It’s Tuesday and the Criterion Collection is transporting KPop Demon Hunters and Frankenstein from Netflix to your DVD collection.

PLATFORM UPDATES

The update: Twitch’s approach to suspensions just got more flexible. As part of a new policy update, the platform is breaking its previous “all-or-nothing” framework into two categories: “streaming” and “chat” violations. In both cases, most suspended streamers will retain more privileges than they previously had.

While suspended streamers previously lost any and all access to their accounts until being reinstated, this bifurcated system will allow Twitch to strip certain types of access while leaving others untouched. Rule-breakers who commit streaming violations will still be unable to go live and will have their chat disabled—but now, they’ll retain the option to watch streams, chat on other channels, and view their account information.

Those punished with chat suspensions, meanwhile, will still be able to go live but won’t be able to chat on other channels.

The context: Enforcing bans isn’t exactly a simple science, but recent developments have made it clear that it’s time for Twitch to revise its approach to suspensions.

Some suspended streamers have pivoted to new platforms like Kick rather than dealing with Twitch’s rules, and the Amazon-owned platform has also gotten itself into hot water by raking in subscription revenue from suspended accounts.

The previous suspension policy also disproportionally affected long-active streamers. More on-air time created more opportunities for permanent consequences, and that’s not a good way to build a devoted creator community.

So, Twitch is shaking things up. In addition to the new suspension categories, a related policy shift will expunge suspensions from streamer records, with most black marks erased after 90 days. That’s good news for long-time streamers like left-wing firebrand Hasan Piker (who’s now faced at least seven suspensions), and will hopefully usher in a new era of copacetic relations between Twitch and its community.

HEADLINES IN BRIEF 📰

GOSPEL STATS 📈

Super Bowl LX and the 2026 Winter Olympics are tentpole evens on any platform, and YouTube is no exception. Gospel Stats’ latest ranking of most-viewed branded YouTube videos is all about the sports world, from game day ads to Olympic-sized mysteries.

🥇 #1. MrBeast x Whatnot: Ages 1-100 Race For $250,000 (66.5M views)
MrBeast’s latest sporty challenge came to life with funding from Whatnot, a live selling/shopping app that recently joined MrBeast’s partner portfolio. The creator hosted his very own Whatnot livestream on Super Bowl Sunday, when he handed out $1 million worth of giveaways.

🥈 #2. MrBeast x Salesforce: Watch My Super Bowl Ad To Win $1,000,000 (11.5M views)
Whatnot wasn’t MrBeast’s only Super Bowl partner. Back in December, the YouTube legend tweeted that he was “sitting on an amazing Super Bowl commercial idea.” Salesforce offered up its game day slot as a guinea pig, and the rest is history. The resulting commercial introduced a Ready Player One-style set of puzzles and a challenge: whoever solves them first will win $1 million.

🎰 #25. Cleo Abram x NBC: Why This Olympic Sport Bothers Physicists (2.7M views)
TV networks are gradually opening their ranks to creators, and NBC—whose parent company, NBCUniversal, holds the exclusive U.S. media rights to the Winter Olympics through 2036—is no exception. The media company has taken to sponsoring creators like journalist Cleo Abram in an effort to stir up interest in the Olympics, especially from viewers who might not typically engage (in this case, physics nerds).

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

MONEY MOVES

The acquisition: GameSquare just closed a deal to acquire TubeBuddy, an SEO, analytics, and “productivity tool” from BENLabs that claims to have helped over 10 million creators and companies optimize their YouTube channel performance.

In exchange for TubeBuddy, GameSquare issued 5 million shares of preferred stock to BENlabs. The duo declined to report the financial value of the acquisition, but GameSquare is currently trading at $0.28/share, so 5 million shares equals roughly $1.4 million.

In a press release, GameSquare said it expects TubeBuddy’s assets to add “first-party creator and channel data capabilities” and “powerful cross-platform brand and performance marketing solutions” that will “create new integration opportunities across GameSquare’s media, esports, and creator network.”

The history: This isn’t GameSquare’s first rodeo. Back in 2023, when FaZe was grappling with a disastrous IPO, GameSquare stepped in as its new owner. The deal split FaZe in half, with FaZe Media largely focused on content creation and talent, and FaZe Holdings focused on esports.

Then, in mid-2025, GameSquare divested of its 25.5% stake in FaZe Media, leaving it under the control of Matt Kalish, the DraftKings co-founder who invested $11 million in FaZe during its IPO recovery. GameSquare’s remaining stake is in FaZe Clan’s esports sector, which tracks with its 2020 purchase of Code Red Esports and 2024 acquisition of Complexity Gaming.

The TubeBuddy acquisition, however, shows that GameSquare is looking beyond esports—and for good reason. According to Investing.com, GameSquare’s stock is currently near its 52-week low of $0.27, and has lost 69% of value over the past year.

GameSquare said it expects TubeBuddy to increase recurring software and subscription revenue, all of which will contribute to annual projected revenue of $85 to $90 million, with a gross margin of 35-40%. As Investing.com notes, that’s a big jump from GameSquare’s current gross of 18%.

WATCH THIS 👀

The Olympic noodles: If gold medalist Alysa Liu celebrates the Winter Games with pasta and lava cake, why shouldn’t we?

For most of us non-Olympians, watching this year’s games with a healthy helping of pasta meant chilling on the couch with a bowl of spaghetti. Nick DiGiovanni, however, took a different approach.

After serving as a torchbearer ahead of the Milan games, the culinary YouTuber secured two special edition boxes of “Olympic Rings Pasta.” One of those boxes will make its way to a lucky fan, while the second got the DiGiovanni treatment on camera. (Think homemade tomato sauce and lots of basil.)

That Olympics-themed cooking video has already snagged over 308 million views, making it one of the most-watched Shorts on DiGiovanni’s main channel, and helping him shoot to the top of our latest Top 50 Most Subscribed chart.

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