[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. 👇

An Australian channel has conquered the Global Top 50 for the first time. Double Date joined the esteemed two-billion-views-in-a-week club by collecting 2.02 billion weekly views during the second full week of May.

Double Date broke out amid a wave of rising couple channels around the start of the calendar year. It has since been boosted by the change YouTube made to its view-counting policy. What other trends can we find in our charts?

Alan Chikin Chow goes back to school (and the rest of YouTube enrolls with him)

Last year, one of YouTube’s top creators opened a production facility to give a home to his sprawling video operation. About six months later, that gamble is starting to pay off in a big way. Alan Chikin Chow, who previously became a Global Top 50 regular thanks to his comedy videos, is back in the ranking under his new display name: Alan’s Universe.

That’s the title Chow has applied to narrative videos that share a setting, tone, and cast of characters. Like noted YouTube moralist Dhar Mann, Chow is using a scholastic setting to tell simplistic stories that typically have clear-cut depictions of good and bad. For the 92 million subscribers who hang onto every Alan’s Universe upload, those tales have become cherished pieces of fiction.

With 544.8 million weekly views, Alan’s Universe soared into the Global Top 50, reaching 42nd place. The titular creator would probably agree that there are a lot of factors informing his success on YouTube. His high subscriber count helps, as does his embrace of both long-form and short-form content. His investment in the quality of his productions didn’t hurt, either.

But if you want to know what Alan Chikin Chow’s secret sauce is, I have good news: You don’t need to build a massive studio space to become one of the biggest names on YouTube. Embracing the platform’s short-form trends is a more consistent, less cost-intensive path to the top, and few trends are as powerful as the school setting.

Like Alan Chikin Chow, the channel dubbed Renuka Thoughts features videos that typically take place in the classroom. Morality and rule-breaking factor into Renuka’s videos as well.

Is Renuka Thoughts the Alan Chikin Chow of India? The channel’s recent traffic — totaling 527.2 million weekly views — suggests that it’s in the same stratosphere as YouTube’s biggest draws.

Data via Gospel Stats

I’m not expecting Renuka Thoughts to announce its own production facility anytime soon, but due to ongoing financial trends, that step might not be necessary. Big investments are coming to India’s creator economy — and humble creators based out of rural schools stand to benefit.

Channel Distribution

Here’s a breakdown of the Top 50 Most Viewed channels this week in terms of their countries of origin:

• India: 18
• United States: 8
• Canada and Vietnam: 3
• Australia, Brazil, China, and Hong Kong: 2
• Belgium, France, Germany, Japan, Kazakhstan, Slovakia, South Korea, Spain, Taiwan, and Turkey: 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.

Filed under: Articles, Homepage Feature, News, statistics, Statistics, YouTube, Youtube Chart by Sam Gutelle
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The United Arab Emirates’ $40.8 million initiative to get 10,000 content creators (and other creative professionals) living and working in Dubai is kick-starting with Creators HQ, a makerspace in the Emirates Towers that offers community, technical, legal, and production support for creators willing to relocate to the city.

One hundred of those creative professionals have already been accepted to Creators HQ as Founding Members. While all Creators HQ members get perks like help securing a Golden Visa, relocation support, and access to 300+ biz dev events per year, Founding Members get additional exclusive pluses, like 24/7 concierge services, a guaranteed speaking slot at the annual 1 Billion Followers Summit, and priority access to participate in the Dubai government’s influencer marketing campaigns.

Some of the creators accepted as Founding Members are Dhar Mann (25 million subscribers on YouTube), Yes Theory (9.5M), The Anazala Family (10M), Supercar Blondie (21.5M), Germán Garmendia (1.7M), and Surthany Hejeij (14M, Instagram).

For these pros, Creators HQ offers things like community-building, help getting local government permission for filming, and a creativity-centered environment that inspires them to keep working on content, they said in interviews.

Australian supercar enthusiast Blondie, who’s been making content in Dubai for years (understandably, as it sees a lot of traffic from top supercar brands), said she used to feel “a little bit lonely” in the city before this initiative.

“There weren’t too many of us based out of here creating content every single day, so I’m really actually very excited that they’re putting an emphasis on supporting creators and coming up with this whole headquarters,” she said. “I think it’s going to be so amazing for people who don’t have that support network or even somewhere to go every single day. They can now come to the headquarters, have somewhere to sit, have access to other creators, so they can all help each other now.”

As for her personally, Creators HQ’s concierge has helped her speed up the time it takes to get filming permission from Dubai officials. Before the headquarters, “it was tough to get filming permissions,” she says. “With content creation, we can come up with an idea now and we want to film it tomorrow, but that’s not how quickly government processes work. You need to apply for something, you might get permission within a week or two. Content creation moves very quickly, but permissions usually go quite slowly.”

