Meta is turning Facebook‘s secondhand store into a holiday shopping hub. On Facebook Marketplace, users can peruse a handful of shoppable collections curated by top creators.
The seasonal collections can be found on the Facebook Marketplace Holiday Shop, where visitors will find varied collections that serve a diverse array of gift-giving needs. Shoppers on the lookout for the latest tech gadgets can head over to iJustine’s emporium, while buyers looking for kid-friendly items can turn to The HoldernessFamily. The holiday initiative makes use of the recently-launched Collections feature on Marketplace. (YouTube rolled out a similar product last year.)
The curated hub can be found by searching “Holiday Shop” within the Marketplace tab. “Facebook is continuing to boldly celebrate how we connect people this holiday season,” reads a blog post. “Discover something truly special on the Facebook Marketplace Holiday Shop — where every gift tells a story and every connection goes a long way.”
Ever since Mark Zuckerberg pledged to return to the spirit of “OG Facebook,” Marketplace has played an increased role in the platform’s overall strategy. Though the ecommerce hub only launched in 2016, more than a decade after Facebook’s debut, it has been celebrated for its screaming deals, eclectic interactions, and outsized cultural impact.
Facebook promoted Marketplace earlier this year, when staffers crossed the country in an Airstream van to highlight local vendors and commune with shoppers IRL. Now, as platforms like Pinterest look to siphon off some of Facebook’s share of the secondhand shopping market, Meta is sprucing up Marketplace to serve holiday season needs.
One question worth asking is “why now?” TikTok Shop just blew away expectations during the weekend that began on Black Friday, but the Facebook Marketplace Holiday Shop is only being announced now, after the conclusion of Cyber Monday. It may seem like curious timing, but there’s some sense to it. Speaking from personal experience, Facebook Marketplace is the haven of last-second shoppers. Many people out there still need to cross off wish list items, and Marketplace is making it easier to accomplish that task in a cost-efficient manner.
Filed under: Articles, Facebook, Featured, Homepage Feature, News by Sam Gutelle Comments Off on Facebook Marketplace rings in the holiday season with curated creator collections
Black Friday has become a pivotal moment for the ecommerce industry, and in 2025, the shopping holiday delivered a big win for TikTok. Through its retail platform TikTok Shop, the ByteDance-owned app set new sales records in both the U.S. and the U.K.
Let’s start on our side of the Atlantic, where consumers flocked to TikTok during the four-day period that begins on Black Friday and ends on Cyber Monday. Last year, on Black Friday alone, TikTok Shop generated $100 million of U.S. sales, with at least one lucky creator hauling in $2 million from a single shoppable stream.
That was a nice start for a platform that was then in its nascent stages, but TikTok Shop’s 2025 holiday performance has been even stronger so far. By hauling in $500 million of U.S. sales between Black Friday and Cyber Monday, the ecommerce hub averaged $125 million of daily sales over the four-day period.
If you’re not sure how TikTok is feeling about its Black Friday sales, the company’s employees can put the achievement into perspective. “Not bad for official year two,” one TikTok Shop staffer told Business Insider.
Amazon still owns a much bigger pie of the U.S. ecommerce market than TikTok Shop does, but the latter platform isn’t limiting itself to a single market. It blew past expectations in the U.K. as well, where it earned its “biggest sales day in its UK history.” On Black Friday, TikTok Shop sellers in the U.K. sold 27 items every second.
And those huge numbers weren’t just a TikTok Shop thing. eMarketer reported that live bidding platform Whatnot tripled its performance year-over-year by taking in $75 million on Black Friday 2025.
But data from the U.K. suggests that smaller vendors are also part of TikTok’s ecommerce boom. The total number of U.K. sellers who generated sales during the Black Friday period went up 85% year-over-year.
Ultimately, TikTok Shop’s success is based on its ability to turn out new shoppers at all price points. That’s how the platform amassed $19 billion in quarterly sales, and its 2026 outlook seems even brighter still.
If you think you can Steal a Brainrotbetter than anyone else in the world, you might soon get the chance to prove it. On December 4, Roblox is going live with the Creator Showdown, a $50,000 gauntlet that could serve as the sandbox game’s introduction into the world of esports.
Creator Showdown takes eight popular Roblox creators off the screen and brings them to Los Angeles, where they are competing in teams of two across multiple rounds of Roblox gameplay. The headliner in the player lineup is Caylus, who YouTube recently ranked as its second-biggest creator of 2025 (trailing only MrBeast). He’ll be joined by Katrina Buno, Steak, Foltyn, MeEnyu, Cakemiix, IBella, and Nico. Robloxer Bundun will host the event alongside esports commentator aEvilCat.
The participants will be tested across a variety of Roblox games, spanning genres like survival, third-person shooter, platforming, and soccer. Fans who hang out in The Block, a virtual entertainment hub, will be able to claim exclusive items while also determining the game that will be played in the final round of the Showdown.
Roblox is on track to pay out more than $1 billion to its creator community in 2025. Despite the platform’s staggering growth, its competitive scene is still in its early days. As notable pieces of Roblox IP evolve into multimedia franchises (e.g. Grow a Garden), the Creator Showdown is providing an opportunity to cast a wider net and bring new types of players into the sandbox’s community.
“The Roblox Creator Showdown is more than a competition; it’s a celebration of the creativity and energy that make Roblox unique,” reads an official description of the event. “Together, we’re building a competitive space that feels distinctly Roblox, and this is just the beginning. As creators keep pushing boundaries, this space will evolve—and we’re excited to continue shaping it alongside the creator community.”
These days, it feels like nothing can stop Roblox’s upward trajectory, but the move into esports is nevertheless a risky one. The state of the esports industry is as fraught as it has ever been. Major teams are struggling to stay afloat, notable games are losing players, and investors are hesitant to put more capital into what could be a sinking ship.
If any entity in the gaming world can reverse those trends, it’s Roblox. The platform’s ad offerings are becoming more sophisticated, player numbers are booming, and creator payouts are on the rise. Roblox has already figured out a path to financial sustainability, and if esports is going to be part of that plan, then the Creator Showdown is a means of testing the proverbial waters.
Jimmy Donaldson wants to turn Beast Industries into the biggest creator-led enterprise we’ve ever seen. At the New York Times‘ DealBook Summit, the man known as MrBeast explained how he plans to pull off that feat.
Alongside Beast Industries CEO Jeffrey Housenbold, Donaldson joined DealBook Founder Andrew Ross Sorkin for a two-on-one conversation. The star creator and his chief executive explained the three-pronged structure they are using to move beyond YouTube and expand into fields as diverse as telecommunications, influencer marketing, and confections.
The best-known of those three prongs encompasses the MrBeast content empire, which now reaches a YouTube-leading 453 million subscribers (and counting) through its primary hub. That segment currently accounts for half of Beast Industries’ revenue, but Donaldson wants to bring more variety into the company while also making it sustainable outside of his personal appearances in videos.
