Here at Tubefilter, we’ve written plenty about how video-focused creators like YouTubers, TikTokers, and more are snagging movie deals as Hollywood increasingly looks online for its next pool of talent. But there are other kinds of digital content creators who are also being tapped for their talent.
Netflix has signed on to produce a live-action adaptation of fantasy webnovel, webtoon, and anime Solo Leveling, from South Korean author Chugong. The story follows Sung Jin-woo, who was born into an MMORPG-inspired world where human Hunters band together and use their supernatural abilities to take down invading monsters. Jin-woo is a notorious noob, having been born with painfully weak stats, but after he survives a difficult dungeon that wiped the rest of his party, the enigmatic System chooses him as the only Hunter who can level up his abilities through combat. As the deeper plot unfolds, Jin-woo becomes a one-man force keeping monsters from overwhelming his fellow humans.
Solo Leveling is one of the internet’s most popular webnovels, having been read over 14 billion times on South Korean website KakaoPage. In 2018, it was adapted to a webtoon illustrated by Jang Sung-rak and also published on KakaoPage; then, in 2024, A-1 Pictures released an anime adaptation that went on to sweep the 2025 Crunchyroll Anime Awards. It won nine trophies, including Anime of the Year and Best Action.
“The upcoming live-action series adaptation promises to feature vivid characters, dynamic action sequences, and exhilarating quests, brought to life by a world-class global VFX team,” Netflix said in a press release. “The series will also introduce viewers to fantastical dungeons and uniquely powerful monsters, setting a new standard for live-action adaptations.”
Netflix has already found a lead for the show: Byeon Woo-seok, a South Korean model and actor known for his roles in romance movie 20th Century Girl and Netflix-produced K-pop K-drama Lovely Runner.
With Solo Leveling, Netflix has the chance to charm a sizable, dedicated fandom. It’s had success wooing webcomic enthusiasts in the past, notably with its adaptation of Alice Oseman‘s gay romance Heartstopper. It’s also managed to charm Korean audiences with shows like Squid Game and an ever-growing catalog of K-dramas.
But we’re mainly interested because this is another example of Netflix clearly looking to online creators for its next crop of content. We knew it wanted YouTubers to come its way (despite Ted Sarandos constantly talking sh*t about their home platform…), but it’s clear webnovels and webcomics have a place there, too. inb4 Netflix teams up with Wattpad and Webtoon?
Filed under: Homepage Feature, Netflix by James Hale Comments Off on Netflix’s latest digital creator pickup is webnovel ‘Solo Leveling’
The Age of Influencers is happening in Hollywood: Some content creators are making their own films and securing theater agreements for big screen debuts; others are getting picked up for major studio deals to write and direct films like Talk to Me and the upcoming backrooms movie. And yet more are sourced for acting roles. That’s the case with Skillhouse, which released in some AMC and Regal theaters today and whose headliners are TikToker Bryce Hall and Viner-turned-Instagrammer/YouTuber/TikToker Hannah Stocking.
Filmed at the Los Angeles mansion where Hall’s TikTok group, the Sway House, lived in 2020, Skillhouse doesn’t just star influencers. It’s about them, too: Its plot follows ten content creators kidnapped by a killer who forces them to compete in social media challenges.
This is where the film’s buzzy tagline–“Clout is life”–comes into play. Because if Hall, Stockton, and their fellow captive creators don’t get enough likes and follows, it’s game over.
If you know horror movies, you won’t be surprised to hear Skillhouse was directed by one of the Sawfranchise writers, Josh Stolberg. (For the uninitiated, Skillhouse‘s storyline is very Saw-esque, with the whole kidnapping/challenge completion/axed-if-you-fail angle.)
“When you say watch a movie these days, you’re not thinking about the big screen. When my kids say ‘movie,’ it might be on their phone,” Stolberg told The Information. “There will be a much more rapid merge of this so that there’s less difference between television, movies and social media. It’s all going to come together in some way.”
But Skillhouse‘s main characters aren’t the only ones accused of being clout-chasers in this tale. The movie was produced by former Relativity Media co-founder/CEO Ryan Kavanaugh through his project GenTV, a studio and streaming platform that plans to carve its niche by making movies starring content creators. For Skillhouse, its first film, GenTV also tapped mainstream celeb 50 Cent, and has prominently marketed the film using his name and image. A pay-to-publish piece at USA Today, for example, said that together, Kavanaugh and 50 Cent used Skillhouse to “set a new standard for how stories can be told and consumed.”
50 Cent doesn’t seem to agree. In April, he filed a $5 million suit against GenTV, saying he never signed a contract to appear in the film, was never paid for his work, and that by releasing Skillhouse, GenTV is infringing on his trademark and engaging in unfair competition against his own streaming service, 50 Cent Action.