So, when she started working with Creators HQ, she was relieved that its staff told her, “‘When you want to film something, we’re going to expedite that process, so you can literally be out there tomorrow,'” she says.

Chilean YouTuber Garmendia says being a member with Creators HQ means having a permanent place where he feels motivated.

“As a content creator, you’re always looking for places to be surrounded with the same mindset you have,” he says. “People will always have their ideas, and you get inspired just being here in this area. You get introduced, they show you their channel, and you’re like, ‘Oh my god, I didn’t know that could be done.’ It’s a good way to connect, to get inspired.”

Like Supercar Blondie, he also gives a nod to Creators HQ for its logistical support. “To have a home in Dubai, it’s great,” he said. “It’s a good way to not feel like you have an idea but can’t do it. It stops that technical part. It’s like, ‘I’m creative. I don’t have to stop creativity.’ It’s a tool to never stop creating.”

Lebanese foodfluencer Hejeij (aka Surthy Cooks) is most excited about Creators HQ’s social support and how finding community there will help her level up her content.

“I feel like no one from my family understands what I do, so it’s good now to have the support and the tools to do all these things, to feel we are not alone,” she says. “We have a community that will help us and share with us what they do, what they don’t do, what goes good. It’s nice that now we’re going to have help to improve.”

While all of Creators HQ’s Founding Members have been selected, membership to the makerspace is still open for creators around the world who want to make content in Dubai. You can see more information here.

Creators HQ is a Tubefilter partner.

Filed under: 1 Billion Followers Summit, Homepage Feature by Tubefilter Staff
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Imagine walking into a Disney park and instead of seeing Star Wars Land (ahem, we mean Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge at Disney’s Hollywood Studios) or Avatar Flight of Passage, you see a ride starring YouTube kids’ phenom Blippi.

Well, that future might not be too far out of reach, thanks to a recent collaboration between Blippi, Walt Disney World, and Disney Cruise Line.

The collab will kick off by bringing Blippi and pal Meekah to the Mouse House for a 45-minute special called Blippi’s Magical Walt Disney World Adventure. That premiered this week on YouTube, where Blippi has 24 million subscribers and brings a whopping 600 million views per month. It’ll be followed by four shorter YouTube-exclusive episodes, two filmed on the Disney Wish, one filmed in Animal Kingdom, and one filmed at Walt Disney World Resort. Those will premiere one per week.

“Disney has been a source of joy for generations, and it’s been incredible to work together to create authentic, magical experiences with Blippi that families can enjoy at home,” Mike Katzman, General Manager of Blippi, said in a statement. “Filming in the four parks at Walt Disney World and on Disney Cruise Line brought that magic to life in the most genuine way–seeing kids light up when they spotted Blippi and showcasing all the ways families can be curious and playful together.”

As you can probably guess, these adventures seem advertorial in nature, aimed at getting the kiddos excited to make their own trips to Disney properties, just in time for summer. (Sorry, parents.) Considering the consistent prices hikes of Disney visits and just how much a room on the Wish (the pioneer ship of Disney’s newest cruise line) can go for these days, Disney may hope appealing to kids’ pester power might help nudge adults into opening their wallets a little wider.

We’re not surprised Disney is turning to a YouTube creator to lead this campaign–especially since said YouTube creator’s IP is owned by Candle Media, the company founded by former longtime Disney execs (and current Disney consultants) Kevin Mayer and Thomas Staggs.

CoComelon owner Moonbug acquired Blippi for ~$120 million in 2020, and Candle Media acquired Moonbug for $3 billion a year later. As we mentioned, Candle Media’s leaders are also Disney advisors, so there’s a pretty direct line here between who owns Blippi and the history those owners have with Disney. What we’re wondering is whether this will result in a longer-term Blippi partnership, or a closer-knit relationship between Disney and Candle Media, where Disney makes ads with Candle’s stable of family content brands more frequently.

We’re also curious whether Blippi heading out on the high seas will actually result in more Wish rooms getting booked, but we’ll probably never know. Unless we get Jenny Nicholson on the case…

Filed under: Blippi, Homepage Feature by James Hale
Comments Off on Disney’s plan for pre-summer advertising? Get Blippi on board (literally).

If MrBeast is going to grow his company into a $5 billion business, he needs to show that his namesake operation has legs outside of the United States. To that end, the Greenville, North Carolina native has recently embarked on multiple international forays, some of which have gone better than others.

One big opportunity for Beast Industries is popping up in Saudi Arabia, where the world’s top YouTuber is establishing a significant presence. Since 2019, the Saudi capital has hosted a cultural showcase called Riyadh Season, which stretches across categories like sports, music, and fine dining.

The 2025 edition of Riyadh Season will include a hearty helping of MrBeast. The creator’s confectionary brand, Feastables, will launch in Saudi Arabia, and MrBeast will participate in the Season’s opening ceremony. The crown jewel of the partnership will be MrBeast Park, a themed experience filled with games, stunt shows, and more.