“I hope people like me, but it’s not fundamentally why we get 200 million views every video,” Donaldson told Sorkin. “It’s because we do these crazy concepts.”
The other prongs of Beast Industries introduce the variety Donaldson is seeking. The division dedicated to consumer goods will soon encompass a mobile phone company to go along the consumables brand Feastables and other existing bets.
The third head of the Beast Industries cerberus is something brand new. Donaldson and Housenbold plan to launch a platform that will play the matchmaker between creators and major corporate sponsors. Housenbold said that his team is “building a two-sided marketplace in a global creator platform, matching creators with Fortune 1000 marketers who want to be able to access the creator influencer economy in an efficient way to be able to build demand for their products and services.”
Specific details related to that marketplace haven’t been made public yet, but it would serve as a competitor to a growing number of similar platforms. Agentio and ShopMy are two companies that have recently raised eight-digit funding rounds by positioning themselves as efficient matchmakers within the creator economy.
To break into that industry, Beast Industries doesn’t need to reinvent the wheel. Just like ViewStats is “stats platform plus MrBeast” and Vyro is “clipping tool plus MrBeast,” the matchmaking service could attract users by offering the trade secrets of the world’s most successful creator.
The more pertinent question is, “what about the investors?” Will they show up to provide Beast Industries with the capital a $5 billion company needs? And will the public ever get a piece of Beast Industries through an initial public offering?
On the IPO front, Housenbold offered a tentative yes. “At some point, we want to be able to give the 1.4 billion unique people around the world who has watched Jimmy’s content the last 90 days a chance to be owners of the company,” he said on the DealBook stage.
The first few creator IPOs have produced mixed results. For FaZe Clan, a public offering turned into an infamous flop. But ‘Baby Shark’ creators Pinkfong have fared a bit better in the first month post-IPO.
The numerous controversies swirling around the MrBeast name could complicate Donaldson’s funding plan, but bets against the North Carolina-based world beater haven’t panned out thus far. In 2025, MrBeast was the biggest thing on YouTube, just like he was in 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024. If he could put together the biggest creator-led IPO ever, that would only be fitting.
Filed under: Articles, Featured, Homepage Feature, MrBeast, News by Sam Gutelle Comments Off on Coming soon to Beast Industries: Brand-creator matchmaking, a MrBeast phone, and maybe an IPO
YouTube and Spotify aren’t the only platform recapping the past 12 months. Twitch has also dropped its rundown of the streamers, categories, and trending topics that defined its 2025.
Twitch organized its year-end recap as a collection of 25 Clips that exemplify its culture and highlight some of the biggest streamer moments of the year. The resulting collage depicts a transitional moment for the Amazon-owned hub, which is moving beyond its gaming roots to incorporate a varied array of categories.
The platform’s inclusive approach allowed it to generate nearly 900 million hours of watch time while counting 45 billion chat messages and attracting nine million new streamers (including Justin Bieber). IRL streams were one of the year’s biggest winners, as that category’s Twitch watch time nearly tripled year-over-year.
Despite all of that change, Twitch’s ranking of top creators hasn’t shifted too much since 2024. Kai Cenat and Ibai delivered the year’s top streaming moments, just as they did in 2024. And “Just Chatting” remains the biggest category on Twitch.
“This year we came together like never before to stream, hang, and co-create like no place else,” reads the preamble to Twitch’s recap. “From viral tracks to broken records, celeb stream crashers to outer space exploits, the best moments happened live.”
A lot has changed on Twitch since 2024, so we can expect 2026’s recap to bring plenty of surprises as well. In the meantime, if you’d like to see a more personalized summary of your 2025 Twitch activity, all you need to do is log into your account.
Filed under: Articles, Featured, Homepage Feature, News, Twitch by Sam Gutelle Comments Off on Twitch recaps top trends from the 900 million hours of watch time it accrued in 2025
With two months to go until the start of the 2026 Winter Olympics, official broadcaster NBC is clarifying the role creators will play during the Games. Its parent company, NBCUniversal, is relaunching the Creator Collective that was first established ahead of the 2024 Paris Olympics.
In 2024, NBCU sent 27 creators to the City of Lights, where those social media tastemakers provided on-the-ground coverage and analysis. Two years later, another cohort of 25+ creators will head to the two Italian cities — Milan and the ski resort Cortina d’Ampezzo — that will host Winter Olympic events.
The members of the 2026 Creator Collective include stars from YouTube, TikTok, and Meta. The YouTube contingent includes Cleo Abram and Jordan Howlett, TikTok will be represented by the likes of Anna Sitar and Ashley Yi, and Meta will deliver some Italian flavor via Lionfield and QCP.
“With the 2024 Paris Summer Olympic Games, NBCUniversal recognized early on that social media has allowed us to connect with the world in a different way,” NBC Sports EVP of Advertising Sales and Partnerships Peter Lazarus told The Hollywood Reporter. “We saw tremendous results, garnering nearly 300 million views across our Creator Collective, which is why we have brought it back for the 2026 Milan Cortina Olympic Winter Games.”
NBCU is hoping that those creator cameos will help deliver strong social media returns, as they did in 2024. The network’s digital viewership surged during the Paris Games, and YouTube ended up hauling in 40 billion minutes of Olympic watch time all on its own.
Even if creators contributed to that uptick, their coverage didn’t exactly receive rave reviews. Alex Cooper, for example, brought some of her Gen Z fans to NBC by appearing on the network during the Paris Games. At the same time, detractors argued that Cooper was a poor fit for international sports coverage.
Those complaints have only grown louder as creators have become more present within the pro sports landscape. When YouTube broadcast an NFL game live from Brazil, some viewers felt that they were being force-fed MrBeast, even though he possessed only a limited amount of football knowledge.
It feels as if broadcasters like NBC are at an impasse. Creator integrations are an easy way to get young consumers more interested in sports, but those partnerships also risk alienating older viewers. NBC has been criticized in the past for focusing too much on human interest stories at the expense of raw Olympics coverage, so as the Peacock figures out how to incorporate creators into the Milan-Cortina Games, it should tread very carefully.
Filed under: Articles, Featured, Homepage Feature, News, Olympics by Sam Gutelle Comments Off on NBC wants to turn the Winter Olympics into a creator spectacle. Is that what viewers want?
Fortnite is more than just battle royales and branded experiences — it’s becoming a home for auteur cinema, too. Quentin Tarantino has made an unlikely appearance within Epic Games‘ virtual sandbox, where he has premiered a “lost chapter” of his revered Kill Bill franchise.