The suit alleges GenTV “plan[s] not only to steal [50 Cent’s] reputation and goodwill amongst his millions of fans to boost their own film, but also to use that film to unfairly compete with [his] other business ventures.”
“Obviously,” it added, “Jackson never would have agreed to allow his intellectual property to be used in such a manner.”
50 Cent’s lawyer asked for a preliminary injunction to keep Skillhouse from releasing in theaters, but that request was denied. The rest of the suit is ongoing.
Hall commented on the case, claiming “we beat [50 Cent] in court” and adding that the rapper was “extremely nice” on set. “Obviously we had some bumps in the road with 50, but it was a really fun experience and I’d love to continue,” he said.
However this latest suit turns out, Skillhouse is already in theaters, and so far has two wildly divergent reviews on its Rotten Tomatoes page. One says it’s “a witty, campy and wickedly funny horror satire with its tongue placed firmly in its cheek.” The other says it’s “hard to watch it and think anything except ‘this is the worst movie ever made.'”
Ah, the dichotomy of film.
Filed under: Homepage Feature by James Hale Comments Off on A new creator horror movie hits theaters, despite lawsuit from 50 Cent
Each week, we handpick a selection of stories to give you a snapshot of trends, updates, business moves, and more from around the creator industry. This week, one creator-led gauntlet is getting the go-ahead, while another one is going under due to drama. Also, the Hawk Tuah girl is back.
Creator commotion
iShowSpeed and Jynxzi are hosting a six-figure celebrity Fortnite match. Speed took a break from his latest tour to announce a massive collab with streaming star Jynxzi. The two creators will put $100,000 on the line in a star-studded Fortnite battle royale. This isn’t the first time we’ve seen a project like this, but the star status of the two hosts could make this the biggest celebrity Fortnite match ever.
Hawk Tuah girl Hailey Welch sold her X account. The anonymous creator behind a meme page insinuated that they paid $325,000 to take over Welch’s personal X page. Hawk Tuah had a longer run than most flash-in-the-pan memes, but it seems as if Welch’s 15 minute could finally be up.
The host of a major skating channel is also a Scientology power player. Aaron Kyro’s Braille Skateboarding channel reaches nearly six million subscribers on YouTube, but his other claim to fame is more scandalous. According to The San Francisco Standard, Kyro is “SF’s most powerful Scientologist,” a distinction that has caused some turmoil for his skating brand.
Platform headlines
TikTok casts doubt on report of new U.S. app. Earlier this week, a blockbuster report claimed that TikTok is building a new, U.S.-only app called M2, which will satisfy the regulatory demands of the U.S. government. TikTok has since described the original report as “factually inaccurate,” but given the platform’s history regarding denials (and its ongoing reshuffle), I am going to take this latest claim with a grain of salt.
Telegram adds more monetization. The messaging app known for its end-to-end encryption wants to help its creators make some money. Revenue-generating features like checklists and suggested posts aim to add new revenue streams without sacrificing the high level of security Telegram users rely on.
Meta wants to amass all the best AI talent. The company formerly known as Facebook is backing a $1 million initiative that encourages U.K.-based developers to build AI-powered tools that serve the greater good. And if those tools are built using Meta’s LLaMa model, the result will be a jolt of goodwill for the platform.
Pop culture minute
Creator Clash 3 has been cancelled. The third installment of the influencer boxing event was derailed by drama involving co-founder Ian “iDubbbz” Jomha. After initially attempting to delay the fight series, the Creator Clash 3 organizers are now nixing the event, with full ticket refunds set to be issued.
Tinx is making “The Shift” to TV. The TikTok star scored an instant New York Times best-seller with The Shift, a book that invites readers to realign their perspectives on life. Now The Shift is heading to TV, with Kapital Entertainment and 3 Arts seeking a showrunner who can bring Tinx’s tale to the screen.
Michelle Khare says Emmy consideration “is a sign of a maturing industry.” In an appearance on the Digiday Podcast, the Challenge Accepted host claimed that awards consideration can be “an opportunity to attract talent who want to work on the show.” Actually winning an Emmy trophy could be Khare’s greatest challenge of all.
Movers and shakers
Lauren Glaubach is hunting partnerships for Pinterest. The digital pin board’s Chief Content Officer, Malik Ducard, has a decorated new lieutenant. Glaubach, who spent more than a decade at YouTube, has come on board as Pinterest’s VP of Global Content Partnerships. In addition, she will continue to serve as a pocket.watch board member.
