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It’s Friday and X owner Elon Musk is duking it out with Twitch streamer Asmongold. The crux of their newfound vitriol: whether or not the world’s richest man has the skills to play Path of Exile 2.

Today’s News

BEAST MODE

Beast Games is Amazon’s most-watched unscripted series ever. How does it stack up to MrBeast’s YouTube vids?

The show: MrBeast‘s $100 million original just set the record for Amazon’s most-watched unscripted series ever. According to Variety, Beast Games attracted 50 million viewers in the 25 days after it premiered, making it Amazon’s #1 unscripted series of all time and #2 overall series debut of 2024 (after the much-anticipated live-action Fallout). 50% of that viewership came from outside the U.S., with sizable watch time from India, the U.K., and Mexico.

Beast Games also ranked in as Amazon’s most “acquisitive” series since Fallout—meaning it drove more new Prime subscriber growth than any other original released in 2024 (again, with the exception of Fallout).

The big picture: So, how does all that stack up to MrBeast’s YouTube viewership? Beast Games’ broad international audience, at least, tracks with what we see on YouTube. The show’s viewership stats…not so much.

On Amazon, Beast Games‘ first five episodes got 50 million viewers in a little over three weeks. On YouTube, MrBeast’s long-form videos almost always net at least 150 million views within their first seven days on the platform (per Gospel Stats). That’s a big difference—but does it mean signing a $100 million production deal with Amazon was not worth MrBeast’s (aka Jimmy Donaldson’s) time?

Not necessarily. In addition to being Donaldson’s longest series yet, Beast Games had over 2,000 contestants at its start and required numerous complicated sets and massive logistical arrangements. Having Amazon’s cash and resources made the whole thing possible—and despite a hefty dose of bad PR, it also gave MrBeast a path to producing TV-style content for distribution off YouTube.

The math: If Donaldson’s goal is to make MrBeast a global household name—one that can be leveraged to market and sell his Feastables, Lunchly, and other ventures—then expanding beyond YouTube is a necessary step.

For Amazon, this appears to be a win, too. While we don’t have transparent access to all the numbers, the math seems promising: if Beast Games cost the streamer $100 million, is second only to Fallout in attracting new Prime subscribers, and Fallout’s first season had a $153 million budget (and the show was successful enough on all accounts to be renewed for a second season), the ROI appears to be positive and trending in the right direction.

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HEADLINES IN BRIEF 📰

• Rumble—which recently received a $775 million investment from stablecoin giant Tether—saw its stock value soar yesterday following reports that Donald Trump plans to create a U.S. cryptocurrency reserve. (Yahoo! Finance)
  
  

• Google searches for “delete Facebook” and “delete Instagram” are on the rise following the announcement of Meta’s new content moderation policies. (NBC News)
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• The Biden Administration’s latest approach to a potential TikTok ban can be summed up in six words: ‘not my term, not my problem.’ (The Verge)
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• RedNote is reportedly rushing to hire English-speaking moderators in response to a sudden wave of sign-ups from U.S. users. (Wired)

LEGAL ACTION

Drake thinks UMG helped Kendrick Lamar’s diss track go viral—and he’s suing over it

The song: In May 2024, Kendrick Lamar issued the final blow in his rap battle with Drake by releasing “Not Like Us.” The diss track—which accused Drake of sexual misconduct and pedophilia—quickly soared to become the #1 song on Billboard‘s Hot 100, prompting a flurry of discussion online.

The suit: Now, Drake has filed a lawsuit that accuses Universal Music Group (UMG) of purposefully making “Not Like Us” go viral. That suit argues that the music production company paid “influencers on Instagram and X to post content" about the song and whitelisted it so other creators—including Cenat, RDC, No Life Shaq, CartierFamily, and Zias!—could make reaction content without facing demonetization over copyright claims.

The context: It’s hard to say whether that suit has legs to stand on, especially since paying to have songs promoted is a primary way publishers hype up new releases. We also can’t independently verify whether UMG individually whitelisted “Not Like Us” to encourage reaction content. What we do know is that the publisher has broad licensing agreements with YouTube, Twitch, and TikTok that allow creators to legally use music from its catalog. These agreements are often sweeping in nature and don’t usually single out individual artists or songs—meaning it’s possible that “Not Like Us” was covered by a broad prior agreement.

It’s also worth noting that Drake’s suit specifically targets reaction content (although the named creators aren’t being accused of anything). Since the whole premise of reaction content revolves around repurposing another person’s content, it’s a legally murky genre. So murky, in fact, that many platforms simply leave reaction content alone. In other words: creators could have been allowed to monetize reaction content about “Not Like Us” because UMG clandestinely whitelisted that track—or it could simply be due to prior licensing agreements and/or lenient policing by platforms.

ASK THE EXPERTS

The platform that made your career is shutting down? These Vine stars have been there.

The context: When Twitter announced in 2016 that it would shut down Vine, the news was a major blow to the creator community—but it also sparked a new wave of content creation. Instead of being discouraged by Vine’s disappearance, some stars (like Liza Koshy and David Dobrik) pivoted to making videos on YouTube.

Now, the creator community is facing another platform loss. TikTok parent ByteDance has until January 19 to divest ownership of the app’s U.S. operations or face a nationwide ban. Unless the Supreme Court overturns that “divest-or-ban” law or TikTok finds a new owner (like MrBeast?), the app will soon become inaccessible to all 170 million U.S.-based users.

That user base includes millions of creators. So, WTF are they supposed to do in the event of a ban?

The context: To answer that question, the Washington Post asked Vine veterans how they moved forward when the app shut down. Here’s some of the best advice those creators had to offer:

1. Own your content and trust your audience.
   Singer/songwriter Ricky Montgomery, who started on MySpace and went on to gather 200,000 Vine followers, encouraged TikTokers to “download every video you have” and crosspost to other platforms: “If it worked once, odds are it’ll work again.”
   
   

2. Keep an eye on where traffic is flowing.
   Malik Taylor, who went viral a week before Vine shut down and now has 230,000 TikTok followers, concurred with Montgomery: “[L]earn how to pivot and figure out the social language on the next platform.”
   
   

3. Focus on the process.
   Sarah Schauer, who had over 850,000 Vine followers and now claims 2.1 million TikTok followers, said “instead of chasing lightning strikes, focus on creating moments of thunder…Fall in love with the process of making content.”

WATCH THIS 📺

Gordon Ramsay is coming to a digital farm near you

The trend: Mobile game marketing blitzes are nothing new on YouTube. By now, most U.S. viewers have probably stumbled across their fair share of videos sponsored by games from publishers like Socialpoint, Scopely, and Supercell. Those deep-pocketed devs have partnered with some of YouTube’s top stars, with Supercell alone courting big names like MrBeast, Airrack, and Ryan Trahan.

The campaign: Fans of the Supercell-published game Hay Day, however, might be surprised by its latest spokesperson. In a new sponsored video, famously amped-up chef Gordon Ramsay celebrates “finding inner peace” through Supercell’s cozy farming sim. That partnership extends into the game itself: until January 24, Hay Day players will be able to interact with an in-game avatar of Ramsay himself (who hopefully won’t be cooking up anyone’s digital farm animals).

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Today's newsletter is from: Emily Burton, Drew Baldwin, Sam Gutelle, and Josh Cohen.