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It’s Tuesday and Washington’s attempted ban is helping TikTok Shop become big business in Mexico. With Latin American ecommerce set to approach $200B in annual sales this year, will more U.S. brands head south?

Today’s News

GAMES FOR GOOD

This year’s Sidemen Charity Match raised £4.7 million

The match: The Sidemen’s show-stopping annual charity match has been raising funds since 2016—but this year’s event was a particularly stunning success.

With big names like MrBeast, iShowSpeed, Logan Paul, Kai Cenat, Mark Rober, and xQc dotting the pitch, the soccer match drew 90,000 in-person attendees to Wembley Stadium and peaked at about 2.5 million online concurrent viewers.

The on-field action didn’t disappoint: after scoring only a single win in previous charity matches, the “YouTube All-Stars” team broke their losing streak this year in a contest headlined by KSI, Miniminter, Zerkaa, TBJZL, Behzinga, Vikkstar123, and W2S. Highlights included Paul’s head-powered goal, iShowSpeed’s assist to Cenat, KSI’s halftime performance of “The Thick Of It,” Zerkaa’s first-ever charity match goal, and xQc’s laughably poor goalkeeping.

Throughout the game, Madden streamer Sketch kept the score level with multiple spectacular saves. Then, in the ensuing shootout, he stopped a shot from Miniminter, setting the stage for iShowSpeed’s decisive penalty.

The outcome: The true winners of the match, however, were the recipient charities. The big game raised £4.7 million, which will be split among BBC’s Children in Need, Bright Side, and M7 Education. Given that last year’s record-setting match raised only half that amount, it’s safe to say 2025 is shaping up to be a defining year for the Sidemen’s legacy.

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HEADLINES IN BRIEF 📰

• Instagram’s direct messages have received approximately 20 new features in recent months. Now, Instagram Head Adam Mosseri says his team is “doubling down” on DMs in 2025. (Tubefilter)
  
  

• Bluesky is increasing its time limit for video content from 60 seconds to three minutes. (Bluesky)
  
  

• X owner Elon Musk has said that a “massive cyberattack” caused the platform to become inaccessible to some users for several hours on Monday. (Elon Musk via X)
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• In its mission to fight AI copyright infringement, Sony says it has had 75,000 deepfaked songs removed from social media platforms. (Gizmodo)

GOSPEL STATS 📈

Top Branded Videos of the Week: MrBeast, Elon Musk, and…alien bugs?

It’s hardly ever a close competition when MrBeast gets involved, and this week’s ranking of most-watched sponsored YouTube videos is no exception. The Beast Games host hit the top of Gospel Stats’ weekly report with 67 million views—55 million more than his closest runner-up, Joe Rogan.

🥇 #1. MrBeast x Shopify: 100 People Trapped Inside 100 Circles For $500,000 (67M views)
It’s been a good month for Shopify. MrBeast’s latest challenge brought the ecommerce hub to the top of Gospel’s weekly ranking for the second time in two weeks. Unsurprisingly, the video included a small dose of Shopify-inspired content and a whole lot of psychological warfare.

🥈 #2. PowerfulJRE x LifeLock, Netsuite: Joe Rogan Experience #2281 (12M views)
In January, Joe Rogan’s YouTube channel became the first to snag a whopping three spots in Gospel’s weekly Top 5 ranking, with episodes featuring Mel Gibson, Mark Zuckerberg, and Wesley Huff. This week, the podcaster scored another Top 5 spot—this time at #2—by spending three whole hours with Elon Musk in an installment sponsored by software companies LifeLock and Netsuite.

🔎 #2403. Bill Making Stuff x Squarespace: MAKING AN ALIEN BUG FRAME (27.3K views)
This week’s wildcard video features some of the most creative DIY decor we’ve seen in a while. The creator behind Bill Making Stuff dipped into his vast store of craft supplies to build a shadowbox of beautiful bugs (specifically ones that don’t exist on this planet). That extraterrestrial project was sponsored by Squarespace, which backed nearly 100 other uploads in the same week.

Check out the full branded ranking here or head over to Gospel Stats for more YouTube sponsorship insights.

METAVERSE MONEY

Game studios helped Roblox become a multibillion-dollar business. Now, some say they’re being squeezed out.

The context: Roblox is now a multibillion-dollar business, having turned over nearly $4 billion in 2024 alone. The platform has grown significantly over the last few years—thanks in large part to independent video game development studios.

Before Roblox introduced ads last May, brands primarily marketed on the platform by commissioning custom digital destinations from studios. Companies like Vans, NASCAR, and Walmart created places where potential consumers could play minigames, collect rewards, and explore branded surroundings.

Roblox itself didn’t build those experiences. Instead, it would pass queries from brands along to independent studios in the Roblox Partner Program. Those studios would then make tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars by creating custom experiences.

The shift: Lately, however, studios have told Digiday they’re being squeezed out, with Roblox sending a “dramatically lower volume of brand introductions.” Several studios connected that alleged shift to the introduction of programmatic ads, noting that they now feel they’re in direct competition with the platform itself.

Recent brand campaigns do point to a changing ecosystem. Tax prep firm H&R Block, for example, recently partnered directly with Roblox to run ads in Club Roblox and Mega Mansion Tycoon, two games made by independent studios. In the past, H&R Block might have worked with an independent studio to make its own experience—but now, it’s paying Roblox to place ads within already-established games.

The statement: In a statement, Roblox said it views independent studios as “strategic creative partners that we bring into the vast majority of brand conversations.” But despite that sentiment, it’s clear that even the perception of competition between devs and their home platform can hamstring its UGC economy. If Roblox wants to continue placing ads, then, it might need to consider how it can simultaneously support its relationship with independent studios.

WATCH THIS 📺

Disney+ is turning to YouTube to build hype for its first original Pixar series

The new series: Pixar’s first-ever original series just landed on Disney+—but viewers won’t need a subscription to watch the first installment. Episode 1 of Win or Lose is now available to watch for free on YouTube.

The context: Other streaming services have taken similar steps to build hype for new series. Amazon Prime, for example, allowed MrBeast to post the first three episodes of Beast Games on his second YouTube channel shortly before the game show’s grand finale. Check out the first episode of Win or Lose here to see what happens when anxiety “manifests into a sentient blob.”

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