In the world of MrBeast-branded experiences, there is a lot of room for improvement. The man born Jimmy Donaldson built a lot of hype when he announced a MrBeast activation that would open on the Las Vegas Strip. For many attendees, however, the experience didn’t live up to its billing, so much so that MrBeast later issued an apology.

As the MrBeast brand has grown, those “hype roller coasters” have become more common. The initial production of the Amazon Prime Video original series Beast Games, for example, led to numerous complaints from participants, who criticized the on-set conditions. But Beast Games ultimately rebounded to become a viewership success, and two more seasons are now on the way. MrBeast Burger’s brick-and-mortar push went in the opposite direction; it began with great fanfare only to descend into lawsuits and acrimony.

Given the unprecedented nature of what MrBeast is attempting — no one else has built a multi-billion dollar business that is truly creator-led — some speed bumps are to be expected. Taking a business model that works on YouTube and translating it into industries like retail, consumables, and theme parks requires an experimental attitude.

But global expansion adds new wrinkles that make MrBeast-style experimentation riskier than it already is. Take the creator’s recent trip to Mexico, where he explored Mayan ruins as part of a video that plugged Feastables.

MrBeast claimed to have permission from the local government to visit the ancient sites, but his video nevertheless received criticism from all strata of Mexican society. Civilians complained that the creator got access to sites they cannot visit, while Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum launched an inquiry into the YouTuber’s permit. Mexico is “demanding compensation for damages and a public retraction, due to noncompliance with the terms,” because the permit reportedly didn’t authorize commercial advertisements.

Many of MrBeast’s recent agreements, including a collab with Jack Link’s and a book deal with HarperCollins, are described as “global” arrangements. By opening his doors to the world outside of Greenville, MrBeast is building the massive brand of his dreams. As he does, cultural sensitivity will be important, or else he will risk spoiling the partnerships that have facilitated his global push.

Filed under: Articles, Featured, Homepage Feature, MrBeast, News by Sam Gutelle
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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 gets some well-deserved recognition, another becomes a government target, and a third has some sound advice for brands.

Creator commotion

Michelle Khare gets Challenge Accepted into the Emmys. The creator’s Streamy-winning show will be on the ballot in the outstanding hosted nonfiction series category at the next Primetime Emmy Awards. Getting on the ballot is one thing — some of Khare’s contemporaries may want to remind her that actually earning Emmy nominations and wins is a whole different beast.

Hasan Piker was detained at O’Hare airport. The left-wing streamer was held by border agents (despite being a U.S. citizen enrolled in Global Entry) and was asked about topics like President Trump and Hamas. In Piker’s own words: “It wasn’t a very warm welcome.” Clearly, someone in the Trump administration is keeping an eye on the progressive side of Twitch.

Jordan Howlett says brands should let creators be themselves. Speaking at Social Media Week, the social star said the “hardest thing” about working with brands is when “there are a lot of rules and things you have to follow.” Translation: Brands that want to get a bump from creators can’t have it both ways.

Politics as usual

Younger Senate Democrats want their elders to get on Twitch and Snapchat. Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) reportedly told his septuagenarian colleagues that they need to get active on social media. Booker said that Democrats are closing the “engagement gap” between them and the Republicans, but relative youngsters like Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) can’t be counted on to do all the heavy lifting.

YouTube’s political viewership has swung left since the 2024 election. According to data from Ad Fontes Media and Pixability, left-leaning YouTube channels have seen a 25.6% viewership uptick since the first two months of the year. Over the same period, right-wing traffic is down 10.08%. Journalist Ezra Klein has been one of the biggest winners, more than doubling his viewership over three months, while The Heritage Foundation has moved in the opposite direction.

TikTok adds conservative voices to its U.S. Content Council. The right-wing newcomers are reportedly lobbying for relaxed policies on speech and moderation. Given that TikTok has already courted President Trump in hopes of fending off a federal ban attempt, this latest move shouldn’t come as a surprise.

The ad world

For U.K. children, YouTube ads are major drivers of purchase intent. London-based agency Precise TV followed up its U.S. PARK report with an equivalent survey across the pond. 72% of the respondents — who ranged in age from two to 12 — said they prefer YouTube over any other platform. 35% of surveyed parents said the last item they bought for their child was the result of a YouTube ad. The kids just keep on watching.

Twitch tests picture-in-picture ads. The streaming hub is adopting one of YouTube’s tactics to solve a recurring problem. Twitch viewers don’t like when interruptive ads break into the stream at inopportune moments, but they seem far more receptive to PIP ads that run in the corner of the screen without interrupting the broadcast.

