James Hale

• Babish enters next phase of culinary universe with multimillion-dollar investment
• Top 5 Branded Videos of the Week: Trampolines, time travel, tater tots

  After taking AMP to the #1 spot last week, MrBeast is nowhere to be seen for this week's Gospel Stats Weekly Brand Report. Instead, sciencetubers dominated sponsored content, with Veritasium scooping up not one but two slots, an "atomic trampoline" coming in at #1, and Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell making yet another appearance with a video he says will make physicists "very grumpy" (and, judging by the comments, he's right).

  
• Roblox wants to be its own Billboard

  Billboard may run the music industry's official performance rankings, but YouTube and TikTok also have their very own charts tracking what music is popping with their user bases. And soon, those platforms will be joined by Roblox, which announced that as part of its partnership with indie music distributor DistroKid, it'll start publishing its own charts in 2025.

  
• Twitch is giving streamers more control over when ads run and how much revenue they make

  If there's one thing Twitch streamers and viewers are utterly united on, it's that ads suck. Especially pre-roll ads, which even Twitch's CEO Dan Clancy admitted hinder audience growth, since viewers are immediately slapped with ads the second they join stream--and some, understandably, might not be invested enough to stick around through 30 seconds of ad time to see what a new-to-them streamer is up to.

  
• Icon wants to create a LOT of AI ads for brands (with creators’ consent)
• VidCon has (reportedly) been sold
• Some big streamers are leaving YouTube for Twitch. Does data say that’s the right move?
• Wasserman commits to creators with acquisition of Long Haul Management
• Minecraft’s gotten more than a trillion views online. Can it champion the box office?
• Yes, TikTok is actually getting people to movie theaters
• Spotter’s new AI-driven “brainstorm partner” is getting creators 49% more views
• $800 found footage phenom ‘Milk & Serial’ proves YouTube is still the hub for budding horror talent