The short — titled The Lost Chapter: Yuki’s Revenge — was initially written into Kill Bill: Volume 1, but it was ultimately left on the cutting room floor. Though Tarantino himself admitted that “maybe the ship had sailed” on that particular chapter of his swordplay saga, a meeting with Epic Games changed his thinking. “They asked if I had something in the eight to twelve minute range that could be good for our purposes and make sure your iconic characters are wrapped up inside this,” Tarantino said.
As a result of those conversations, Yuki’s Revenge premiered within Fortnite on November 30. To celebrate the occasion, Epic Games debuted an on-theme outfit that lets players dress up like The Bride, Uma Thurman’s Kill Bill heroine.
Quentin Tarantino may seem like an unusual partner for Fortnite (even if he included Battle Royale on his list of the best movies of the 21st century), but he’s not the first filmmaker to dive into the world of metaverse-style experiences. James Cameron took that plunge when he teamed up with Meta to develop cinematic experiences for Quest headsets.
Partnerships between digital platforms and Hollywood legends were harder to pull off a decade ago, back when a deal between director Ridley Scott and multi-channel network Machinima failed to materialize. In the 2020s, however, virtual spaces like Fortnite and Roblox are important marketing vehicles for Hollywood’s floundering mainstream. Lionsgate, the distributor of the Kill Bill movies, turned to Roblox to promote Hunger Games prequel The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes.
Tarantino’s decision to get on board with Fortnite will help the battle royale game legitimize itself as an artistic medium. If the promotional event helps Lionsgate score a win with its upcoming theatrical rerelease of the Kill Bill saga, we could see many more classic films reinterpreted as pixelated spectacles.
The first-ever BRIDGE Summit is here, bringing 60,000 attendees–ranging from Fortune 500 CEOs and government representatives/policymakers to investors, humanitarian foundations, academics, and of course content creators–to the ADNECCentre in Abu Dhabi for a three-day multimedia conference.
We’ve already given you a sneak peek of the event’s roster of 400+ expert speakers (among them Idris Elba, GaryVaynerchuk, Alexis Ohanian, and Michelle Khare) as well as its set of sprawling programming tracks. Now, in the official Tubefilter Guide to BRIDGE Summit, we’re listing out what we consider to be some of the top panels, discussions, fireside chats, and workshops across all three days and all seven tracks.
There’s a lot happening at BRIDGE Summit, so occasionally our suggestions may overlap one another’s time slots. In that case, we suggest going with the session on the programming track that most appeals to you.
Check out our guide right here:
Monday, Dec. 8
10:30 a.m.: Democratising the Role of the Creator in a Global Content World with Idris Elba (Picture track)
11-11:15 a.m.: Order and Oversight in a World Run by Codewith Omar Sultan Al Olama, the UAE’s first Minister of State for Artificial Intelligence (Technology)
11:15-11:45 a.m.: A Blueprint for Building Iconic Media Brands with Vox Media co-founder/CEO Jim Bankoff, Sir Martin Sorrell of S4 Capital, and Bloomberg Chief Commercial Officer Christine Cook (Technology)
1-1:30 p.m.: The Economics of Attention with Human Ventures General Partner Joe Marchese, Abhinav Kumar–Global Chief Marketing Officer of Tata Consultancy Services–and Zengxin Li, Deputy General Manager of Caixin Global (Marketing)
1-1:30 p.m.: Fighting for Depth in a Shallow Media World with Branko Brkic, Leader of Project Kontinuum; Rob Kelly, Content Strategy Director at Little Dot Studios; and Sulemana Braimah, Executive Director of Media Foundation for West Africa (Media)
1-1:30 p.m.: How Creators Are Building the Next Entertainment Giants with YouTuber Amit Sharma, School of Hard Knocks co-founder James Dumoulin, and Sara Al Refai, Managing Director at Edraak Media (Creator Economy)
1:10-1:30 p.m.: Alexis Ohanian on ‘Re-turning’ the Web (Technology)
1:30-2 p.m.: Global Blockbusters, Local Roots with actors Chris Pang, Osric Chau, and Ross Butler (Picture)
2:40-3:10 p.m.: Intellectual Property at the Edge of Innovation with Prof. Renée Cummings from the School of Data Science at the University of Virginia; Neil Mandt, founder & CEO of Digital Rights Management; and Yat Siu, co-founder & Executive Chairman at Animoca Brands (Technology)
2:45-2:55 p.m.: Superintelligence: The Next Frontier of Human Connection with Meta EMEA VP Derya Matras (Creator Economy)
3-3:15 p.m.: Taste as a Cultural Bridge with content creator chefs Abu Julia and Abir El Saghir (Creator Economy)
3:10-3:20 p.m.: The Future of Streaming Monetization Models with Roman Shimanskiy, CEO of Yango Play (Picture)
3:10-3:40 p.m.: How the Gulf and Africa Are Rewriting the Media Map with Dr. Yemisi Akinbobola, co-founder & CEO at African Women in Media and Associate Professor at Birmingham City University; and Claude Grunitzky, CEO & Managing Partner at The Equity Alliance (Media)
3:15-3:35 p.m.: Sounds That Speak Every Language with singer/songwriters Aziz Maraka and Faia Younan (Music)
3:55-4:05 p.m.: Meet FlightCast – What Makes Steven Bartlett Fly with FlightCast founder/CEO Rox Codes (Technology)
4:05-4:25 p.m.: Entertainment as a Bridge Between Nations with Sanford Climan, CEO of Entertainment Media Ventures; and Brent Montgomery, CEO of Wheelhouse (Picture)
5:25-5:40 p.m.: Can Creators Save Hollywood? with Creator Camp co-founder/CEO Max Reisinger (Creator Economy)
5:40-5:55 p.m.: From Melodies to Multiplayers with Mac Reynolds, CEO of Night Street Games and manager of band Imagine Dragons (Music)
Tuesday, Dec. 9
9:30-10 a.m.: Culture as the Bridge of Understanding with David Unger, founder & CEO of Artist International Group; Darnell Strom, UTA’s Head of Europe; and Zaria Parvez, Head of Social at DoorDash (Marketing)
10-10:30 a.m.: Mastering Your Craft in a World Obsessed with More with actress Priyanka Chopra Jonas (Picture)
10-10:40 a.m.: How Athletes and Celebrities Drive Attention, Influence, and Investment with Danny Cortenraede, founder & Managing Partner at InStudio Ventures; James Frewin, International Managing Director of the Professional Fighters League; and Roman Di Somma, Head of International Talent at CAA Sports (Marketing)
