Top 5 Branded Videos of the Week: Love and hate

Welcome to our rundown of the most-watched branded YouTube videos of the week.

We’re publishing this snippet of a larger Gospel Stats Weekly Brand Report in order to analyze sponsorship trends in the creator economy. Any video launched in tandem with an official brand partner is eligible for the ranking.

And – as the name up above would imply – all the data comes from Gospel Stats. If you’re interested in learning more about Gospel – and which brands are sponsoring what creators on YouTube – click here. You can also download our YouTube 2025 Sponsorship Landscape Report here.

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We have a double dose of reality TV this week. Not only is Druski in our Gospel Stats Weekly Brand Report top 5, but MrBeast tapped two Temptation Island stars (and exes) to reunite for 30 days in the middle of the woods…with a twist.

The other half of this week’s top 5 is all tech–but don’t expect things to get any less dramatic.

Check it all out below:

#1 Survive 30 Days Stranded With Your Ex, Win $250,000
Channel: MrBeast
Brand: PUBG Mobile
Views: 104,028,656

PUBG Mobile made the #2 spot last week thanks to Ludwig and his sponsor Samsung, which put on a two-hour tournament dedicated exclusively to the battle royale game’s on-the-go mode. Now it’s in spot #1 with MrBeast, celebrating its 8th anniversary by paying to trap one dude and five of his exes in the wilderness for a full month.

MrBeast kicked off 2026 with a video featuring 30 already-known celebrities, and he continues that pattern with this upload. Our central ex couple is Grant and Ashley of Temptation Island fame (or maybe infame). Grant cheated on Ashley during the show, and now has to share a small campsite with her and four of his other ex-girlfriends. It’s a premise formulated for mega drama, and so far it’s mega paying off. The video has over 100 million views, and while that’s a lower count than MrBeast’s videos generally get, it’s high compared to other uploads in recent weeks.

#2 Macbook Neo Impressions: Reincarnated!
Channel: Marques Brownlee
Brand: Ridge
Views: 7,235,256

For MrBeast, it’s Feastables. For Mark Rober, it’s CrunchLabs. And for Marques Brownlee, it’s Ridge. While Brownlee didn’t found Ridge the way Jimmy Beast and Mark Rober did Feastables and CrunchLabs, he did become the brand’s Chief Creative Officer in 2024 and now enjoys frequent sponsorship from the RFID wallet company.

Ridge does a good job of integrating into Brownlee’s content–and by that we mean, it barely affects anything. As a longtime tech reviewer, of course Brownlee is going to investigate the brand-new MacBook Neo. And of course his audience of 20+ million subscribers are keen to see what Apple‘s latest offering can do. They would’ve tuned in no matter what.

That combo equals a lot of eyeballs on the kind of content Brownlee would already be making–aka, a perfect partnership.

#3 Coulda Been Love 2 Episode 4: Crashout Tranquilizer

Channel: Druski
Brand: T-Mobile, Buffalo Wild Wings, PrizePicks
Views: 8,348,755

Temptation Island may have gotten its throwback with spot #1, but Coulda Been Love is competing hard in third place. Druski‘s reality show has thrown itself into Season 2 with risqué fervor. We said last week that Druski’s show (a classic “who gets the guy” competition) feels like old VH1, and that feeling cements itself more and more with every upload.

What also feels like old VH1 are the sponsors. There are tons of digital-first companies founded in the 2010s and 2020s that are doing very well, and being smart about sponsoring YouTubers. It’s almost expected that these brands will understand our industry and its importance. We see that here with one of this episode’s sponsors, PrizePicks.

But the others–T-Mobile and Buffalo Wild Wings–are legacy brick-and-mortars, the sort of companies we would have seen sponsoring a VH1 show back in 1998. And now? They’re on YouTube, backing a creator-made show.

#4 Samsung S26 Ultra Review – Breaking Point.
Channel: Mrwhosetheboss
Brand: Insta360
Views: 3,679,293

Hey, remember earlier, when we talked about Ludwig and his Samsung sponsorship? Yeah, that sponsorship was specifically for the same phone Mrwhosetheboss reviews in this video: the Galaxy 26 Ultra.

That is, however, not the sponsor of this video. Instead, the sponsor is camera company Insta360–which makes sense when you get to the part of Mrwhosetheboss’s review where he expresses frustration at Samsung not upgrading the camera in this very pricey smartphone. Insta360 isn’t a direct competitor for Samsung; it’s more like a “Well, creators, if you have a phone like everyone else but want a better camera to film your content, come to us!”

Like the other top 5 videos this week, this one is smart marketing. Brands and creators are really on top of their game right now.

BONUS #2,435 I Played Star Wars Galaxies for 100 Hours… Should you?
Channel: Waydot
Brand: Where Winds Meet
Views: 54,450

And just as Insta360 sponsored a video about a Samsung product, wuxia RPG Where Winds Meet sponsored this deep dive into MMORPG Star Wars Galaxies. The games are wildly divergent in setting and story, but still competitors in an adjacent way. That’s what makes us dig this deal. Where Winds Meet sponsored gamer Waydot not to play only their game, but to play a game he wanted to try.

Just like the MKBHD x Ridge video about MacBooks, this one calls to Waydot’s usual audience, and the sponsorship doesn’t restrict him from making what he wants to make–and, based on 50K views for a channel with 85K subscribers, it’s what the audience wants to see.

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…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.