Spotter’s new revenue chief is Walmart, Snap vet Jodie Stocker Kennedy. It’s a big moment for Spotter’s ad biz, and Kennedy is coming in to keep the numbers moving upward. Boosted by initiatives like the recent Spotter Showcase, the creator economy company has reported 63% year-over-year growth in its ad sales division.
Reach Agency brings in Lisa Tanner to occupy newly created role. The creator and social agency is hiring Tanner to serve as its EVP of Client Services. The plan is to scale up influencer marketing initiatives alongside brands like Unilever and Nestle.
The internet is a strange place
AI is running restaurants now. We’ve already seen artificial intelligence take over the role of the chef in some kitchens. Now AI is moving to the front of house to run a restaurant in Dubai — and it has social accounts to promote itself. The Singularity seems more imminent than ever before.
Steve-O is still doing Steve-O stuff (with help from WhistlinDiesel). Steve-O got his start on Jackass when WhistlinDiesel was just two years old. More than two decades later, the two are teaming up to try out a vehicle with triangular wheels. I can’t wait until Steve-O is 80 years old and still doing mad stuff on a regular basis.
Akon’s Wakanda-inspired city was not forever. The singer invested in a $6 billion Senegalese development inspired by Black Panther, but the local government is putting the kibosh on that plan. Maybe Akon’s next idea can be something on a boat.
Filed under: Articles, Featured, Homepage Feature, News by Sam Gutelle Comments Off on Have you heard? Speed and Jynxzi’s Fortnite tourney, TikTok’s denial, and no more Creator Clash 3
Every year, the top college football schools in the country compete against one another to recruit highly ranked prospects coming out of high school. The current college football offseason, however, is looking a little different. Athletes are still being wooed by prestigious programs, but so are creators — and EA Sports College Football 26 is the main reason why.
College Football 26, which EA released on July 10, is the latest chapter in a video game franchise that dates back to the 90s. Early installments of the series rank among the best sports video games of all time, but the gridiron simulator was forced into dormancy after courts ruled that game publishers could not include amateur athletes who were (at the time) unable to profit from depictions of their likenesses.
College Football 26 is here, so it’s time for creators to make The Decision.
EA paid out millions to athletes to license their likenesses for use in its fan-favorite franchise. But the players aren’t the only ones to benefit from this gold rush — gamers are cashing in, too.
The Athletic reported that Bordeaux, a popular College Football creator on YouTube, received personalized packages from schools that wanted him to play for their teams on his channel. The bidding environment resembled the feeding frenzy that surrounds coveted high school recruits, and the University of Nebraska ultimately reaped rewards when Bordeaux chose to play as the Cornhuskers in College Football 25.
Now, with the next chapter of the sports simulator out, Bordeaux is once again bringing back his most visible formats. He recently posted an “imperialism” video that pits college football powerhouses against one another in search of territorial expansion.
Bordeaux is one of several creators turning College Football videos into a full-time job. “It shows how deep people’s love for their team is that they were so interested in what a random guy on the internet was going to do, because it could be their team,” he told The Athletic.
Creators are the new blue turf
In 1986, Boise State University covered its football field in bright blue artificial turf. Initially, the colorful field was a mere curiosity, but then something funny happened: Boise State started winning a lot of football games. Since 1999, the Broncos have brought 16 conference championships to the Idaho capital.
The correlation between the installation of blue turf and the reversal of Boise State’s football fortunes could be a coincidence, but the unique field allowed the Broncos to stand out, both literally and figuratively. When you have one of the best attractions for football fans inside your stadium, it helps convince players to come play for a school they may have otherwise ignored.
In the 2020s, creators are doing for schools what blue turf did for Boise State in the 90s and 00s. Features from popular gamers like Bordeaux draw attention to Division I football programs, giving them an edge in the recruiting game.
It’s not just football, either
Among many other creative projects, author and Vlogbrother John Green has become a fan of English soccer club AFC Wimbledon, his go-to choice in sim games like Football Manager. Green’s Wimby affinity started in pixelated fashion, but it has since extended to the real world. After buying a sponsorship on Wimbledon uniforms and helping the club sign new players, the elder Green brother took his fandom to the next level by acquiring a minority stake in the club.
For Green, Wimbledon ownership is a fun diversion that also entertains his fans. But for the club, support from a big-name creator is crucial. As some European clubs fold due to poor financial circumstances, others are seeing celebrity affiliation as a long-term survival strategy.
Thanks to the current nature of the sports business, anyone with a significant following can become involved in real-world operations. John Green and Bordeaux are two of the first examples of that trend — but they won’t be the last.
Filed under: Articles, Featured, Homepage Feature, News, Sports by Sam Gutelle Comments Off on Thanks to ‘EA Sports College Football’, gamers are the new four-star recruits
Content producers and marketers who hope to connect with young viewers can gather insights from the many studies that characterize children’s consumption habits and preferences. With its latest report, Moonbug is asking a slightly different question: What about mom and dad?
