TOGETHER WITH

It’s Thursday and gamers who cherish the memory of Jack Black’s iconic Five Nights at Freddy’s dance will want to mark their calendars for the upcoming Minecraft movie.

HEAD IN THE GAME 🏀

LeBron James’ interest in streaming is reigniting the Twitch vs. Kick rivalry

The world’s first NBA billionaire is ready to bring his Madden NFL skills online—but where will he take his talents?

The background: Since it emerged as a Twitch rival in late 2022, Kick’s penchant for poaching creators has caused major waves in the streaming industry. xQc inked a $100 million Kick contract that announced the platform as a major player.

The latest buzz: In an X post sent on December 29, James revealed his plans to begin livestreaming Madden online. The big question: “Who should I stream with?”

• James’ post triggered replies from fans, streamers, and industry execs alike—including bigwigs like Twitch CEO Dan Clancy and Kick Head of Strategic Partnerships Andrew Santamaria.
  
  

• Streamers Tyler Niknam (aka Trainwreck) and Adin Ross also showed their support for Kick, with the latter creator vowing to secure “the bag” for James.
  
  

• On the other side of the aisle, Clancy reminded James that he doesn’t necessarily have to pick just one platform:

Why it matters: Twitch and Kick might be battling it out in the comment section, but James holds all the power.

• Kick has already demonstrated its willingness to offer lucrative non-exclusive contracts by pursuing deals with major Twitch streamers.
  

• Twitch now allows creators to stream simultaneously on YouTube—an update that Clancy points out and came into being shortly after Ninja voiced his disapproval of the platform’s strict simulcasting ban.

• In other words: Interplatform rivalries are giving creators the leverage they need to make decisions that work for their careers—not for the platforms they stream on.

🔆 SPONSORED 🔆

Thinking of giving your Shorts a new look in the new year? Check out OpusClip’s brand-new caption templates.

At this point, you’ve probably heard how OpusClip’s powerful AI video clipping tool has helped over 2 million creators around the world relax this holiday season, safe in the knowledge that they were able to produce and schedule dozens of Shorts posts in just a few minutes.   

But 2024 is here, so it’s time to put on your fancy pants and give your channel a fresh look with OpusClip’s new fancy caption templates.

Choose from over a dozen different templates—including the most popular caption styles across socials—or develop your own from scratch, complete with text animations, unique fonts, and AI-inserted emojis. 

• Best of all, OpusClip is going to be adding new templates every week and working with creators of all sizes to develop their own signature styles to help popularize their brands.

Interested in adding your own template to OpusClip? Get in touch with their team at [email protected].

Hit the link below to start your 90-minute free trial—and keep an eye out for a huge new free AI tool announcement later this month:

Get started with OpusClip Pro → 

HEADLINES IN BRIEF 📰

• Peloton is bringing YouTube TV to the screens of its stationary bikes, treadmills, and rowing machines. (Tubefilter)
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• Indian record label T Series scored 3.2 billion monthly views in December, cementing its position as YouTube’s most-viewed channel. (Tubefilter)
  ​

• MrBeast topped the U.S. Top 50 chart in the last seven days of 2023 with 568.7 million weekly views. (Tubefilter)
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• Sorry, streamers: Twitch’s new content policy prohibits even the implication of nudity. (The Verge)

COLUMNS • ON THE RISE 📈

This Indigenous artist rediscovered herself on TikTok

Over the last four years, Sisa Quispe has delivered a Ted Talk, released an award-winning thesis film, and built an audience of 66,000 TikTok followers. Before 2020, however, becoming a video creator was the furthest thing from her mind—and her Quechua heritage felt just as “distant.”

How it started: Like millions of others, Quispe found herself drawn into TikTok during the pandemic. At first, the artist only intended to scroll through videos—but the more she watched, the more inspired she became by the platform’s vibrant Indigenous community.

• It wasn’t long before Quispe began creating videos of her own. Posting TikToks allowed the artist to explore her Quechua and Aymara culture in a brand-new way; within months, she’d fallen in love with filmmaking.

How it’s going: Fast forward to 2024, and Quispe is now a film school graduate and a 2023 Focus Features & JetBlue Student Short Film Showcase winner.

What’s up next: In addition to showing her thesis film at various festivals, Quispe has two new projects in the works—a documentary called Yacumama and a short film titled “Unveiling Love”—and aims to keep “sending this message of decolonizing” and sharing her stories online.

• Check out our full interview with Quispe here to learn more about her journey into visual media.

DATA • GOSPEL STATS 📊

Top 5 Branded Videos: Who wouldn’t want to be rescued by MrBeast?

The latest Gospel Stats Weekly Brand Report is in and MrBeast is back on top. Without further ado, here’s a rundown of this week’s most-viewed sponsored YouTube videos:

🥇 MrBeast x Surfshark VPN, Jinx, Spot Pet Insurance: When it comes to charitable endeavors as grand as MrBeast’s, one sponsor isn’t always enough.

• Three brands chipped in to help the YouTuber rehome abandoned dogs in a new video: Surfshark donated free dog food for life, Spot offered complimentary pet insurance, and Jinx donated $50,000 to a
  shelter.
  

• The result: 100 happy pups and 90 million views.

🥈 Nile Red x Opera: Nile Red only uploaded three long-form videos to his main channel in 2023, but that didn’t stop him from raking in major brand deals and millions of views.

• The chemist’s other big accomplishment: casting purple gold. After inspiring 9.5 million viewers with a 53-minute breakdown of his casting process, Red reminded fans that websurfing shouldn’t be as slow as alchemy—especially with a browser like Opera.

🥉 Ryan Trahan x Shopify: Over the last three months, Ryan Trahan has scored more than 36 million views by testing out 1-star hotels, 1-star theme parks, and—as of last week—1-star camping.

• The latest of those experiments brought the YouTuber to a campsite with a frightening four-word review: “bears in the woods.”
  

• Luckily for Trahan, only one grizzly made itself known: a suspiciously human-like bear that sang Shopify‘s praises and encouraged the creator to chase his dreams (possibly by releasing his own product through Shopify).

FYI: This report is just a sliver of Gospel Stats’ in-depth analysis of video sponsorships, top creators, and rising stars. Check out the site here for more info.

WATCH THIS 📺

If you’ve always wanted to dunk a basketball, these high-tech stilts can help

Shane Wighton is all about working smarter. Since launching Stuff Made Here in 2020, the engineering creator has built everything from ball-seeking basketball hoops to automatic pool sticks.

Now, Wighton has invented yet another piece of futuristic sports equipment: a gravity-defying dunk machine that sends the wearer skyrocketing toward the hoop. The end product is a (slightly precarious) cross between stilts and a jet pack—but it works, and that’s what counts. Check out the full build here.

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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.