10:15-10:30 a.m.: Reclaiming Focus in the Age of Infinite Scroll with content creator Omarfruitflan and director/producer/GlamBOT operator Cole Walliser (Creator Economy)
10:30-10:40 a.m.: Worlds Without Endwith video game creator/developer/executive PlayerUnknown(Gaming)
10:35-10:55 a.m.: Privacy, Safety, and Integrity in Modern Media with Gregory Galant, co-founder & CEO of Muck Rack and The Shorty Awards (Media)
10:45-11:15 a.m.: How to Go from Zero to a Million Streams with Damon Bunetta, CEO at Big Family Music; Gordan Dillard, co-founder & co-CEO at Good Day Management; and George Karalexis, co-founder & CEO of Ten2 Media (Music)
11:05-11:20 a.m.: The Next Chapter of Connection with Snap Inc. VP and General Manager of MENA Hussein Freijeh (Technology)
11:10-11:40 a.m.: Breaking Down the Creator Monetization Stack with Andrew Graham, Head of Business Development at CAA Creators (Creator Economy)
11:35-11:55 a.m.: Gen Z, Gen Give: Philanthropy Through Youth and Story with content creator Roshaun Diah(Creator Economy)
12-12:20 p.m.: Whose Reality Are We Really Living In with UTA’s Head of Next Gen, Ziad Ahmed; and Anna Jupowicz-Ginalska, Associate Professor at the University of Warsaw and Vice President and Board Member of the European Media Management Association (Creator Economy)
12:10-12:40 p.m.: e.l.f. 1: Formula for the Fearless with e.l.f. Cosmetics CMO Kory Marchisotto (Marketing)
12:45-1:15 p.m.: Founders’ Playbook to Studio Survival and Growthwith Robbie Daymond, actor and CEO of Sassy Chap Games; and Kim Nordstrom, CEO of PLAYERUNKNOWN Productions (Gaming)
1:30-1:50 p.m.: The World’s Creative Future Platformed by TikTok with Kinda Ibrahim, TikTok’s Regional General Manager of Operations across the Middle East, Africa, South Asia, and Central Asia (Media)
1:50-2:10 p.m.: What Happens When Creators Become Policymakers? with YouTuber and European Parliament Member Fidias Panayiotou (Creator Economy)
2-2:30 p.m.: Opportunities and Challenges in the Global Picture Businesswith actor Jared Harris and Cindy Cowan, Oscar-Nominated & Emmy-Winning Producer at Cindy Cowan Entertainment (Picture)
2:20-2:50 p.m.: Intellectual Property Is Personal Now with Dave Page, CEO of Viewture, and Aaron Liao, founder & CEO of OBS Culture Technology and OBS Investment (Creator Economy)
3:05-3:30 p.m.: Longform’s Next Act with Mo Abudu, CEO of EbonyLife Group; Forbes EVP Moira Forbes; and Stephanie Mehta, CEO & Chief Content Officer at Fast Company & Inc. (Media)
3:50-4:10 p.m.: Creators as the New Broadcasters with YouTuber Alan Chikin Chow (Creator Economy)
4:15-4:35 p.m.: Safe Digital Spaces and Powering Youth’s Rise in Global Media with Jawaher Abdelhamid, Snap Inc.’s Head of Public Policy MENA (Media)
4:55-5:25 p.m.: Creators Go From Lights, Camera, to Business with Mike Alnaji, CEO of Imfluence; Lewis Crosbie, founder & CEO at KOMI; and Gustaf Lundberg Toresson, founder of Sequel (Creator Economy)
5:10-5:40 p.m.: Building Brands People Believe In with Jordan Cuddy, EVP of Digital Products, Experience & Applied AI at Monks; Sarah Meron, Chief Corporate Affairs & Brand Officer at IBM; and Maggie Schmerin, Chief Advertising Officer at United Airlines (Marketing)
5:35-6:05 p.m.: After the Peak.. What’s Next for the Biggest Creators? with YouTuber Joe Hattab; Mohamed Omar, Strategic Partner Manager for Established Talents, Meta Platforms, Inc.; and Hassan Suleiman, content creator and co-founder of 8Flamez
Wednesday, Dec. 10
9:30-9:50 a.m.: Creating a Sport That Goes Viral with Kings League founder Gerard Piqué (Gaming)
10-10:20 a.m.: Preparing Youth for a World of Infinite Information with strategic communications and management consulting expert Sadeq Jarrar (Media)
11:05-11:35 a.m.: The Future Sounds Like This with Rolling Stone journalist Tomás Mier; Rawan Al Dabbas, Regional Director at IFPI MENA; and Jennifer Bowder, Head of Sync at Ultra Records (Music)
11:20-11:50 a.m.: The New Global Aesthetic with artist Del Nunes and Abdul Karim Abdullah, founder/CEO at Culture Management Group & AfroFuture (Creator Economy)
12:05-12:25 p.m.: Blueprints for Governing Digital Speech with Carole House, CEO at Penumbra Strategies and former Special Advisor to the White House; and Kristin Wood, CEO of August Interactive (Media)
12:05-12:25 p.m.: Making Education Content Go Viral with David Goldenberg, Creative Director & Head of Production & Partnerships at Neptune Studios; content creator Gohar Khan; and Driss Slaoui, founder & CEO at Welovebuzz (Marketing)
12:25-12:35 p.m.: Being Sellable in Today’s Attention Economy with TikTok’s General Manager of the Middle East, Turkey, Africa, and Central and South Asia, Shadi Kandil (Creator Economy)
1:30-2:30 p.m.: Content Business Meetup
3-3:20 p.m.: Building a Legacy That Speaks for Itself with FIFA Chief of Global Football Development Arsène Wenger (Media)
3:20-3:40 p.m.: Hollywood in the Agentic Era: How Talent Representatives are Evolving to Serve and Protect Artists with WME’s Head of Digital Strategy Chris Jacquemin (Media)
3:40-4 p.m.: Own Your Audience and Rewrite the Rules with Wyclef Jean, rapper and Chief Creative Officer at OpenWav; and Jaeson Ma, OpenWav co-founder/CEO
As you can see, this is quite a packed schedule–but it’s still only a portion of what BRIDGE Summit has to offer. You can see the full programming agenda here.
BRIDGE Summit is a Tubefilter partner.
Filed under: BRIDGE Summit, Homepage Feature by Tubefilter Staff Comments Off on Tubefilter’s official guide to BRIDGE Summit 2025
In our industry, it’s easy to celebrate wins. YouTube helped set the standard when it began giving creators plaques for hitting certain subscriber milestones, and we still see the digital content news cycle thriving with stories about entrepreneurial creators snagging big investments, landing Netflix deals, and generally leveling up, turning what was once their hobby into a full-fledged (and often lucrative) career.
But in the spaces between those stories, there are creators struggling. Some simply never manage to find their audience despite significant effort. Others do manage to find viewers, but grow tired of their niche or feel like things are becoming stale. Some are discouraged by platform changes; others hit a growth plateau and don’t know where to go next. Making videos is hard, and creators often don’t have anyone to guide them. They have to figure things out for themselves.