The media company behind hit franchises like CoComelon and Blippi queried the adults in the room to compile its 2025 State of Parenthood Report. After surveying 1,000 U.S. parents who have kids under the age of 10, and conducting in-depth interviews with 15 parents, Moonbug drew a clear conclusion: Most caregivers don’t see their families accurately represented in children’s content and associated ads.
Moonbug chose to conduct its survey to highlight the gap between what parents want from family content and what those videos actually look like. “Despite all the products, platforms, and programs built ‘for families,’ parents consistently told us the same thing: ‘This isn’t made for me,'” reads the preamble to the report.
In particular, many parents feel that the kid-friendly characters portrayed on screen do not face the same challenges that affect real-life families. When asked to describe the challenges they face at home, the highest percentage of parents (47%) said that managing their children’s emotions is their biggest roadblock. And when prompted to describe their parenthood journey by giving it a job title, the most common response (21%) was “emotional support specialist.”
Many survey respondents said that available kids’ shows do not represent that tense emotional state. Only 12% of parents said that current content reflects their lived reality. 43% called for more realistic depictions of parenting struggles rather than sanitized, unrealistic portrayals. A similar percentage of respondents said they would like to see everyday challenges depicted in children’s media.
Similar gaps exist in the world of advertising. 41% of respondents — including nearly half of the surveyed moms — said they have never encountered a brand that genuinely reflects their parenting experience. 40% claimed that ads could do more to show the emotional weight and toll of parenting.
Educational value is another quality that’s underrepresented in the current children’s entertainment landscape, according to the Moonbug report. When asked how they employ screens with their kids, the largest percentage of respondents (42%) said they rely on that tech for education and cognitive development. 36% of parents reported a desire for a stronger balance between educational messaging and entertaining scenarios.
There is plenty of research to suggest that many children’s programs are failing to meet those goals. 2024 research from SRI found that many kid-friendly YouTube videos are missing characteristics that improve comprehension. “The researchers also note that the videos rarely incorporated learning into a narrative story, and only about half of the videos directly addressed the audience to encourage interaction, the way that TV shows like Blue’s Clues or Dora the Explorer do,” reads the SRI report.
Media companies that understand these persistent gaps have the potential to captivate global audiences. The parents surveyed by Moonbug said they would respond to desired content by seeking out more episodes (42%), rewatching with kids (40%), and recommending to others (40%).
Those behaviors have informed the rapid growth of Bluey, the Australian animated series that has become the top kids’ show on streaming. Bluey depicts real, flawed characters and relatable plotlines informed by honest emotion. Parents have responded to the show with a flurry of viewership — now the rest of the industry has a chance to act on families’ stated consumption preferences.
Filed under: Articles, Featured, Homepage Feature, News by Sam Gutelle Comments Off on Parents want ads that reflect “their emotional experience as a parent,” Moonbug study finds
Once upon a time, the internet was a wild west landscape where anyone with a novel idea and a web browser could strike it rich, but the deal activity of 2025 is telling a different story. Consolidation has come for the creator economy, with a higher number of mergers and acquisitions compared to previous years.
Information about M&A activity in the creator economy comes from Quartermast Advisors, a boutique M&A advisory firm that recently published a report analyzing deals from the first half of 2025. To compile its ledger of creator economy consolidation, Quartermast looked at “press releases, SEC filings, and news coverage about public transactions,” while also leveraging “our deep professional networks and market expertise.”
Through that research, Quartermast found that M&A activity has surged year-over-year. There were 52 of those deals in the creator economy during the first half of 2025, compared to 30 from the first half of 2024. That was good for a 73% uptick. Most of the relevant transactions (79%) involved North American companies.
Quartermast found that software companies were the most common M&A targets in the first half of 2025, showing up in 27% of deals. The next categories on that list were media companies (19%), agencies (14%), and talent management firms (14%).
With those deals, venture capital titans are worming their way into the creator economy. Quartermast noted that the two biggest M&A transactions of the first half both involved private equity firms. The influencer marketing platform Later, backed by Summit Partners, acquired social commerce brand Mavely for $250 million. PSG Equity chose a more direct path to the creator biz by paying $150 million for a majority stake in membership platform Uscreen.
The deep-pocketed firms taking stakes in the creator economy are looking to advance the industry by combining proprietary resources with the insights, know-how, and personnel offered by digital media companies. Publicis Groupe, which followed up its blockbuster acquisition of Influential by scooping up dealmaker Captiv8 in 2025, is one of the main buyers looking to leverage the institutional knowledge of creator-facing firms.
