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, MrBeast is entering the Shark Tank, the Dolan Twins are making a film, and streamers are taking on the wrestling world.
MrBeast is making his Shark Tank debut. YouTube’s most-subscribed-to creator will join Season 18 of the entrepreneurial reality show alongside Beast Industries CEO Jeffrey Housenbold. Other guest sharks will include Mindy Kaling, NFL vet J.J. Watt, Favorite Daughter co-founders Erin and Sara Foster, and “Diary of a CEO” host Steven Bartlett.
The Internation Chess Foundation is honoring a star. FIDE has named the Best Creator category at the upcoming FIDE Excellence Awards after a YouTube chess icon. The Daniel Naroditsky Best Creator Award honors the memory of Daniel Naroditsky, who passed away in October 2025. The FIDE’s announcement coincided with the conclusion of the inaugural Naroditsky Memorial tournament, which included participation from YouTuber GothamChess.
The Dolan Twins are back in action. Ethan and Grayson Dolan have ended their five-year hiatus from YouTube with the upload of a fast-paced heist video. The two creators are the writers, directors, and stars of The Double Take, a short film that follows twin con artists as they fleece a jewelry store.
Don’t mess with cat influencers or you’ll get the claws. Amanda McGonigle—a cat influencer with almost 2 million Instagram followers—is suing the office of the President and the Secret Service after allegedly being turned away from a vice presidential event due to her public criticism of JD Vance. The suit accuses the Trump administration of violating McGonigle’s First Amendment rights by refusing her entrance over comments made on her @catsonacouch account, which she says “exists purr-ly to troll the current administration & have more followers than J.D. Vance.”
Channel 5 is fighting a lawsuit. In a July 10 video, Andrew Callaghan revealed that Channel 5 is facing “crippling legal debt” after months of fighting a lawsuit that accuses the YouTube hub of “violating the Federal Wiretap Act” and “intercepting…electronic communities.” Fans didn’t hesitate to lend a hand; four hours after Callaghan’s video went live, a GoFundMe campaign for Channel 5’s legal defense met its goal of $800,000.
PUBG: BATTLEGROUNDS is entering the Octagon. The battle royale game has joined forces with Kick and UFC star Max Holloway for a multi-platform campaign that kicked off this week when Holloway donned a custom KICK × PUBG-branded vest for the UFC 329 Press Conference. According to a press release, Holloway’s appearance coincided with a Kick stream in which 10 creators (including HutchMF, Rampage Jackson, and rraenee) unboxed PUBG crates of their own.
Streamers are taking on the wrestling world. A “first-of-its-kind” collaboration between Warner Bros. Discovery, All Elite Wrestling, and Twitch brought top streamers to the arena for the premiere of AEW Dynamite: Beach Break. Creators Agent00 and CashNastyGaming delivered “exclusive live content” before and during the wrestling program, which took place on July 8.
At the World Cup, rules are rules. Creator Stephen Deleonardis (aka Stevewilldoit) found out the hard way that FIFA’s Code of Ethics is nothing to sneeze at. To align with the org’s strict rules, Mexico’s team was forced to return a generous gift from the YouTuber: a full set of Rolex watches that reportedly cost a whopping $1 million.
Are Feastables fans sugared out? According to a new report from Business Insider, growth at MrBeast’s snack brand “has slowed considerably in the last year” with U.S. sales volume growing 13% year-over-year in 2025 versus 33% in 2024. Here’s hoping off-the-wall collabs like Liquid Death’s new Feastables-inspired Peanut Butter Cup Flavor will give the brand a boost.
Agency holding group Dentsu is joining forces with Meta. An API partnership between the two companies will result in the integration of Meta’s Creator Marketplace and Partnership Ads into Dentsu.connect, which (according to Digiday) will allow “users of its internal systems to manage social listening, creator selection and paid activation within the same dashboard.”
Fidji Simo is switching gears. Simo has announced plans to step down from her position as OpenAI’s CEO of AGI deployment amid an ongoing battle with chronic illness. The Instacart vet will instead take on a part-time advisory position at OpenAI.
Need a photo of Jupiter? This guy’s got your back. Last month, tech enthusiast/musician Chris Graue stunned the internet after using his Game Boy camera to take a photo of Jupiter. Now, Graue is letting other astronomy fans in on the fun with a video tutorial of his viral DIY.
Trump is setting his sights on the TikTok charts. Donald Trump’s latest claim to fame might come as a surprise to comedy creator Khabe Lame. Last week, the president announced that he now ranks as “the No. 1 person on TikTok”—despite having roughly 145 million fewer followers than Lame.
A Pokémon battle took over Times Square. Niantic went big for the tenth anniversary of Pokémon Go. On July 9, the developer welcomed nearly 2,000 players to Times Square for what could be the biggest in-person Pokémon battle ever. The event was livestreamed across all Pokémon channels, giving fans outside the East Coast a window into the excitement.
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