TOGETHER WITH

It's Tuesday and after remaking everything from Cinderella to The Lion King, the House of Mouse reportedly plans to bring yet another throwback to Disney+: cable-style channels with 24/7 content.

A HERO’S JOURNEY

CDawgVA biked 620 miles to raise $1 million for the Immune Deficiency Foundation

The fundraiser: CDawgVA’s latest Cyclethon was his most successful yet. The streamer—who reaches 1.3 million followers on Twitch—raised a whopping $1,061,100 for the Immune Deficiency Foundation as part of his yearly quest to gather funds in honor of Primary Immunodeficiency Awareness Month.

• CDawgVA earned those seven figures with two weeks worth of blood, sweat, and tears. To inspire donations, the creator biked 619.9 miles from the southwesternmost city on Honshu all the way to Japan’s capital, Tokyo.
  
  

• Viewers were able to follow along for the majority of that journey. CDawgVA used body cams to livestream between eight and 12 hours of cycling every day.
  
  

• The result: CDawgVA raised more in 2024 than he did in 2022 ($300,000) and 2023 ($552,000) combined. The streamer’s latest Cyclethon haul also surpassed his fundraising goal of $1 million for the entire year, which he carried over from 2023 after garnering $905,383 across 12 months.

The context: Fundraising streams have become a staple on Twitch, where creators like Ironmouse regularly use their online platforms to support charities through creator events and stream-a-thons.

• The aforementioned VTuber—who has common variable immunodeficiency and is a frequent partner of the Immune Deficiency Foundation—plans to add to CDawgVA’s donations on April 22 by hosting a Dungeons & Dragons campaign on her Twitch channel. All proceeds from that “charity adventure” will be donated to The Immune Deficiency Foundation.

🔆 SPONSORED 🔆

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Take Title Exploder; it lets you generate a wide variety of compelling ideas. It intuitively combines the insights of your channel’s most popular uploads with the qualities of YouTube’s top-performing videos.

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HEADLINES IN BRIEF 📰

• Yahoo Finance has tapped former Wall Street analyst and current content creator Ross Mac to join its new “premium experience” as a contributor. (Tubefilter)
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• Elon Musk says charging new X users a “small fee” to publish posts is the only way to “curb the relentless onslaught of bots.” (Gizmodo)

• Roblox is loosening its policies to allow all eligible ID-verified Premium members to sell 3D content through the Roblox Marketplace. (VentureBeat)
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• YouTube is cracking down on “apps that violate YouTube’s Terms of Service” to prevent viewers from watching videos on its platform via third-party ad blocking apps. (The Verge)

COLUMNS • GOSPEL STATS 📈

Top 3 Branded Videos: How many YouTubers does it take to make a viral video?

MrBeast didn’t get around to uploading a video last week, which means Gospel Stats’ Weekly Brand Report has a new top dog. While vintage tech climbed the sponsored charts, it was FaZe Rug’s game of YouTuber telephone that reigned supreme.

🥇 FaZe Rug x Underdog Fantasy: I FaceTimed 100 YouTubers WITHOUT Them Knowing…
MrBeast was absent from this week’s branded ranking in more ways than one. The Feastables founder was among several creators who dodged a call from FaZe Rug—but that doesn’t mean the gamer’s quest to ring 100 YouTubers fell flat. Responses from stars like Ryan Trahan and Logan Paul helped FaZe Rug (and his sponsor, Underdog Fantasy) pull in 3.3 million views.

🥈 Corridor Crew x Squarespace: This Invention Made Disney MILLIONS, but Then They LOST It!
The Corridor Crew went back to the classics for a new video sponsored by Squarespace. Instead of offering their usual high-tech flair, the group treated viewers to an exploration of the vintage Sodium Vapor light system behind some of Disney’s most nostalgic films.

🥉 I did a thing x Odoo: Can this forgotten invention save your life?
The Corridor Crew weren’t the only YouTubers to top the charts with old-timey tech. Alex Apollonov—aka the creator behind I did a thing—hailed back to the days of early automobiles by reinventing a pedestrian catcher. That (questionably effective) throwback scored plenty of views for Apollonov’s brand partner, Belgian business management suite Odoo.

FYI: This report is just a snapshot of Gospel Stats’ treasure trove of YouTube data. Check out the full site here for in-depth info on branded partnerships, rising stars, and more.

WATCH THIS 📺

Deestroying says his vertebrae injury is “a minor setback for a major comeback”

The video: Last week, sports creator Deestroying (aka Donald de la Haye) took to Instagram to let followers know that he would be “stuck in a neck brace for the next 3 months” after sustaining multiple vertebrae fractures during his first pro football game.

• Now, the creator has acknowledged the full impact of his injury in an upload titled “I Broke My Neck (End Of My Football Career).” That 30-minute video chronicles de la Haye’s journey as a player for the San Antonio Brahmas, before giving fans a look at his vision for the future—one that may not include football.

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Today's newsletter is from: Emily Burton, Sam Gutelle, and Josh Cohen. Drew Baldwin helped edit, too. It's a team effort.