performing podcast in the world, in terms of converting listeners into customers for brand partners.
Intriguingly, shows like The Joe Rogan Experience and Call Her Daddy, which have dominated podcast listening charts for years and regularly make headlines with splashy guests, are completely absent from Oxford Road’s top 15. This indicates brands “systematically overpay for household names while smaller shows deliver better returns,” Oxford Road said.
Here’s the full list:
Critical Role
The David Pakman Show
The Megyn Kelly Show
Monday Morning Podcast
Lenny’s Podcast: Product | Career | Growth
Unsubscribe Podcast
Explain It To Me
The Bulwark Podcast
Lore
Start Scrutiny
Emergency Intercom
The Salem Tovar Podcast
Sweet N Sour Podcast
The Toast
Soder
Oxford Road says it plans to release a new list of peak ROI shows monthly, and also plans to release other categories of lists, including marking shows by “genre-specific performance, international markets, emerging shows, and vertical-specific results.”
Will Oxford Road’s reports and lists convince brands to spend more money on podcasts? Maybe. It’s worth noting this data is all from Oxford Road and has not been independently/externally verified, so until there’s some wider confirmation, brands may be hesitant to jump.
For now, though, it’s clear the podcast industry needs an agreed-upon way to measure how ads perform. Anyone up for relitigating the definition of “a view”?
Filed under: Homepage Feature, Podcasts by James Hale Comments Off on Podcasts are selling products, but some brands are still holding back (to the tune of $1 billion)