That’s what Minecraftcreator SystemZee has been doing. He was a teenager during YouTube’s early days, and grew up watching channels and creators like Smosh and Ray William Johnson. Once he realized he could upload content, too, he jumped into making things like classic machinimas about video games. With his channel up and running, he got a glimpse into the larger world of being a YouTuber.
“When I found out that there was a scale of achievements, like getting onto [the Machinima network] or getting partnered and having that beautiful old-school banner at the very top of your YouTube channel…I just got so excited about what I could achieve, and that was before I even knew you could make money,” he says.
This level of enthusiasm carried him into doing YouTube as a full-time thing. And for a while, things went well. But then SystemZee found himself trying to boost his content by leaning into a sort of “MrBeastification” element, with “overcomplicated game show elements”–things that his audience “just didn’t care” about, he explains. He also wanted to expand his operation, and started “trying to outsource it and then hire and scale at wrong times, in the wrong cases.”
“That destroyed my sense of self-worth and creativity,” he says. It ended up taking him years to recover. Even up until a few months ago, he felt shaky.
But now? He’s rediscovered his love of content, revitalized his channel, reconnected with his audience, and begun expanding his team–this time in a way that works for him.
We’ll let him tell you all about it below.
Tubefilter: I know you saw the first installment of this series, where I profiled Aprilynne Alter.
SystemZee: Aprilynne is awesome. I’ve seen several of her videos pop up on my feed. It’s so funny, I have horrible imposter syndrome. I feel like I’m so unorganized with the way I run my stuff. So this is gonna be fun.
Tubefilter: It’s hard to be an imposter when you have 1.7 million subscribers. But I get the feeling.
SystemZee: Yeah, but in today’s day and age, with Shorts and stuff…
Tubefilter: I get you. It’s skewed things a lot.
SystemZee: I know this is probably stuff we can get into, but the last few years have been a rollercoaster of nearly losing everything to rebuilding. So I’m coming at this with a new, humble vibe. I’m very, you know, “anything can go in a heartbeat” so I make sure I’m thankful constantly. But yeah, let’s roll. I’m excited.
Tubefilter: Let’s start from the beginning then. Tell me about your childhood. No, I’m joking. What were things like for you before you got into content? What led to you finding YouTube?
SystemZee: You said starting at childhood as a joke, but it really did start there. I had a pretty large family, and for some reason my parents kind of picked me in a way where they encouraged the arts. Playing piano or just drawing or whatever it may be, they were always just super hype about things I was making. And so I think that encouraged me to keep exploring.
There’s a great book called Outliers about being born at the right time. And I think I was born at the right time where I was at the right age to find YouTube in the very beginning. There was Smosh, Ray William Johnson…Very, very early. And I just fell in love with it. So I was hanging out with a childhood friend and we were like, Let’s make a YouTube channel. And I think our first video was literally like Windows Movie Maker, a slideshow of our favorite cars.
So we created that channel, and it didn’t really mean anything to him, but I just kept exploring. I started doing machinimas with Halo, and then I just learned everything I could about the YouTube world. When I found out that there was a scale of achievements, like getting onto [the Machinima network] or getting partnered and having that beautiful old-school banner at the very top of your YouTube channel…I just got so excited about what I could achieve, and that was before I even knew you could make money. So it was very early. Very early.
Tubefilter: So tell me about the development. You didn’t know you could make money, which was the case with many creators who started out back in the day. When did it go from sort of a fun thing to, “Oh, I can make money and have a career with this”?
SystemZee: I think like when I found out that people were making money. Which, I mean, again, I watched before anyone was even officially partnered to make money. But when YouTube partnership started opening up a little bit more, a friend of mine got the idea in my head that we would be able to actually join a company like Machinima. I started getting really excited about it, and a content creator that I watched, Generikb, was part of it. I started realizing these are adults and this is their job, I was like, Maybe I can do that.
I think at the time, it was so funny, I calculated how many views I would need to make $2,000 a month, because in my mind, I was set for life if I made $2,000 a month. [laughs] So that unlocked the possibility. I didn’t know what that would become. I didn’t know if that would be a thing where I genuinely have financial freedom, or if it was even going to be a full-time job. I didn’t really think of that. I didn’t care. It was a cool idea to just make money making stupid videos.
Tubefilter: I know you now have a more business-minded and analytical approach to YouTube in this era of MrBeastification, but you’re still able to have fun with it. I think that’s a real skill.
SystemZee: That’s actually a really good talking point there. Just FYI, a little backstory before I get into this. I’ve now been doing this for 15 years, making videos. And I’ve been full-time since 2018. It’s a complete bell graph of happiness, hating it, and happiness again.
I think everyone’s journey, everyone who’s in any sort of creative position and they monetize it or make it a business or explore that side of it, it’s a tough path. So when I ended up really disliking where I was at, it was a three, four year gap of just really struggling.
But I’m just now on the flip side, where even four months ago, I was still kind of in a scary place. Now I have some new lessons and new moves that I’ve learned and implemented. I’m back at a new peak, I feel like, for how much I love it. So many new ideas are coming that don’t even necessarily involve the channel, but are just centered around the community that I’m in. And like, I don’t know. I feel like I’ve got a good head on my shoulders now for longevity and where I’m at. And I think it took those years of hating it to really get here.
Tubefilter: What’s happened in the last year or so to change things?
SystemZee: It’s funny, to the topic of MrBeastification, I kind of obsessed with that for a while. And I think I’m someone who, I definitely chase perfectionism. I’m not unique in that, I know a lot of people also do. Something I’m having to still constantly remind myself is the details that don’t matter versus the ones that do. I really locked in on the thumbnails and the overcomplicated game show elements of Minecraft videos and trying to create this big world for myself with my content.
The truth was, my audience just didn’t care. And most Minecraft viewers really don’t like that kind of content. So I was trying to take a huge, viral game show element and stuff it into my own content. I met contacts in that side of the industry that gave me some advice that was great, but not necessarily great for my circumstances. And so after trying things, implementing things, seeing failure, trying different things…You can keep throwing paint at the wall, but the color’s not gonna stick if you don’t let the paint set. So it was just a lot of ups and downs of trying things and then getting discouraged and losing the beginning of it all. Like why I did it, why I loved it.
Also, trying to outsource it and then hire and scale at wrong times, in the wrong cases. That destroyed my sense of self-worth and creativity. Coupling that with external things–you can’t predict what’s gonna happen.
So it was just a lot at every angle, and it caused, like I said, a lack of confidence. I didn’t know what my audience wanted, so there was a huge disconnect. I would only see the negativity in the comments. I just didn’t want to do it anymore. I had several nights of genuinely thinking like, I’m gonna hang up the hat and move on and never do YouTube again. It got scary. So it’s really cool to be here on this side.