QVC hosted a “Super Brand Day” to promote TikTok Shop. The home shopping channel used a plethora of celebrity cameos and real-life experiences to help promote its new TikTok Shop channel. Welcome to consumer commerce in the age of short-form social media.

Platform headlines

Pinterest sponsors the year’s first screen-free prom. At Lick-Wilmerding High School in San Francisco, Pinterest sponsored non-profit HalfTheStory‘s effort to get teens off their phones during prom. Thanks to the support of the digital pin board, seniors at Lick-Wilmerding were able to focus on dancing rather than DMs.

ByteDance has a target for TikTok’s 2025 sales: Meta. The Beijing-based parent company of TikTok wants its short-form video app to increase revenue by 20% year-over-year, which would bring its sales up to $186 billion. That pace would allow TikTok to keep up with Meta, which is projected to rake in $187 billion during the 2025 calendar year. Anything Zuck can do, Chew can do better.

The founder of OnlyFans has launched a new platform. The platform known as Subs.com has a subscription-based business model that looks a lot like OnlyFans. The difference, it would seem, is that Tim Stokely‘s new venture is looking to avoid being pigeonholed as a home for adult content. Instead, it will host a diverse roster of creators.

The internet is a strange place

At Yellowstone, it’s getting hot, and I’m not just talking about the geothermal activity. Can geographic features post thirst traps? Can thirsty posts serve as marketing for America’s national parks? The answer to both those questions is yes, according to the anonymous creators who impersonated the official Yellowstone account to post randy nature shots. Given how much play this story has gotten, the actual Yellowstone should hire these pranksters.

TikTok is fostering solidarily between Black people and redheads. Two groups that deal with cultural bias and prejudice have united as part of TikTok’s “Gingers are Black” trend. The resulting videos offer intriguing context regarding American identity politics, even if some might find the conclusion to be simplistic.

Google’s supercomputer says we’re living in a multiverse. Well, that settles it. I’m going to call up Dr. Strange and find the version of myself who’s two inches taller and doesn’t procrastinate so much.

Filed under: Articles, Featured, Homepage Feature, News by Sam Gutelle
Comments Off on Have you heard? Michelle Khare gets into the Emmys, Jordan Howlett gets real with brands, and Dems get on Twitch

Whalar Group has landed its biggest capital injection to date. The firm that operates multiple creator-facing businesses has announced a strategic investment from a trio of notable names: Salesforce Co-Founder Marc Benioff, ecommerce platform Shopify, and Hollywood producer Neal H. Moritz.

The exact size of the the investment was not publicly revealed, but a Whalar spokesperson told Bloomberg that the deal came with an attached valuation of $400 million. That value is spread across six businesses: Whalar’s eponymous creator agency, its talent management firm Sixteenth (which it acquired last year), the IRL space known as The Lighthouse, operating system Foam, brand-building studio Moby Ventures, and virtual experience builder Umi Games.

Through its sprawling operation and its consistent support for creators’ needs, Whalar has built a client roster that includes more than 300 creators, including Ali Abdaal and Jesus Nalgas. Since 2016, the company’s payouts to creators have totaled more than $300 million.

Whalar’s prominent position in the creator economy has drawn interest from the entertainment and tech sectors — two industries that are eager to get in bed with influencers and their ilk. Recent deals that have linked creators to Hollywood include Skybound’s recent acquisition of Nine Four Entertainment and Propagate Content’s majority stake in Parker Management.

The investors who are buying into Whalar will help the company serve the ambitions of its creator partners. Moritz, a producer for the Fast and the Furious film franchise, gives Whalar an in with Hollywood studios. Other post-investment priorities include the development of AI-powered creator tools — a recent area of emphasis for Salesforce — and increased ecommerce capabilities.

Whalar’s union with the ecommerce firm that powers thousands of creator storefronts brings it full circle. A press release from Whalar notes that the company was incorporated shortly after its founders won Shopify’s Build A Business competition in 2015.

“This investment validates that we’re just scratching the surface of what’s possible,” said Whalar Co-Founder and Co-CEO Neil Waller in a statement. “We’re doubling down on building infrastructure that lets creators operate like major entertainment companies, but with the agility to rapidly adopt new ways of thinking and creating that give them a distinct competitive advantage. The future isn’t just about content, it’s about creators building the next generation of entertainment and media powerhouses.”

Whalar previously facilitated its early growth with a seed round. Its latest investment is much more substantial, and the alliance with the likes of Benioff and Moritz will put Whalar — and its creator roster — in a powerful position.

Filed under: Articles, Featured, Homepage Feature, News, Whalar by Sam Gutelle
Comments Off on Creator company Whalar soars to $400 million valuation with strategic investment

For years, Spotify and Apple have published their own charts showing best-performing podcasts. As a result, when new podcasts debut or older podcasts see a notable spike in listenership, those companies are often cited in articles, simply because they’re the ones providing the data.

