TOGETHER WITH

It's Monday and according to an anonymous buyer, Haliey Welch has sold her X account. Is this the end of the “Hawk Tuah” hubbub?

Today’s News

BY THE PLAYBOOK

EA Sports College Football has turned gamers into four-star recruits

The context: Every year, top college football teams compete against one another to recruit high school stars. This time around, however, athletes aren’t the only ones being wooed by prestigious programs.

Thanks to the July 10 release of EA Sports College Football 26, teams have their eyes on creators, too.

That title is the latest chapter in a video game franchise dating back to the 90s. Early installments rank among the best sports video games of all time, but the series was forced into dormancy after courts ruled that publishers couldn’t depict amateur athletes (who, at the time, were unable to profit from depictions of their likenesses).

That changed with the advent of name, image, and likeness (NIL) deals for college athletes. EA resurrected its beloved gridiron simulator in 2024 with College Football 25, a title that quickly became one of the most-played games of the year.

The feeding frenzy: EA has now paid out millions to athletes to license their likenesses for use in its franchise. And thanks to college football teams, creators are cashing in on the series, too.

Division I football programs have found that features from popular gamers give them an edge in the recruiting game—and they’re apparently willing to pay up for that publicity advantage.

According to The Athletic, College Football YouTuber Bordeaux received personalized packages last summer from schools that wanted him to play with their teams on his channel. Ultimately, it was the University of Nebraska that won out, with Bordeaux playing as the Cornhuskers in College Football 25.

That bidding environment resembled the kind of feeding frenzy that surrounds coveted high school recruits—and now that College Football 26 has arrived, gamers can look forward to reaping the rewards of the next school scramble.

🔆 SPONSORED 🔆

This spring, Creators HQ connected creators with Meta, TikTok, and industry legends. What’s next?

Earlier this year, 100 top creators joined industry leaders to launch the ultimate community and coworking space for digital pioneers: Creators HQ. 

Creators HQ is where creators, brands, and platforms—including Dhar Mann, Meta, and X—meet to shape the future of digital content. Here’s how Creators HQ helped members level up in spring 2025:

✂️ Mastering Edits with Meta
Meta Partner Solutions Manager Bahjat Hindy and Meta Strategic Partner Manager Samer Jamal joined forces to teach creators the ins and outs of Meta’s brand-new video editing app just weeks after it hit the App Store.

⭐ Learning from the Legends 
Through Creator HQ’s Learning From the Legends workshop series, creators mapped out “The Road to a Successful YouTube Channel” with industry vet Moktar Larbi and learned “How to Make a Living With Less Than 100K Followers” from Alfan CEO Mohamad Fattal.

🫡 Bringing TikTok’s Creator Bootcamp to Life
In June, TikTok partnered with Creators HQ to host its first-ever creator bootcamp in the Middle East.

What’s next? From UAE Golden Visa assistance to sleek production facilities and exclusive workshops, Creators HQ is always on the cutting-edge. 

HEADLINES IN BRIEF 📰

• A survey conducted by Moonbug found that most U.S. parents don’t see their families accurately represented in children’s content and associated ads. (Tubefilter)
  
  

• Meta has acquired Play AI, a voice generation startup that claims to create “AI voices as real as Humans.” (TechCrunch)
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• The French government has launched a formal investigation into X over concerns regarding foreign interference and “fraudulent extraction of data.” (TechCrunch)
  
  

• Netflix has renewed its controversial reality spin-off series, Squid Game: The Challenge, for a third season. (Gizmodo)

THAT’S SHOW BIZ

A creator horror film just hit theaters—despite a lawsuit from 50 Cent

The film: Hollywood has officially entered its influencer era, with creators making their own films and securing everything from theater agreements to major studio deals and acting roles.

Skillhouse is the latest product of that trend. The influencer-themed horror flick was filmed at the Los Angeles mansion where TikTok group Sway House lived in 2020, and is headlined by Sway House’s Bryce Hall and influencer Hannah Stocking. Despite its influencer-focused plot, however, creators aren’t the only recognizable faces in Skillhouse.

The movie—which was produced by former Relativity Media CEO Ryan Kavanaugh through his creator-focused studio/streaming platform, GenTV—also tapped 50 Cent. The mainstream celeb’s name and image have been central to Skillhouse’s marketing. A pay-to-publish piece at USA Today, for example, said that Kavanaugh and 50 Cent “set a new standard for how stories can be told.”

The lawsuit: 50 Cent sees things differently. In April, he filed a $5 million suit against GenTV, saying he never signed a contract to appear in Skillhouse and was never paid, and that GenTV is infringing on his trademark and engaging in unfair competition against his streaming service, 50 Cent Action.

The actor’s lawyer asked for a preliminary injunction to keep Skillhouse out of theaters—but that request was denied. The rest of the suit is ongoing, although Hall recently claimed that “we beat [50 Cent] in court.”

GenTV doesn’t appear to have released a public statement, but Kavanaugh is no stranger to legal issues. The Skillhouse lawsuit is the latest to add to the list. But regardless of how those proceedings play out, the film itself is already out of the bag, having hit some AMC and Regal theaters last week.

STREAMING SPOTLIGHT

Netflix’s latest digital creator pickup is Solo Leveling

The adaptation: Hollywood film studios and college football teams aren’t the only ones keeping an eyes on influencers. Netflix is looking to online creators for its next crop of content, too.

The streaming service has signed on to produce a live-action adaptation of Solo Leveling, a fantasy webnovel, webtoon, and anime from South Korean author Chugong. Byeon Woo-seok—a South Korean model and actor known for his roles in romance movie 20th Century Girl and Netflix-produced K-pop K-drama Lovely Runner—will lead the new show.

Set in an MMORPG-inspired world where human Hunters defeat monsters with supernatural abilities, Solo Leveling has been read over 14 billion times on South Korean website KakaoPage. The webnovel was first adapted to a webtoon illustrated by Jang Sung-rak in 2018. Six years later, A-1 Pictures adapted it into an anime that went on to win nine trophies at the 2025 Crunchyroll Anime Awards (including Anime of the Year and Best Action).

The context: Netflix has already had success wooing webcomic enthusiasts with adaptations like its live-action take on Alice Oseman‘s gay romance Heartstopper. The streamer has also managed to charm Korean audiences and K-drama fans with shows like Squid Game and—most recently—Kpop Demon Hunters. Now, by adapting Solo Leveling, Netflix has the chance to charm fans of one of the internet’s most popular webnovels.

LISTEN UP

This week on the podcast…

“Dhar Mann’s Plan”: On the latest episode of Creator Upload, Dhar Mann is fresh off being named Titan on the TIME100 Creators List for 2025 and ready to reveal the strategy behind his global media empire.

In a candid conversation, the YouTube icon shares why he stepped down as CEO, his playbook for acquiring other creators, and his vision for why brands need to start thinking like creators. Also on the discussion list: TikTok's (alleged) plan to launch a US-only app this fall and Amazon’s decision to double some creator commissions for Prime Day.

Check out the full episode on Spotify and Apple Podcasts for all the details.

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