Tubefilter: I’m glad you made it through. I know you’re not alone in any of these challenges. I was just on a call with a creator who was presenting at VidSummit, and she is also hitting this place where it’s like, Should I hire? Should I not hire? To me, that’s one of the scariest inflection points for a creator.
SystemZee: I’ve spoken with large creators with 80+ employees, and all of ’em kind of said the same thing: Write down a mind map of what it takes to make a video, and from there figure out what you can outsource and what you can’t replace. What you have to do.
I did that and naturally went through that path. But you can start to get overly excited about what it looks like to hire for all of those bullet points. Taking as much as you can off your shoulders, but too fast. And like, sure, you’re freeing up your time, but you’re also losing your creativity, your control. You have to train people, suddenly there’s a lot more pressure on your shoulders. You really have to respect the beast that is your business and grow as necessary. You can’t grow faster than the speed you’re going at.
I’m just now at a point now where I’ve got an editor and they’re full-time, and then I just hired a full-time developer, so I also develop while they develop. That way, we can get ahead of schedule. Then I’ve got, for the other side of my business, which is the Minecraft Marketplace, I’ve got a time-contracted developer. It’s a three-man team and then me, and that feels perfect for where I’m at. I definitely think I can grow in there. But to reach this place, it was four months of completely restructuring and honestly getting super lucky again with algorithms.
Tubefilter: Tell me more about the Marketplace side of things.
SystemZee: The Marketplace. So I’d heard the Minecraft Marketplace was a pretty good platform, lots of potential. It’s extremely hard to get approved as a team. It’s over two years, I think, I got approved. I sat on that for two years after I got approved, and literally the month before we were about to release our first add-on, they closed my account for inactivity. So I was like, Please, no, I promise we’re gonna post. They reverted it, they’re super cool.
But yeah, I love making mods for Minecraft. I love game design, and I felt like I was only ever creating temporary little goofy mods for my videos. And, you know, I wanted a chance to create products that people can actually play and experience. I knew nothing about it, but I knew how to reach the people who did.
I had friends who’d had success with it, and I was able to get a ton of advice from so many different teams. I’m still definitely in the early stages of growing that side of the business. But I’m excited. I like it. We’re working on a third add-on right now. We’ve seen what works, and I’ve seen what doesn’t work. And it’s just fresh. It feels fun.
It’s lucky as well because what I do primarily is develop content, right? And then I make content out of that content. I’m able to divide it into two different businesses, with YouTube for videos and Shorts, and then on the Marketplace.
It’s a blessing in that I think it’s equivalent to other creators doing merchandise. Where one creator might sell coffee, I can’t necessarily sell coffee to my audience. Not that my audience needs to be sold things, but if there is something I can create that is marketable and monetizable in the Minecraft Marketplace, that’s kind of the merch shelf for my channel.
Tubefilter: What products have been most successful for you?
SystemZee: I’m pretty sure it’s public knowledge that there’s a lot of different products you can push on the marketplace. And every season, the product that wins is completely different. It used to be maps, sometimes skins, but now it’s add-ons. Add-ons are what we really locked in, because it’s sort of the equivalent of like a model–Minecraft Java edition. You’re able to do a lot with that, and they’re way less restrictive. You can do that, but you can only post for a year. The Marketplace is on a cycle, so if you post one and it does really well, that’s great, but then you might post another and it doesn’t, so it’s very volatile. I have heard from other teams that if you consistently update add-ons and you consistently create to a good standard, you can create a good blanket.
But all that is to say, this is before revenue sharing and all that kind of stuff. I worked with people to create those add-ons, so they obviously get a percentage. For a minute there, the revenue actually outperformed YouTube. That was definitely at a point before my channel got back off the ground. But I genuinely think that with the right dedication, the right time spent on it, that it could probably rival at least the current iteration of my channel’s revenue.
Definitely an exciting venture. It’s 100% worth it for any Minecraft creators. I think it’s a great way to give back to our communities, and you can make enough revenue to put quality back into it and create genuinely excellent product. There is insane stuff on the Marketplace, and there’s a large network of players. I think a lot of Minecraft content creators would probably benefit from exploring it.
Tubefilter: I guess the only other question is…Where do you go from here? You’ve come so far, what do your plans look like for the future?
SystemZee: Well, the mic drop answer is wake up tomorrow. But again, this is really good timing, and I feel like this is an answer I could definitely ramble around, so I hope you don’t mind.
Tubefilter: Not at all. Go for it.
SystemZee: Like I said, I’ve learned so much. I’d love to one day be able to have an interview just to talk about how I recovered, because I think that’s like a very valuable thing. So many creators go through that, where they’ve lost their stride and they start to see lower numbers, and it’s a trap. It’s horrible. And I think I thought it was impossible. I thought I was done. But I finally found a very clear path to get back in a good place. It definitely involves creative therapy.
The beautiful thing is– It could also be that I’m 29 years old, so obviously there’s experiences there, but I feel so much more clarity with what I want to do and where I’m going. I’ve been thinking about different ways to give back to my community. I had an awesome fundraiser idea pop up today, actually, that I’ve been talking with some friends about. I’m just getting more and more excited about things that really aren’t about me and aren’t about the channel.
Touching base with what I said earlier about people striving to be at the top, I don’t think there is a top of YouTube. I mean, you could argue it’s MrBeast, but I think just the fact that we’re able to make money doing this at all and reach people is crazy. So if you’re doing it and you’re sustaining, you’re doing great.
I think where I want to go from here…The people that have stuck around and invested in me by joining–like I said, full-time editor, and the developer I’ve been kind of on and off working with for a few years, they’re officially full-time now–I want to take care of them and I want to give them longevity. I want to create something bigger than just me here.
I’ve got a few different ideas for channels related to the brand and then also the Marketplace and other areas where I can expand. But waking up tomorrow, getting the next video out, that’s been what saved me. Just get the next video out. Just do it.
This series is sponsored by Spotter, a Tubefilter partner. Check them out here.
Filed under: Homepage Feature, Spotter by James Hale Comments Off on SystemZee had to change everything about how he makes content. Here’s how he saved his channel.
The biggest meme of 2023 is ready for its Hollywood close-up, but as Skibidi Toilet evolves into a full-fledged franchise, some of its devotees are wondering where (DaFuq) the brand’s creator has gone. Invisible Narratives, the company that is currently shepherding the Skibidi IP, has made a public response after fans inquired about the current role of Russian-born animator Alexey “Boom” Gerasimov.
Boom, as the creator of Skibidi Toilet is widely known, is one of the most unlikely success stories on a platform filled with unlikely success stories. He emerged out of obscurity to turn his YouTube home — titled DaFuq!?Boom! — into the most-watched channel on the platform. At the peak of Skibidi mania, Boom’s toilet-bodied characters (and their TV-headed rivals) were pulling nearly three billion views per month.