YouTube, it seems, is no longer willing to be left out–especially with 1 billion people listening to podcast content on its platform each month.

This morning, as a followup to its annual Brandcast presentation, it revealed the launch of its own weekly podcast charts.

Called Weekly Top Podcast Shows, the chart will update each Wednesday, showing the top 100 podcasts on YouTube by U.S. watch time.

Unsurprisingly, YouTube’s first chart showed The Joe Rogan Experience is its #1 podcast, followed by Kill Tony, Rotten Mango, 48 Hours, The MeidasTouch Podcast, and H3 Show. (More below.)

“Our Weekly Top Podcast Shows chart recognizes and celebrates top podcasters who are redefining the next era of entertainment with engaging, influential, culture-defining shows across a variety of genres like News, Sports, Comedy, and True Crime,” YouTube said in a company blog post.

YouTube is relying on creators to help it collate data for this chart, since Weekly Top Podcast Shows will only count videos “that are designated as ‘podcasts’ by the creator in the upload process,'” it says.

It’s additionally filtering for things like clips of full episodes and Shorts, so those won’t be counted toward shows’ watch time and placement.

Just like at Brandcast, YouTube made this announcement with a healthy dollop of stats, including touting Edison data that shows YouTube is the #1 podcast service in the U.S. And it turns out a lot of that watch time is on TVs: users are listening to/watching over 400 million hours of podcast content per month on living room devices. (Something we’re sure YouTube is thrilled about.)

YouTube describes this release as the first iteration of podcast charts, adding that it plans to build out more features and introduce charts for regions outside the U.S. We hope that for one of those updates, it’ll consider publicly releasing shows’ watch times so we can get a hard number look at their performance the same way we can with video views. (But even video views might not be dependable these days, so who knows.)

Here’s a look at the top 50 podcasts on YouTube, according to its official debut chart:

1. The Joe Rogan Experience
2. KILL TONY
3. Rotten Mango
4. 48 Hours
5. The MeidasTouch Podcast
6. H3 Show – Season 5
7. Club Shay Shay
8. This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
9. Smosh Reads Reddit Stories
10. Dr. Insanity Podcasts
11. Shawn Ryan Show Podcast
12. The Pat McAfee Show Live
13. Timcast IRL
14. The Diary Of A CEO
15. Creepcast episodes
16. Karen Read
17. Murder, Mystery & Makeup
18. The Tucker Carlson Show
19. The Megyn Kelly Show
20. Gil’s Arena Full Shows
21. Reality Check with Ross Coulthart
22. Lex Fridman Podcast
23. It Is What It Is
24. Bad Friends Podcast
25. Full Episodes | 60 Minutes
26. PBD Podcast
27. A Closer Look – Late Night with Seth Meyers
28. NIGHTCAP PODCAST
29. Just Trish
30. The Lets Read Podcast
31. IHIP News
32. Law&Crime Sidebar with Jesse Weber
33. Unsubscribe Podcast
34. The Bulwark Podcast with Tim Miller
35. The Philip DeFranco Show (Every Mon-Tues-Wed-Thurs-Friday!)
36. The Yak
37. Smosh Mouth
38. NBC Nightly News: Full Broadcasts | NBC News
39. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace
40. Breaking Points Videos
41. Timcast News Stories
42. Cancelled with Tana Mongeau & Brooke Schofield
43. True Crime with Kendall Rae
44. Dark History
45. Julian Dorey Podcast
46. Authorized Account | Podcast
47. StarTalk Podcast Full Episodes
48. Distractible
49. SERIALously – The Podcast
50. TigerBelly

Filed under: Homepage Feature, YouTube by James Hale
Comments Off on Move over, Spotify and Apple. YouTube has its own podcast charts now.

The Sidemen‘s business empire is a sprawling endeavor that encompasses everything from fried chicken to football, and it’s now expanding to the financial sector. The creator group that includes KSI, Miniminter, Zerkaa, TBJZL, Behzinga, Vikkstar123, and W2S is launching a venture capital firm called Upside.

Upside was born out of a partnership between the Sidemen and General Partner Jamie Elliott, who met the U.K.-based septet in 2023. Since then, Upside has already made 12 investments ranging between £100,000 and £500,000 (~$133,00-$665,000), according to The Times. Startups backed by the new VC unit have included a social calendar app called Howbout and a plastic-free razor company called Nimbi.

As revenue and VC dollars have spurred the growth of the creator economy, numerous influencers have chosen to pay it forward by becoming investors themselves. Some individual creators throw their weight behind products they endorse. In other cases, deep-pocketed creator groups use their earnings to support other channels.