“Publicis Groupe’s acquisition of Captiv8 advances its goal of building the most powerful influencer marketing platform,” reads the report. “Merging Captiv8’s technology with Influential’s scale and Epsilon’s identity graph enables brands to unify creator strategy, activation, and measurement across social, commerce, and media channels.”
Quartermast is expecting the M&A binge to continue in the second half of the year, with international firms potentially getting in on the fun. International targets accounted for just 21% of M&A transactions in 2025 H1 after reaching 40% a year prior. Quartermast is projecting a reversal of that trend over the next six months, so observers should pay attention to global markets to determine whether the current flurry of activity is a major trend in the creator world — or if it’s merely a passing fancy.
Filed under: Articles, Featured, Homepage Feature, News, Statistics by Sam Gutelle Comments Off on Consolidation is here: The first half of 2025 saw 52 M&A deals in the creator economy
YouTube is saying goodbye to the long-active hub that compiles popular content from across the platform. The Trending tab will be sunsetted in favor of category-specific charts that will offer more granular lists of top-performing videos.
The Trending tab evolved out of YouTube’s original homepage design, which highlighted notable videos that were rolling up big view counts. In those early days, trending content served as a unifying force for a creator community that was small enough to be understood as a single entity.
In recent years, however, the rapid expansion of YouTube’s creator community turned the single, centralized hub of trending content into an obsolete concept. That cultural shift informed YouTube’s decision to sunset the Trending tab.
“Back when we first launched the Trending page in 2015, the answer to ‘what’s trending’ was a lot simpler to capture with a singular list of viral videos that everyone was talking about,” a YouTube rep said in an email. “But today, trends consist of many videos created by many fandoms, and there are more micro-trends enjoyed by diverse communities than ever before.” The new charts will “show a wider range of popular content that’s relevant.”
Breaking the Trending tab into multiple rankings will allow YouTube to address long-held gripes about the formula it uses to decide which videos qualify as trending content. The 2017 addition of an “on the rise” section let YouTube highlight some up-and-comers alongside videos with higher raw viewership. But over the next few years, many top creators argued that the Trending tab was still falling short of its goal to surface “hot” content, leading to further changes.
The lack of balance on the Trending tab was an annoyance for some creators, but more importantly, it sapped the page’s usefulness among its target demographic. “[The Trending tab] is far more useful as a door into the culture and connection of YouTube,” Hank Green wrote in 2020. “Hosting and surfacing legacy media content isn’t all about YouTube trying to abandon its core, it’s about inviting a broader variety of viewers to the platform.”
That reasoning explains why the Trending tab tended to offer more K-pop than creator content. But as marketers look to make their YouTube spend more targeted, those generalized portraits no longer suffice. Advertisers looking to partner with creators outside of commonly trending categories like sports, gaming, and music won’t find the channels they’re looking for on a central hub.
The full complement of the new trending content charts will roll out over the “next few weeks.” In the meantime, if you need to keep tabs on the hottest YouTube videos, you can check out our Tubefilter charts.
Filed under: Articles, Featured, Homepage Feature, News, YouTube by Sam Gutelle Comments Off on YouTube replaces Trending tab with charts that show “micro-trends enjoyed by diverse communities”
[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. 👇
There’s a new leader in the Global Sub Top 50. MrBeast has dropped from the top spot down to #5, and the creator I once described as Argentina’s answer to MrBeast is sitting pretty.
Alejo Igoa is part of a new generation of creators who use Beast-approved editing tactics to captivate viewers across the globe. That approach brought in 7.7 million new subscribers during the first week of July, giving Argentina its only representative in the Global Sub Top 50.
Meanwhile, Argentina’s eternal football rival Brazil is also represented in the ranking, but those channels are not quite as MrBeast-coded. Instead, one particular Brazilian creator is proving that he still has god on his side.
Jesus is still the biggest thing on YouTube Shorts
Have you had enough of strange, AI-generated videos that bring the Christian doctrine to YouTube Shorts? Well if you have, too bad, because viewers still can’t get enough of them. There are at least five different channels in this week’s Global Sub Top 50 that reference either God or Jesus in their names and channel icons.
Luckily, Bispo Bruno Leonardo is not a practitioner of that form of AI slop. His version of Christian content is more wholesome, pulling from the sermons he delivers as a Catholic clergyman.
We’ve already seen Bruno’s work in our charts before. At the start of the year, he rocketed into the Top 50 amid a sudden popularity surge for religious content. Now, he’s doubling down. Leonardo has two channels in this week’s Global Sub Top 50. His primary hub got 600,000 new subs to reach 15th place, while a secondary channel called Bispo Bruno Leonardo SM snuck into the ranking in 49th place.