By the end of 2023, Skibidi was firmly ensconced at the apex of YouTube culture, and outside forces began swooping in. A 2024 partnership between Bonkers Toys and Invisible Narratives begat a line of bestselling toys. For the latter of those two companies, the retail push was just the beginning. Invisible Narratives is building a film and TV franchise based around Skibidi, with Hollywood blockbuster whisperer Michael Bay involved in the proceedings. The trailer for an upcoming spinoff with the subtitle Emergence recently dropped on the DaFuq!?Boom! YouTube hub.
Amid all of this excitement, there has been some confusion about Boom’s role. A widely-circulated tweet accused Invisible Narratives of pushing out Boom, and other fans questioned the sudden radio silence from a creator who had previously provided regular updates related to the Skibidi franchise. The hashtag #BringBoomBack is filled with missives from individuals who are worried about losing the soul of Skibidi.
In an attempt to quell the dissent, Invisible Narratives and Boom both provided statements to IGN. The studio confirmed that the original creator behind Skibidi has chosen to “step back” and give himself a much-needed break. Boom still has “an ongoing financial and creative stake in the franchise,” Invisible Narratives stated, but his new position will have him function more like an executive producer. He won’t be as active in Skibidi’s day-to-day operations or its communications with viewers, but he will still play a key creative role.
“I know some fans are worried about what this expansion of the series means. I ask you to trust the process,” Boom told IGN. “In my new role as executive producer, I’m still guiding the stories, characters, and the energy that make Skibidi what it is, but now I’ll have a larger support structure helping me bring it all to life. I built this world without a team, and you guys have taken it to a new level. Now, I get to have the support and resources to deliver more episodes, more characters, and more consistency, without losing the core of what started it all.”
With its connections to meme culture and its eclectic animation style, Skibidi has a chance to be the next Minecraft Movie once it arrives at the Hollywood box office. To reach that high potential, Invisible Narratives will have to contend with the franchise’s fanbase. We must keep in mind that Skibidi is a Gen Alpha cultural touchstone, and it’s probably that most of the people carping about Boom’s role are children. Can Invisible Narratives babysit the kids long enough to get its franchise up and running?
Even if Invisible Narratives can sell the course it’s setting for Skibidi, it will also have to endure the shifting winds of meme culture. Viewership on DaFuq!?Boom! is down from its 2023 peak, and Gen Alpha culture might just be moving too fast to make these toilet-headed characters into the next YouTube-to-Hollywood win. Time is of the essence — which is why Boom couldn’t tackle such a big animation project all on his own.
Filed under: Articles, Featured, Homepage Feature, News by Sam Gutelle Comments Off on As Skibidi tries to become a Hollywood franchise, some fans want to #BringBoomBack
It happened during COVID: We all, for a long period of time, became more online. Digital content had already been growing, and plenty of people were familiar with the vast trove of videos on established platforms like YouTube and Twitch, as well as (at the time) nascent platforms like TikTok. But in a time where most folks were locked inside, a perfect fusion happened: More people than ever found themselves with the time to watch content–and make it.
This surge in online creativity, combined with a collective worry about financial insecurity, led to generous support from viewers. They subscribed to Patreons, bought merch, and sent donations at record levels, all in the spirit of enabling creators to continue making the content they enjoyed watching.
And platforms recognized that spirit, introducing new and expanded ways to give, often with gamified rewards for donors.
Now, five years on, TikTok is taking a data-first look at how gifting impacts both creators and viewers of livestreams on its platform.
TikTok Live gifts have gotten spotlight during memeable moments like the rise of NPC streamers and that time a 9-to-5 TikToker quit his job and started asking for “galaxies” in exchange for answering questions. (Galaxies cost viewers about $15 each.) Day to day, though, these little virtual items—which cost between 1 cent and ~$560 and pop up with an in-stream animation when redeemed—are facilitating creator/fan interactivity and a significant part of creators’ earnings.
According to a study from Ipsos commissioned by TikTok, in 2025 over60,000 U.S.-based TikTok Live creators will make “more than the median part-time monthly income” from gift earnings. (That’s creators’ take-home after TikTok’s ~50% cut.)
The study, which took place in June and July 2025, asked 500 total people ages 18-49, 300 TikTok users and 200 non-users, about their knowledge and utilization of TikTok Live gifting.
It found that 68% of TikTok users have tried gifting on TikTok Live, and 50% are likely to use gifting in the next month.
As for reasons why viewers give gifts, the very top one clocks with the generous attitude we mentioned above: 35% of people said they send gifts on TikTok Live to “show appreciation for the creator’s content.”
34% of users cited two reasons for sending gifts: To “enhance the viewing experience with interactive elements,” and to “stand out or be noticed within the community of viewers.” 32% of respondents said they send livestream gifts to engage with the livestream’s content and/or other viewers, and 31% said they do it to “celebrate a milestone or special event in the creator’s life or channel.”
Ipsos also collected more specific comments from both “top” and “active” gifters.
Zoelando, whom it cited as a “top” gifter, said they send TikTok Live gifts because “[g]ifts convey positive emotions. To express friendship, I would choose Gifts such as the Flower Overflow where a door opens and all the flowers flow down.”
Meanwhile Peter, an “active” gifter, said, “Gifting to me is mainly to express support, making the LIVE creators happy when they see my Gift; or helping less well-known LIVE creators gain visibility, congratulating them on being seen by more people.”
His comment tracks with another stat Ipsos found: 1 in 5 U.S.-based creators will receive a TikTok Live gift from a viewer the very first time they go live.
Speaking of the creator side, Ipsos spoke with Vanessa aka @deliciousnessbakery, who founded her sweets business to honor her late mother. She joined TikTok Live because she wanted to host her own baking show–and, like many creators, she recognizes gifts from viewers by dancing along to the virtual items’ animations, even if she’s in the middle of piping cupcakes.
Ipsos and TikTok didn’t provide exact numbers, but said that within six months, Vanessa tripled her audience and six-times’d the amount of gifts she received. She currently has 123,000 followers.
“TikTok has massively improved my discoverability and helped me get my name out there,” she said. “I don’t think my business would be as successful without TikTok Live.”
