It’s Wednesday and Netflix’s upcoming Willy Wonka-inspired reality show is skipping past “Pure Imagination” and going straight to AI with a recreation of Gene Wilder’s voice.

TUBI TIME

The data: Tubi is on the rise—and creators are a big reason why. The ad-supported video on demand (AVOD) platform is celebrating its best-ever finish in Nielsen’s The Gauge report, and the data demonstrates a significant surge.

Tubi and Roku, which are united under the Fox banner, combined to post a 5.3% market share in The Gauge. That was a higher total than streaming bigwigs like Disney and Prime Video.

So, how is Tubi pulling off such strong numbers? As Senior Manager of Creator Partnerships Jess Borison explained at VidCon, the platform is putting “fandom at the forefront” of its content strategy.

The strategy: To unite fanbases with its native consumers, Tubi prioritizes partnerships with creators who work within the content categories that draw the most on-platform traffic. Borison noted, for example, that true crime and horror are big on Tubi, which made a revival of Joey Graceffa’s Escape The Night a logical choice. The platform’s emphasis on Black entertainment has also been boosted through pacts with creators like Kinigra Deon.

Tubi’s creator push isn’t limited to its own platform. A partnership with TikTok, for example, spurred the development of the Creatorverse program. That lineup is now headed to Amazon’s Fire TV devices.

Going forward, Fox intends to continue upping its presence among streaming consumers—and Tubi is a key cog in that plan.

GOSPEL STATS 📈

MrBeast often lands the #1 spot in Gospel Stats’ Weekly Brand Reports by snagging tens of millions of views with a single video. That’s exactly what happened this week—but the rest of the rankings are a little more out of the ordinary.

While view counts typically drop to 2-5 million around third place, this week’s #1, #2, #3, and #4 videos all claimed over 30 million views each. We’re keen to see if that spike holds true throughout the summer.

🥇 #1. MrBeast x Jack Link’s: 7 Days Stranded in The Arctic (90.1M views)
Extreme challenges and jerky-focused sponsorships are nothing new for MrBeast. The man known as Jimmy Donaldson has an ongoing deal with Jack Link’s, which served as the backer behind his latest wilderness adventure. But this week’s chart-topper did have something fresh for viewers; in a pinned comment, MrBeast revealed that he “tried a new editing style more focused on cinematic shots and more personality!”

🥈 #2. Dude Perfect x Major League Pickleball: This Trick Shot Almost Made Him QUIT (13.9M views)
Live sports are having a moment on YouTube—and pickleball is tapping into the hype. Dude Perfect’s latest trick shot-focused Short was the only video backed by Major League Pickleball this week, but we’ll be watching to see if that activity ramps up over the coming months.

🎰 #3. MrBeast 2 x Feastables: Eating the Weirdest Chocolates on Earth (31.6 views)
MrBeast has historically pitched his Feastables brand as a challenger to Hershey’s. But based on the variety of chocolate treats featured in this video (and the consistent additions to the Feastables product line), it seems like Donaldson might be going after some higher-shelf competitors.

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

PLATFORM UPDATES

The update: Usernames are coming to WhatsApp. Rather than using phone numbers as their in-app ID, WhatsApp users can now reserve a username that includes an @ sign (similar to handles on platforms like YouTube and TikTok).

In a blog post, Meta positioned the update as a security feature that will allow users to chat without sharing their phone numbers.

That rationale is reasonable, especially since WhatsApp’s encrypted messaging service has long made it a top choice for users sensitive about data privacy. But is it the entire story? Or are WhatsApp usernames also meant to bring more creators to the app?

The (potential) motivation: While Meta has turned platforms like Facebook and Instagram into creator hotspots, the story of WhatsApp is not so straightforward. Since acquiring the messaging app in 2014, Meta has imbued it with a few creator-oriented features, including a Snapchat-esque format called Status and a tool for sticker creation.

Those updates admittedly didn’t move the needle much. More recently, however, Meta has brought WhatsApp in line with its other properties by introducing paid subscriptions and including the app in its World Cup activation.

The idea of an encrypted messaging service as a creator locus may sound far-fetched, but if platforms like BeReal and Threads can attract creator content, so can WhatsApp.

After all, the app’s base of over three billion monthly users makes it a logical home for crowdsourced features. Meta could also use a more social version of WhatsApp to recruit creators in India, where approximately 850 million people reportedly use the platform.

WATCH THIS 👀

The humble pie: If you’re craving a good dose of schadenfreude, look no further than How Hard Can It Be?

Hosted by Mean Girls alum Jonathan Bennett, the web series puts the audacity of the everyday man to the test by challenging participants to do exactly what they say they can—whether that means beating a pro female athlete or successfully landing a plane.

So far, the show has taken men into the cockpit, left them at the mercy of master rhythmic gymnast Olha Kotelnikova, and put them on the court opposite pro tennis player Angela Kulikov. You probably already know what happened next, but feel free to tune in anyway.

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