While Leonardo’s OG hub has a clear focus on YouTube Shorts, the SM channel gets most of its views on long-form uploads. Leonardo’s interpretation of psalms and other biblical passages frequently top one million views, even though they regularly exceed 15 minutes in length.
Christian content has had a huge year on YouTube, so it’s not surprising to see Leonardo double-dipping in the Global Sub Top 50. What’s interesting is the timing of this latest surge. Previous upticks in the popularity of Jesus-themed content were tied to major moments in the Roman Catholic Church. The initial 2024 surge came amid widespread concerns regarding Pope Francis’ health, and Pope Leo XIV’s 2025 ascension to the Church’s top role brought another resurgence to YouTube.
Leo XIV is now firmly entrenched in his papal position, but viewership on Christian YouTube content isn’t letting up. A channel called Imperio de Jesussnuck into the ranking at #50, and a longtime chart entrant titled The hand of godfell just short of Bispo Bruno by getting 590,000 weekly subs and reaching #16 in the Global Sub Top 50.
Data via Gospel Stats
So there you have it: Like Christianity itself, YouTube-based expressions of the faith aren’t going anywhere. I don’t know if this particular trend will last for more than 2,000 years, but Jesus has a strong track record both online and off — so I might not choose to bet against him.
Channel Distribution
Here’s a breakdown of the Top 50 Most Viewed channels this week in terms of their countries of origin:
United States: 12
India: 6
Bangladesh and Mexico: 4
Brazil and Indonesia: 3
Australia and Spain: 2
Argentina, Belarus, Canada, China, Egypt, Hong Kong, Japan, Pakistan, Russia, Slovakia, Tanzania, Turkey, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan: 1
This week, 33 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.
The cycle of AI slop is a self-eating organism, and the next meal looks like it’s coming from OpenAI.
After Google embraced generative AI, calling for a new era of content where YouTubers make it part of their creative production pipeline, YouTube was flooded (and continues to be flooded) with generated slop. It became a new business, with gurus advertising courses on how fellow creators could (supposedly) make millions of AdSense dollars by churning out “faceless” content with ChatGPT-made scripts and voiceovers from apps like ElevenLabs and Speechify.
Now, YouTube seems to be trying for a rein-in with new Partner Program policies that will cut monetization to videos that are “mass-produced and repetitious” and prioritize “original, authentic” videos. (Note that YouTube still won’t remove AI-generated slop; it just won’t pay people to create it.)
But, thanks in part to Google/YouTube’s relentless promotion of AI as an essential component of the digital creative future, we are fully in the gen AI era. Creators are using and endorsing AI products.
And the AI companies building their fortunes off selling those products are coming for other areas of Google’s business.
OpenAI, as it turns out, isn’t content with just taking Google’s search traffic and challenging X. In the coming weeks, it’ll launch an AI web browser as competition for Google Chrome.
Per Reuters, OpenAI views the browser as a vehicle that’ll allow it to do two things:
First, “fundamentally change how consumers browse the web”
and second, access the vast trove of personal user data Google currently scrapes from people utilizing Search and Chrome
OpenAI also plans to make what Google’s done with Search a core part of this browser: In some cases, users who search or try to go to websites will be kept to a ChatGPT-esque interface instead of actually clicking through to the site. This will, of course, further contribute to the gutting of individual website traffic already kick-started by things like Google’s AI Search Overviews.
As Reuters notes, if this project is successful in pulling over even a fraction of ChatGPT’s 500 million weekly active users, it could put a serious dent in Google’s traffic. Chrome is built to get data from users, and that data is an essential part of Google’s core business which contributes to 75% of the company’s annual revenue: advertising. (More on this in a second.)
People using OpenAI’s new browser will likely be directed away from using Google Search, and might be urged to give Sam Altman‘s company more data through tools like Operator, which OpenAI unveiled this past January.
Just like Google, OpenAI works on an ever-growing suite of products. With a proprietary browser, it could simply inject these products and make them a core part of the user experience, giving anything it develops an instant user base.
OK, now for the “more on this in a second” part: OpenAI’s development comes as Google is facing antitrust pressure over the role Chrome plays in its sprawling advertising biz. U.S. lawmakers are calling for divestment, and if that happens, OpenAI’s browser–which, btw, was made after OpenAI hired two former Google VPs who were part of Chrome’s OG development team–could become the web’s new frontrunner.
And, to be fair, this is all speculation. We don’t know how OpenAI’s browser will look or feel. It may not hit the right note for internet users. Or maybe it will.
Either way, we’ll find out soon.