The Sidemen — who have benefitted from VC backing of their own — are putting their own money into Upside. Their work with the firm does not end there. Elliott told The Times that his creator partners are “involved in every step” of the process. They are helping identify investment opportunities, and once those deals are tendered, the septet is employing its creative assets to provide an additional boost. Getting a financial injection from the Sidemen is one thing; getting the chance to appear in one of their videos — and reach their 22 million YouTube subscribers — is a whole different kind of opportunity.

In a post on LinkedIn, Sidemen manager Jordan Schwarzenberger said that the first Upside Fund has a $25 million target. A group of “elite LPs,” including “the founders of Twitch, Unity, FaceIt, and MLG,” is helping to make those investments happen.

The Sidemen are still major stars on YouTube, and they’ve recently made their mark on Netflix as well. Despite the success of their creative endeavors, they’ve recently been keen on more “grown-up” business ventures that show the maturity of a group once known for its youthful indiscretion. By adding some money moves to their dribbling moves, the Sidemen are showing that they’ve become a powerhouse. As the creator economy rises, this septet will remain in the thick of it.

Filed under: Articles, Featured, Homepage Feature, News by Sam Gutelle
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Roblox paid out nearly $1 billion to its creator community in 2024, and its latest product will ensure that 2025’s final tally is even higher. Thanks to new Commerce APIs, Roblox world-builders can sell real-life items within the virtual experiences they create.

At launch, the real-world goods will be available on all eligible Roblox experiences. U.S. users aged 13 and up will be able to make purchases in those worlds. An Approved Merchandiser Program, which is launching alongside the new APIs, will let sellers sync up their physical goods with in-game items. That program will also put badges on products so that buyers know they are getting legitimate goods.

“Our vision for the future of shopping is an experience that’s more exciting and social than the traditional online shopping experience,” reads a Roblox blog post. “On Roblox, you can explore virtual stores, try on clothes, and share the experience with others. This naturally builds interest and purchase intent. Now we’re taking it one step further, bridging the gap between virtual and real-world shopping by enabling Roblox users to purchase physical items.”

Roblox’s breakout has cemented it as a potent vehicle for marketing and sales — especially for brands that want to reach the sandbox’s core audience of Gen Z and Gen Alpha consumers. Previous ecommerce experiments on the platform have included a Shopify integration launched last year and a campaign that let players buy movie tickets directly from an in-game experience.

As in-experience marketing tactics have become more popular, Roblox has also made a push to promote the creation of virtual goods. A recent tutorial featuring some of Roblox’s most successful sellers provided tips for those who want to design avatars, outfits, and other items that can be sold within their worlds.

The new APIs unite those two efforts. Sellers will be able to offer virtual products alongside IRL goods; for example, the purchase of a hoodie could unlock an identical piece of clothing for the buyer’s avatar. The virtual items will be unlocked via codes that are delivered at the point of sale.

Roblox has already recruited brands to try out its new Commerce APIs. Fenty is launching an experience that will offer an exclusive gloss shade called Grape Splash, so if you want to get your lip game on point, your avatar can do the shopping for you.

Filed under: Articles, Featured, Homepage Feature, News, Roblox by Sam Gutelle
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Netflix is still a relative newcomer to the upfronts. The streamer has only participated in the springtime pitchfest since it obtained ad inventory to sell, and it didn’t get that inventory until it launched its ad-supported tier in November 2022.

Early on, Netflix’s ad tier encountered speed bumps on its way to viability. But two years after the streamer’s first upfront presentation, its commercial space is looking a lot more grown-up. Its 2025 upfronts pitch included details about new ad types, measurement updates for brands and agencies, and previews of upcoming shows, movies, and live events.

The epicenter of Netflix’s advertising operation is a newly-launched destination that has been dubbed the Netflix Ad Suite. That platform, currently available in the U.S. and Canada, offers a variety of analytical options. Advertisers can import first-party data while also working with approved third-party data partners like Experian and Acxiom. Netflix also announced new measurement tools, including one that connects viewer behaviors to brand perceptions.

Amy Reinhard, Netflix’s President of Advertising, argued that her platform offers access to a tapped-in audience. “When you compare us to our competitors, attention starts much higher and ends much higher,” Reinhard said. “And even more impressive, members pay as much attention to mid-roll ads as they do to the shows and the movies themselves.”

To leverage that collective attention, Netflix is buying into one of the main themes of this year’s upfronts season: AI-powered placements that connect brands to pivotal moments in specific properties. Reinhard talked about “interactive midroll and pause formats” that will combine overlays, calls to action, second screen buttons, and more to pair advertisers with the consumers that best match their goals.

Of course, even the best ad products are meaningless without a strong lineup of programming on which those tools can be applied. Netflix is bringing back some of its biggest hits, including Wednesday and Stranger Things. There isn’t a big creator presence among the streamer’s upcoming originals, but the slate does include a nod to one influencer spectacle: Amanda Serrano and Katie Taylor, who contested a thrilling undercard before last November’s Jake Paul-Mike Tyson fight, will face off once again on July 11.

