It's Tuesday and a new app is bringing the mall online (minus the wafting smell of pretzels and Hollister perfume) with a universal feed of all your favorite shopping brands.

CREATOR COMMOTION

The departure: KSI is saying goodbye to the Sidemen. In a video uploaded on May 31, the creator—whose real name is J.J. Olatunji—announced the end of his 13-year stint with the U.K.-based crew.

KSI described his farewell address as “the hardest video I’ve ever had to make in my life” and clarified that “nothing bad has happened.” Despite his tight-knit bonds with longtime co-creators Miniminter, Vikkstar123, Zerkaa, Tobi, Behzinga, and Wroetoshaw, KSI is moving on to clear up more space in his increasingly packed schedule.

The YouTuber has been a guest judge on Britain’s Got Talent, established a long-term collaboration with Logan Paul, joined the ownership group for London-area soccer club Dagenham & Redbridge FC, and received international attention with his song “The Thick Of It.”

After putting so many irons into the proverbial fire, KSI didn’t have much time left to shoot content alongside the Sidemen. For example, when the group filmed a cooking show that will be distributed across YouTube and Amazon Prime Video, KSI was unavailable to participate.

The future: KSI will undoubtedly stay busy during the next phase of his career, but what about the Sidemen? It’s fair to say that Olatunji was the group’s most famous member; among the sextet, his personal YouTube channel has the highest subscriber count (18.4 million) and highest lifetime view count (nearly five billion).

The Sidemen, however, have spent the past few years reducing their reliance on individual members. Through a global expansion plan and annual charity soccer matches, the group has become a sprawling lifestyle brand spread across categories like sports, gaming, business, and food.

With that plan in place, the Sidemen can continue to thrive during their post-KSI era.

HEADLINES IN BRIEF 📰

GOSPEL STATS 📈

If you’ve spent much time on YouTube, it won’t come as any surprise that Gospel Stats’ latest ranking of most-viewed branded videos was dominated by Shorts. Even less surprising is the name at the very top of the charts—MrBeast.

🥇 #1. MrBeast 2 x Feastables: I Went Undercover as a Cashier (20.7M views)
For MrBeast, the answer to “will you wear wigs?” is, apparently, an enthusiastic yes. In his latest chart-topping Short, the creator promoted Feastables‘ new pantry packs by donning a disguise and rewarding anyone who snagged a pack with $1,000 cash at checkout. It’s the kind of content he built his channel on, but this particular video earned a slightly lower view count than previous #1 MrBeast uploads.

🥈 #2. Freddy Schramm x Bambu Lab: How I made MY EYES GLOW like Raiden from Mortal Kombat (15.3M views)
A live-action Mortal Kombat II adaptation is hitting theaters May 8, and longtime fans of the game are buzzing with anticipation. To capitalize on that hype, 3-D printing company Bambu Labs hit up creator Freddy Schramm, who printed a hat that makes his eyes glow (with a little help from LEDs and glow-in-the-dark contacts).

🎰 #4. Mrhappy1227 x ExitLag: One of FFXIV’s Most Botted Achievements (29.4K views)
All MMORPG players understand the pain of having a tense moment interrupted by lag—and ExitLag knows it. To reach those frustrated gamers, the company (which says it “reduces lag and improves online gaming experience”) sponsored this video from Mrhappy1227, which talks about one of Final Fantasy XIV‘s notoriously difficult-to-accomplish achievements.

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

MOVIE BIZ

The box office hit: As Backrooms and Obsession continue to dominate the box office, it’s clear that a new era of creator filmmaking is on the horizon.

Kane Parsons‘ feature-length adaptation of his spooky Backrooms web series smashed multiple records by earning more than $81 million in the U.S. and $118 million worldwide during its opening weekend. At 20 years old, Parsons is the youngest director to ever helm a movie that opened at #1 at the box office. Among original projects, he had the biggest opening weekend of any first-time director.

No A24 picture has generated as big of an opening weekend as Backrooms, either. The previous A24 record holder, Civil War, didn’t even make one-third as much money during its opening weekend despite having a $50 million budget. Parsons made Backrooms for just $10 million.

The response: As if that wasn’t enough of an endorsement for creator-made features, Backrooms reached #1 at the box office by knocking another YouTuber-led blockbuster to #2. Curry Barker directed Obsession after scoring a viral hit with Milk & Serial, a YouTube-released found footage film made for just $800.

Three weeks into its theatrical window, Obsession has earned $104 million at the U.S. box office. No film distributed by Focus Features has ever had a better domestic run.

As it stands, the current rankings at the domestic box office have Backrooms and Obsession above The Mandalorian and Grogu. That mainstream success has already convinced Hollywood execs that it’s time for more creator-made films. According to The Hollywood Reporter, one studio has offered Barker $10 million for his next movie—even though it doesn’t exist yet.

The murder mystery: In May 2024, the Try Guys took a leap of faith and launched their own streaming service, 2nd Try. The YouTube icons knew they had a dedicated fanbase that would tune in—but in order to invest in their own platform and flesh out its content catalog, they needed cash.

That’s where Spotter came in. With funding from Spotter and the money coming in from 2nd Try, the Try Guys have been able to experiment with more narrative-driven content…including a good old-fashioned whodunit series.

All that brings us to the premiere of Killer Dinner, a murder mystery series that calls in the entire cast for a twisty night to figure out who shanked Keith Habersberger. The show is seriously serialized and leans hard into cliffhangers. Check out episode one here.

FYI: Spotter is a Tubefilter partner

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