Filed under: Homepage Feature by James Hale Comments Off on OpenAI’s next project is a browser to beat Google Chrome
[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. 👇
We are now in the second half of 2025, and the massive statistical changes from the first half of the year are starting to settle down. Three months after YouTube changed its view-counting policies to make Shorts views bigger, there are eight channels with more than one billion weekly views. That is a decline from previous weeks, when that number hit double digits.
The overall leader KIMPRO was just shy of two billion weekly views, topping out at 1.9 billion weekly views. But instead of analyzing South Korea’s lone representative in the Global Top 50, let’s travel to two other countries that show up exactly once apiece in this week’s ranking.
YouTube’s trendiest couple is dancing through rural Tanzania
Tanzania’s colorful banner doesn’t show up often in our Global Top 50, but this week, it can be found in the #2 position in the chart. That’s the space occupied by Jaymondy, a channel that kicked off July by pulling in more weekly views than any Tanzanian hub ever has.
The creator in charge of the Jaymondy channel is named Ray, and the story of his ascent on YouTube is a rags-to-riches tale that begins in a rural village. That setting serves as the backdrop for many Jaymondy videos, and it is currently a perfect time to be a creator whose content examines rural life.
As were seeing with Indian creators like Sejal Gaba, Ray’s pastoral episodes are captivating viewers across the globe. Everyone from city-dwellers to villagers are tuning in to check the Tanzanian creator’s uploads. He got more than 1.6 billion weekly views at the start of July while bringing his subscriber count close to six million.
Along the way, he’s getting help from a frequent co-star. His girlfriend Isabell Afro is also a creator, and their collaborative dance routines rank among Ray’s most-watched YouTube Shorts uploads.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/E_26FHJ_gfc
As fate would have it, Ray’s biggest week in the Global Top 50 was also a huge moment for Isabell Afro’s channel. She gave Denmark its lone representative in the Global Top 50 by collecting 611.4 million weekly views, which was good for an 85% week-over-week bump that pushed Isabell’s channel up to 29th place in the Global Top 50.
Ray and Isabell have been united by their shared passion for dance, but it is the unique backdrop of their videos that lets them stand apart from the crowd. There are many dance channels on YouTube, but few show the clear upward trajectory that Isabell Afro has enjoyed since the start of the year.
Data via Gospel Stats
Ray and Isabell have now ascended to the zenith of YouTube couple channels. Can they stay there? Their infectious dance moves will help them stay on top, but other dynamic duos like Double Date (#3) and Cadel and Mia (#6) could soon be gunning for Ray’s premium position in the Global Top 50.
Channel Distribution
Here’s a breakdown of the Top 50 Most Viewed channels this week in terms of their countries of origin:
India: 12
United States: 11
Hong Kong, Spain, and Vietnam: 3
Australia, Germany, and Taiwan: 2
Argentina, Belgium, Canada, China, Denmark, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Peru, South Korea, Tanzania, and Ukraine: 1
This week, 41 channels in the Top 50 are primarily active on YouTube Shorts.
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In February 2025, YouTube turned 20. The video site has gone through a lot over the past two decades, including an acquisition, an earnings glow-up, and multiple generations of star creators. In our 20 Years of YouTube series, we’ll examine the uploads, trends, and influencers that have defined the world’s favorite video site — one year at a time. Click here for a full archive of the series.
We are now halfway through this project, equidistant from YouTube’s inception and the current year. And in many ways, 2015 was the inflection point that separated the creator community’s past from its present.
It was a moment when technological innovations and substantial outside investments transformed the meaning of the word “creator.” It was also the start of an artistic revolution. After chasing recognition from traditional Hollywood systems for years, YouTube stars began to understand the creative potential of the platform that had launched them to global fame. A decade later, YouTube is now the hottest thing on TV screens, and that cultural shift might have looked completely different if not for a high school dropout with a director’s eye, a gritty filmmaking style, and a penchant for wearing distressed sunglasses.
Even before he launched his YouTube channel, Casey Neistat was a known quantity. After cutting his teeth in the underground New York City arts scene, he landed an HBO series alongside his sibling Van. The Neistat Bros ran for eight episodes in 2010, and Casey began uploading to his namesake YouTube hub that same year.
Many creators who broke out on YouTube in 2010s chose to chase TV and film deals. There were some success stories, like Issa Rae‘s HBO sitcom Insecure and the Rachel Bloom star vehicle Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. In many cases, however, attempts to translate online video success to media like television and film met familiar roadblocks.
It was unclear who those projects should be marketed to. The obvious choice involved catering to the star creator’s existing fans, but some of those people chose to watch digital content because of limited access to TV (or a general distaste for it), so converting them into cable viewers proved challenging. Other creators struggled to adapt a certain vibe or sense of humor into a traditional format, leading to poorly reviewed fare. In some cases, a creator’s reputation proved so controversial that it sandbagged attempts to launch a more polished, sanitized type of content.