Filed under: Articles, Featured, Homepage Feature, Netflix, News, Upfronts by Sam Gutelle
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YouTube went onstage with big stars and big stats at its annual Brandcast, which for the fourth year running took place during the TV-focused Upfronts in New York City. The internet’s largest video site already dropped some numbers at last week’s digital-focused NewFronts, where it talked up its ad formats and performance stats to the media and marketing execs who are expected to spend over $10 billion this year to reach consumers online.

At the Upfronts? It swung big with Nielsen data showing that not only is it the #1 streaming service in the U.S. by watch time (and has been for the past 2+ years), it’s also been the #1 most-watched distributor of content across broadcast, cable, and streaming in the U.S. since February 2025.

And this, it tells brands and marketers, is a significant deal, because as of Q1 2025, TV is the primary device U.S. viewers use to watch YouTube.

But what’s generating all that watch time?

YouTube was quick to zero in on what draws viewers to consume more content on its platform than any other. That, of course, is the creators who make said content.

YouTube is an “epicenter of culture” 20 years in the making

YouTube tapped several creators as the faces of this year’s Brandcast, including MrBeast, Brittany Broski, IShowSpeed, and Hot Ones co-creator/host Sean Evans. They joined execs Neal Mohan (CEO), Mary Ellen Coe (CBO), and Sean Downey (President, Google) as examples of what high-performing creators on YouTube can achieve, from running multimillion-dollar charitable projects (and businesses) to creating some of the internet’s most talked about celebrity interviews.

(There were also notable musical guests: YouTuber/TikToker Alex Warren was the opener for powerhouse Lady Gaga. Considering Benson Boone opened Brandcast in 2024 and went on to perform at the next Grammys thanks to his massive hit “Beautiful Things,“ we’ll say this might indicate a career boost in Warren’s future.)

YouTube’s execs also made sure to kick things off with focus on the platform’s recent 20th anniversary–and where it plans to go from here, with more people than ever wanting to become content creators.

“In just two decades, YouTube has fundamentally reshaped how we watch and create entertainment,” Mohan said. “What started as a simple site with grainy, unscripted videos is now a force driving culture. When Charlie’s dad uploaded a video of his kids to YouTube in 2007, the term ‘creator’ didn’t even exist. Now it’s a dream career for millions of people all around the world.”

He added, “Today, YouTube has become the epicenter of culture. And I don’t mean short-lived fads or a one-off hit show, I mean culture with a capital C. The place where, day after day, year after year, the events, conversations, and voices that define the moment break through. That’s where we are today, but what comes next is even more exciting: a generational shift in how, what, and why we watch.”

Speed used his time onstage to announce a new show, Speed Goes Pro, that’s square at the trendy intersection of creator content and sports (more on YouTube’s sports ambitions below…). He said that thanks to streaming on YouTube, he’s gotten to “travel the world, meeting people from all walks of life”–including athletes like Noah Lyles and Cristiano Ronaldo. Now Speed Goes Pro will follow him training with elite athletes from all sorts of sports.

“I’ll be showing you the world’s greatest athletes like you’ve never seen them before,” Speed said, adding that “none of this happens alone.”

“All these unbelievable moments, it’s all possible because of my fans,” he said.

More TV viewership = more ad conversions

With YouTube dominating TV viewership and its biggest creators planning more content, there’s lots of potential airtime for connected TV-specific ad formats, like the ‘pause-vertising’ YouTube introduced in September 2024. YouTube also pushes unskippable ads on TVs far more than digital, with some of those spanning up to 60 seconds long. (Those prompted viewer complaints, but we’re betting advertisers are pretty keen to have captive living room audiences for a full minute.)

YouTube’s been somewhat closemouthed about the performance of those ad formats so far, but at Brandcast, it said CTV campaigns now drive more than 50 million conversions per month on average. That equals out to a 4.5x higher return on ad spend than ads placed on streaming TV, it added.

Viewers seem to have a pretty positive outlook on YouTube’s branded content, too, whether that content is ad placements, creator partnerships, or general chatter about brands. YouTube says a recent study from Kantar shows 82-83% of U.S. viewers think YouTube has the most trustworthy creators and the most trustworthy content, compared to creators on linear TV programs, Netflix, Disney+, Amazon Prime Video, Max, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Snapchat. Kantar’s data also showed YouTube is the #1 platform consumers use when they want to research products, brands, and services.

The pipeline from consumer curiosity to CTV conversions “shows the real strength of YouTube,” Downey said onstage. “It’s the chance to drive from discovery to decision in one platform…So if you think you’ve seen everything YouTube can do for your business, it’s time to think bigger.”

New ads, who dis?