@deliciousnessbakery 🎄 I’M BACK, NESS NATION! 🎄 After 2 weeks off, your girl is officially back in the kitchen and we have the BIGGEST week ever! 👇✨ 📅 THIS WEEK’S LIVE SCHEDULE 🍽 MONDAY — 10AM CST Meal Prep Monday is BACK! Come prep our weekly meals with me — all things savory, cozy, and delicious. Let’s reset together. ✨ 🎅 TUESDAY — 5:45PM–7PM CST TIKTOK TV RETURNS! It’s ALL things Christmas this week and this episode is going to be BOMB. Holiday baking, festive magic, and so many surprises. Don’t miss it! 🎄✨ ❤️ THURSDAY — FEEDING AMERICA SPECIAL Join me for a special LIVE dedicated to helping families this holiday season. We’re raising funds for Feeding America — $1 = 10 meals for people in need. Come bake, hang out, and make a real impact with me. 🧡🍞 🎂 FRIDAY — 9AM CST Custom cake morning! Let’s build something beautiful together. ✨ 🎂 SATURDAY — 9AM CST Another custom cake morning — festive designs, holiday vibes… you already know it’s going to be GOOD. 🎄🧁 🎥 PLUS… VLOGMAS IS HERE!! My first ever Vlogmas — 25 days of fun, chaos, baking, pregnancy moments, and holiday magic. ✨ Short daily videos here on TikTok ✨ FULL 20-minute episodes every day on YouTube! (Link in bio — come subscribe!) I’m so excited to spend December with you. Let’s make it the most magical month yet. 🤍🎄✨ #tiktokliveschedule#tiktoktv#deliciousnessbakery♬ merry xmas – canistrs
Much like it’s done with affiliate marketing and TikTok Shop, TikTok used this study to stress how on its platform, anyone can be a livestreamer. “Compared to a traditional advertising or sponsorship-driven model, gifting democratizes success,” Ipsos wrote. “Creators do not need to have millions of followers in order to start monetizing their livestream content. On TikTok and YouTube, creators can start livestreaming and monetizing as long as they are aged 18 and above, and have a follower count ranging from 50 to 900.”
Jessica Phan, Ipsos’ SVP & Senior Client Officer of Tech & Media, said that ultimately, viewer-given virtual gifts are “something fundamentally different.”
“Livestream gifting has introduced an immediacy and intimacy that those early interactions never could achieve,” she said. “It’s no longer about reacting after the fact–it’s about being present, visible, and influential in the very moment of creation. When a viewer sends a gift to the livestream, they’re not just expressing appreciation; they’re becoming part of the performance itself.”
Filed under: Homepage Feature, TikTok by James Hale Comments Off on On TikTok Live, viewers are buying enough virtual gifts to pay 60,000 creators a part-time salary (Exclusive)
Welcome to our rundown of the most-watched branded YouTube videos of the week.
We’re publishing this snippet of a larger Gospel Stats Weekly Brand Report in order to analyze sponsorship trends in the creator economy. Any video launched in tandem with an official brand partner is eligible for the ranking.
And – as the name up above would imply – all the data comes from Gospel Stats. If you’re interested in learning more about Gospel – and which brands are sponsoring what creators on YouTube – click here. You can also download our YouTube 2025 Sponsorship Landscape Reporthere.
I’m convinced: Fortnite is simply unkillable. It had some astronomical events around 2020 (pun fully intended), but seemed to go through a lull as other battle royale games entered the arena. Apex Legends, for example, is less of a party game and proved a seroius combatant; it has a grittier, more realistic vibe, and appeals to an adult audience interested in long-term storytelling with fleshed-out characters.
But Fortnite stuck around through that boom and doubled down on storytelling and flashy IP partnerships. Now that Apex is in a tough spot with thin lore and a recent, controversial sale to Saudi Arabia brokered by Jared Kushner, Epic Games‘ title is surging.
More on that below–along with, of course, the requisite MrBeast presence and a TikTok Shop chaser.
Look, in our current era of AI slopification, I think more people should listen to Drew Gooden and Hank Green. But the inevitable bubble burst looming on the horizon isn’t stopping people from asking whether humans will be replaced by robots. Mostly that question is asked in ways that make me feel endless existential dread (do we really need LLMs to make art for us? Become our BFFs? Think for us? Kiss our wives for us?), but MrBeast is asking in a mostly fun way.
His 18-minute video asks this question in a way that pits the world’s top-physically-performing humans against robots. Can the fastest man on Earth outrace a bot? Can the strongest man on Earth outwrestle a giant mech? (Do we hear the faint sound of The Rock‘s next movie plot?)
On Nov. 29, over 10 million players gathered live for Fortnite‘s Zero Hour, a massive multiuniverse event that concluded its long-running Chapter 6 (as well as a Simpsons mini-season) and brought our intrepid heroes to a new island, and thus a new map on which to slay one another over and over and over.
Ahead of the event, Fortnite developer Epic Games set up quite the creator-driven promo–a promo so successful, it took up spots #2, #3, and #4 in this week’s Gospel Stats Weekly Brand Report top 5. It’s not unusual to see the same creators or even the same brand partners pop up two or three times on the list. But three spots being taken up by the same campaign is pretty wild.
The top-performing video of the campaign came from SPLShortStories, who has ~80,000 subscribers and racked up nearly 24 million views with his 60-second preview of Zero Hour and Season 7.
Fortnite‘s next top-performing video came from LEGIQN, a gaming-focused creator who normally brings between 1 and 2 million views per month. That’s a smaller view count than big brands typically pick (just like SPLShortStories has a smaller subscriber count than brands typically prefer), but his entire channel is full of Fortnite, and considering this video got nearly 14 million views, it’s clear the passion paid off.
Epic Games put a lot of effort into promoting the Zero Hour live event and its new game chapter–and that’s not a surprise, considering the game has been ramping up its IP partnerships. Its sprawling Marvel partnership, which kicked off in 2018, was arguably its first major IP, and since then it’s partnered with everything from Star Wars to Hatsune Miku. Season 6 was marked by a collaboration with TheSimpsons, and Zero Hour followed a massive Ready PlayerOne-esque fight where Homer Simpson and Godzilla were among those battling to save the Fortnite universe from the evil Dark Presence.
Meta poured so much money into trying to make the metaverse a thing, but Roblox and Fortniteare really just out here doing it. Between the aforementioned Ready Player One fight and the fact that Fortnite is becoming the home for things like a once-lost Kill Billspinoff…Could Fortnite be where we all live our second lives in the year 2035?
Maybe. Maybe not. Either way, we saw the power Epic Games‘ flagship title holds this week. While Micawave is the last creator to make our top 5 with a Fortnite video (a 30-second preview clip that racked up ~13M views), he’s not the last Epic partner of the week. A total of six creators made videos about Zero Hourand Chapter 7. Now that the holidays are over and gamers are getting back into routine, we’ll see if all that promo pays off.
But Chanel can promote itself, too. It partnered with Art21, an organization that produces video interviews with artists across various media, for a new Shorts series called IRL/url. Each installment features a different artist talking about how they view the world, both “in real life” and through the computer screen where they make their art. This episode, which got nearly 200,000 views, profiled Sara Cwynar, a photographer, collage, and installation artist living in Brooklyn.
In an era of overconsumption and trendy brands, it’s good to get a reminder that some legacy fashion brands continue investing in and supporting traditional artists–the same sort of people that helped turn them into the global powerhouses they are.
…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.