Long story short: For creator-led TV and film projects of the mid-2010s, there was a gap between hype and critical reception. Back then, it was natural to speculate that internet success stories might not be ready for primetime. Then Casey Neistat showed up and reminded creators that they didn’t have to covet TV airtime. On YouTube, they could unlock a new creative format that evolved the traditional media pipeline rather than chasing after it.
Neistat’s early YouTube videos contain all the hallmarks that would later define his daily vlog. His first upload — a documentary about the emergency brakes in New York City’s subway trains — is stuffed with cheeky establishing shots, handwritten annotations, bold editing choices, and vibey musical cues.
In 2015, he started making those clever, artful videos every day. “I want to make more movies, but there’s so much going on in my life, it makes it tough,” he said in the first of 534 consecutive daily vlogs. “Starting today, my 34th birthday, I’m going to make a movie every day, for a while anyways, or until I get bored.”
The daily vlog wasn’t always a straight line, and its structure was far from linear. Subjects ranged from the adventurous to the mundane. That, more than anything else, was the source of Neistat’s powers. He wasn’t constrained by a studio that would have required him to make a certain amount of content or make it a certain way.
His vlog was something he could have called off at any time, and its messiness as a creative project gave it a raw quality that could never be achieved on cable. Neistat’s videos felt so real that viewers chastised him for not spending enough time with his family, even though he spent more than 23 hours of his days off camera.
Along the way, Neistat dabbled with other content categories, like the virtual travelogue and Red Bull-style extreme sports videos. By turning the humble vlog into a wide-reaching, genre-bending experiment, Neistat paved the way for the next generation of vloggers: Upstarts like Emma Chamberlain, David Dobrik, and Elle Mills, who imbued highly personal videos with sharp style and varied subject matter.
For creators who felt pigeonholed by the flawed YouTube-to-TV pipeline, Neistat offered a new way forward. He sensed that viewers were craving deeper, more intimate connections with their favorite internet stars rather than upright, scripted interactions. A decade later, with the rise of streaming culture, Neistat’s ideas have proven to be prophetic. He blazed a path others could follow without leaving the confines of social media — and then he rode his skateboard right through it.
Filed under: Articles, Featured, Homepage Feature, News, YouTube by Sam Gutelle Comments Off on 20 years of YouTube: In 2015, Casey Neistat revolutionized the vlog without removing his shades
YouTube is upping its presence in the world of influencer marketing, and it wants creators to get in on the movement. A widely distributed email invites creators to try out a new feature that shares channel and audience data with brands, advertisers, and other potential sponsors.
The email was blasted out to the owners of active channels, many of whom shared the contents of the letter on social media. YouTube described its new feature as a way to “share channel and audience data to potentially be discovered by advertisers and brands for more earning opportunities like higher revenue ads, brand deals, and shopping affiliate offers.” By default, that data will not be shared, and creators who choose to toggle on the new tool can undo their decision at any time.
YouTube has long been a home for influencer marketing campaigns, but the data sharing toggle is part of a wave of recent features that collectively level up sponsorship opportunities on the platform. Nearly a decade after acquiring FameBit, the matchmaking hub now known as BrandConnect, YouTube still trails rivals like Instagram when it comes to influencer marketing.
That narrative is starting to change. At this year’s SXSW festival in Austin, YouTube unveiled a new-and-improved BrandConnect that consolidates and streamlines creator partnerships. An eMarketer report published around that time found that more than half of U.S. brands will partner with a YouTube channel to market a product in 2025.
More changes arrived at YouTube’s annual Brandcast presentation, where the company’s marketing execs revealed a fresh suite of matchmaking tools centered around the Insights Finder hub. At the next stop on the festival circuit, June’s Cannes Lions, YouTube updated BrandConnect with a feature called Open Call, which lets brands solicit sponsored content from creators who can meet specific briefs.
Taken together, these updates bring YouTube’s influencer marketing resources in line with the products offered by Instagram. But YouTube doesn’t want to just match its competitors. It’s looking to address blind spots that hold back the entire influencer marketing industry.
Consider the findings of a June 2025 eMarketer study, in which a third of global creator marketers cited inconsistent measurement as their top roadblock. In a previous Harris Poll study, 89% of U.S. creators said they could equip brand partners with novel audience insights, but only 15% of them said they get feedback from brands about relevant evaluation methods.
The new data sharing tool establishes a new channel of communication between YouTube creators and the brands looking to partner with them. The results, in theory, will include more accurate measurements for brands and more behind-the-scenes participation from those brands’ creator partners. If all goes according to plan, widespread data sharing will improve results across YouTube’s entire influencer marketing ecosystem.
