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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This week’s Gospel Stats Brand Report is four Shorts and a long (chosen by yours truly). If anything’s a sign of the times, it’s that. We’ve officially arrived at a time where brands are paying creators for punchy, 60-second content–and creators are using the same format to advertise their own products.
Check it all out below:
#1 I Went Undercover as a Cashier
Channel: MrBeast 2
Brand: Feastables
Views: 20,740,406
Undercover Boss who? MrBeast used to make frequent grocery store appearances as his YouTube audience was ramping up. Now his schedule seems perhaps just a little bit busier, so appearing in the shops in person is a less frequent occurrence.
For this video, though, he’s out to promote Feastables‘ new pantry packs, so he dons a wig and glasses that totally 100% hide who he is and rewards anyone who snags a pack with $1,000 cash at checkout. It’s the kind of content he build his channel on: down home, spreading the wealth to the everyday person. Makes sense, since these packs are targeted at families.
What might be worth noting here, though, is the slightly lower view count for this video compared to other #1 MrBeast uploads that have made our list. 20 million is nothing to sneeze at for sure, but MrBeast has appeared here with 80-120 million views before. What makes this one different?
#2 How I made MY EYES GLOW like Raiden from Mortal Kombat
Channel: Freddy Schramm
Brand: Bambu Lab
Views: 15,272,170
Bambu Labs hit a good one here. There’s never an uncool time to make a Mortal Kombat cosplay, but the iconic fighter game is extra in the spotlight now with the live-action Mortal Kombat II adaptation hitting theaters May 8.
The Labs–a 3-D printing company–hit up creator Freddy Schramm, who printed a hat that makes his eyes glow with crackling power, all thanks to some LEDs and glow-in-the-dark contacts. Considering so many DIY cosplayers rely on 3-D printing, it’s a solid partnership–one that targets a prime audience/potential customer sector for Bambu Labs.
#3 Hot Sauce Steak
Channel: Nick DiGiovanni
Brand: Osmo
Views: 14,680,185
This video may be a Nick DiGiovanni production, but he’s not the only culinary flavor involved: Guga makes an appearance, and so does Max the Meat Guy (kind of–you’ll see). DiGiovanni’s project here is to submerge a sumptuous-looking steak in his new Osmo hot sauce and see how it cooks up after seven days of soaking.
We don’t think it’s a spoiler to say the steak turns out pretty dang good. What’s also pretty dang good is this trifecta of YouTube meat men showing that creators can be at their best when working together and thriving off fresh collaborative ideas. Content isn’t a space for cutting down the competition–it’s a space for slicing up a fat steak.
#4 #MicrosoftPartner Staying organized + efficient made easier thanks to Microsoft Windows 11! #Windows
Channel: Ellie Hildreth
Brand: Microsoft
Views: 12,701,879
The creators who make our Gospel Stats Weekly Brand Reports generally have a few million subscribers. After all, these lists comprise the top most-viewed, English-language branded content across the entire platform; it makes sense that top-followed creators would nab the highest spots.
But sometimes there’s an outlier.
That’s the case with Ellie Hildreth, a college golfer whose channel has just over 1,000 subscribers. Yes, you read that right–a thousand. Her presence on TikTok is a bit bigger (~74K) but she’s still firmly in the realm of “microinfluencer.” That being said, there’s nothing micro in her production in this Short, and its resulting performance…unless you count sponsor Microsoft. It picked Hildreth to campaign for how useful its AI features can be to busy students, with the video following her through a day of class, studies, and golf practice.
AI is obviously a controversial topic in colleges; some let students use it, and others do not. Microsoft, in pursuit of making that big AI bubble money, is pursuing anyone who can and wants to–by using an on-the-ground, peer-to-peer voice.
BONUS #3,704 One of FFXIV’s Most BOTTED Achievements
Channel: Mrhappy1227
Brand: ExitLag
Views: 29,409
It’s a shield healer’s worst nightmare: You have your timing down exactly. You know a big tankbuster is coming–the kind that could wipe out the whole party. All you have to do is punch the buttons for your spell rota at the precise right moment.
But then! You’ve been foiled, adventurer! By lag!
As a perhaps slightly too avid MMORPG player, I’ve had this happen countless times. So has everyone else I know. Which is why it’s smart for a company like ExitLag to sponsor this video from Mrhappy1227, which talks about one of Final Fantasy XIV‘s notoriously difficult-to-accomplish achievements. The grind is real, and an accepted part of life for most MMO players, but the lag? Yeah, we could do without that.
…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.