To help brands “think bigger,” YouTube also announced new ad formats that will activate when big things are happening. First up is Peak Points, which is built on the bones of Google’s AI Gemini, and will “identify and match ads with culturally relevant ‘peak moments’ in popular YouTube content–moments where audiences are most likely to be engaged,” YouTube says.

Next is Cultural Moment Sponsorships, where YouTube will work with brands to place ads around major holidays and events like Hollywood awards season, Black Friday, and the PGA Championship.

“This new package puts brands at the heart of the moment, with a high share of voice and brand integrations with the content viewers love,” it said. It cited case studies with Hilton and State Farm, which partnered with YouTube for campaigns around events like the Grammys, PGA Championships, and F1 races. Hilton saw a 5x return on ad spend, while State Farm’s campaign is ongoing and will give it 100% share of voice takeovers on relevant golf channels like Grant Horvat and Good Good.

YouTube also plans to expand shoppable CTV ads with an interactive product feed powered by the “Google Merchant Center,” that’ll let TV viewers scroll through products and buy directly on their devices. inb4 the next TikTok Shop?

As for what these ads will run against, YouTube announced two things: an expansion of its NFL partnership, and a feature called Shows on TV first announced at Made On YouTube last September. As Mohan laid out during that event, Shows on TV will give creators the ability to separate long-running content series into seasons, with an episode select UI similar to something like Netflix. YouTube specifically cites Michelle Khare‘s Challenge Accepted and Rhett & Link‘s Good Mythical Morning as shows that fit this format. Maybe Speed Goes Pro will be a future addition?

Sounds like this will take some of the playlist management burden off creators whose libraries include years’ worth of serial content, and make it easier for viewers to find older content in an ongoing series they enjoy.

re: the NFL, YouTube has had a partnership with the league since 2015, and in 2023 that partnership went big with YouTube winning rights to the NFL Sunday Ticket, a subscription package that gives viewers access to all out-of-market games. YouTube’s paying the NFL $2 billion per season for these rights–and, after a successful first season with the Ticket, it’s been looking to splash more cash on exclusive NFL events.

We learned last month that YouTube was campaigning to acquire the exclusive streaming rights to the NFL’s first game of the 2025-2026 season, a matchup in São Paulo, Brazil. YouTube today revealed it won the rights–but unlike Sunday Ticket, which costs $378/year, this game will stream for free on the NFL’s YouTube channel, as part of the platform’s efforts to position itself as a sports destination on digital and TV.

Also coming to the YouTube x NFL partnership is an additional multiyear deal for the annual Super Bowl Flag Football Game, where content creators, artists, and other celebs face off. The first match, held during Super Bowl LIX earlier this year, pit Team IShowSpeed against Team Kai Cenat, and was a “breakout success,” YouTube says. Its broadcast drew over 6 million live views.

Filed under: Homepage Feature, Uncategorized by James Hale
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Hollywood power players are keen to get in bed with digital content creators, and Skybound Entertainment is the latest firm following that trend. The company that has incubated franchises like The Walking Dead and Invincible is linking up with YouTube notables through its acquisition of the creator management firm Nine Four Entertainment.

The terms of the deal were not disclosed. Nine Four will be incorporated into Skybound as the entertainment company’s digital creator and influencer representation arm. President Parker Oks will continue to lead the Nine Four team, which reps social media standouts like Jacksfilms (pictured above), I’m Dontai, and Jennelle Eliana.

Nine Four also has a business development arm, through which it has worked with its creator clients to launch spin-off brands and products. Entities developed through that operation include Eamon & Bec’s mindful tea company Habit and Markiplier’s clothing line Cloak.

Beverly Hills-based Skybound is hoping to keep the creator product pipeline flowing by building brands using a system it calls the Wheel of Awesome. Through that model, Skybound has turned its intellectual property into multiplatform empires spanning comics, TV, video games, and other media. It will apply its signature process to creator-led brands through an incubator launched in tandem with its new subsidiary.

“Skybound is a business built around a creator. From day one, we wanted to bring other creators onboard. And we have,” said Skybound CEO David Alpert in a statement provided to Tubefilter. “Parker and the team at Nine Four share this vision. We get to plug them and their creators into our wheel of awesome, and build businesses together. We couldn’t be more excited.”

As creators find success on streaming platforms and in the film world, studios and other Hollywood firms are racing to snap up as much creator-related IP as they can. Propagate Content, the producer of TV fare like Chopped, recently acquired a majority stake in influencer management company Parker. Bloomberg‘s report on that deal also noted that talent agency CAA is working with moralistic content creator Dhar Mann to amass a portfolio of YouTube channels.

Skybound’s acquisition will give it a direct link to that world. As creators continue to level up, Nine Four’s move will help the names in its creator roster get ready for their respective close-ups.

Filed under: Articles, Featured, Homepage Feature, News by Sam Gutelle
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