It’s Tuesday and TikTok has officially revealed its Top 10 Songs of the Summer. At the top of the U.S. list: Tommy Richman’s “Million Dollar Baby.”

Today’s News

• Betting sites use “skin gambling” to escape Twitch bans

• A kid-friendly channel claims the U.S. Top 50 throne for two weeks running

• Sam and Colby’s haunted hijinks climb the branded charts

• A new site transports YouTube viewers to the heyday of network TV

• YouTube’s biggest editors reveal their secrets

GAMBA META

“Skin gambling” is alive and well on Twitch. It’s also firmly against the platform’s TOS.

The initial crackdown: Two years ago, Twitch was a hotbed for betting streams. Creators who secured sponsors from gambling sites and signup bonuses through affiliate-advertising orgs like Stake.com made millions of dollars’ worth of bets on stream. The negative effects of that practice were clear: in one particularly severe situation, a frequent xQc viewer lost $80,000 after developing a gambling habit.

Then Twitch started cracking own. The platform officially banned sites like Stake.com and Duelbits.com in September 2022, leading to a 75% drop in gambling stream viewership over the next year.

The resurgence: Despite that crackdown, recent data from Barron’s suggests that betting companies and streamers haven’t actually left Twitch—they’ve just embraced workarounds like Counter-Strike skin gambling. Many video games offer skins for outfitting characters and weapons, but Counter-Strike’s secondary market is a whole other ball game. Skins sometimes sell for thousands of dollars, making them an ideal currency for the betting companies that sponsor gaming streamers.

The process is also officially permitted by Counter-Strike developer and Steam owner Valve, which reportedly brings in as much as $60 million per month through skin gambling.

The resistance: Twitch is a different story. A spokesperson told Barron’s that “gambling–and any promotion or sponsorship of skins gambling–is not allowed on Twitch,” and the platform is currently “digging into the examples” raised by the outlet. If that investigation turns into action, a hefty number of skin gambling streamers—some of whom have received offers as high as $200,000 a month to promote betting sites—could find themselves in hot water.

HEADLINES IN BRIEF 📰

• Toys and Colors scored the #1 spot in the U.S. Top 50 for the second week running thanks to a seven-day tally of 603.2 million views. (Tubefilter)
  
  

• As Kamala Harris leans into “brat summer,” Donald Trump is making his own play for social media users by posting AI-generated images of celebrity endorsements and political rallies. (The Verge)
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• A new report from Digiday claims that TikTok “surpassed YouTube in [video-focused marketing] usage among brands and retailers” over the past year. (Digiday)
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• After years of anticipation, Apple Podcasts has (finally) launched its very own web app. (The Verge)

GOSPEL STATS 📈

Top 3 Branded Videos: Uploads so scary you’ll need BetterHelp therapy

With no MrBeast upload, this week’s roundup of Top Branded Videos looks a little different—and a whole lot scarier. Channels like Sam and Colby, Kurzgesagt, and Kurt Caz hit the top of Gospel Stats’ weekly chart by dropping hair-raising videos about everything from haunted houses to human-replacing AI.

🥇 Sam and Colby x BetterHelp: Surviving 3 Haunted Houses in 50 Hours | Gettysburg (5.7M views)
There’s a reason Sam and Colby’s latest video promotes online counseling. The duo’s tromp through haunted houses is frightening enough to drive any viewer to therapy. Luckily for fans, controversial sponsor BetterHelp is on hand to treat even the worst YouTube-induced trauma.

🥈 Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell x Brilliant: A.I. ‐ Humanity’s Final Invention? (4.2M views)
Kurzgesagt’s latest nugget of “nihilistic optimistic” brings viewers all the way back to the age of homo erectus. The channel’s 18-minute history of human inventions suggests that the robot revolution could lead to AIs that can develop ideas faster than humans—just as we surpassed other species way back in the day. Luckily for curious viewers, Brilliant offers comprehensive online courses for anyone dying to learn more about AI and “technologies of the future.”

🥉 Kurt Caz x Manscaped: Venezuela’s Most Dangerous Beach! (4M views)
Kurt Caz rounded out this week’s smorgasbord of chilling content by visiting a Venezuelan destination he calls “the most dangerous beach in the world.” And because even ill-fated beach days call for some artful manscaping, Caz spiced up his travel vlog with an ad promoting a powerful men’s grooming product: “the lawn mower.”

Check out our full article here for info on two bonus videos—and head over to Gospel Stats for more YouTube sponsorship data and influencer marketing insights.

CHANNELING THE ‘80S

A new site brings YouTube enthusiasts back to the good old days of network TV

The concept: Hadi Safa is turning back the clock. The developer has debuted YTCH, a new website that mimics the golden age of network television—a time before TiVo, full-season drops, and oodles of channel options.

First spotted by Dexerto, YTCH offers 17 channels that load up YouTube videos at random based on categories like Science and Technology (Channel 1), Food (Channel 3), and Gaming (Channel 13). Each channel plays a predetermined set of full-screen content on a schedule, meaning viewers can’t scroll through or pause videos.

The exception: There is one aspect of YTCH that doesn’t quite jive with ‘80s-era television. Unlike golden age TV, Safa’s site doesn’t have commercials. That’s a big plus for viewers looking to escape the ads that typically run alongside YouTube content—but it also means creators might not be compensated for views generated by YTCH.

At the very least, the site does offer attribution. While YTCH doesn’t link directly to videos, it includes each clip’s watch ID in the lower right-hand corner of the screen, so viewers can easily find their favorite videos on YouTube.

The takeaway: YTCH might not be a perfect time machine, but it definitely offers viewers a brief respite from modern doomscrolling. Our question: is YTCH’s initial popularity a sign that nostalgia has played a part in YouTube’s rising living room viewership?

While cable TV continues to decline, the Alphabet-owned platform has grown to generate 1 billion hours of watch time on TV screens every single day. That expansion and the initial success of Safa’s pet project seem to indicate that viewers still find comfort in some aspects of network TV (although commercials don’t seem to have made the cut).

WATCH THIS 📺

How did YouTube’s top editors break into the biz?

Behind the scenes: Stars like Logan Paul, MrBeast, Pokimane, and the Sidemen routinely draw billions of views with high-stakes challenges, controversial match-ups, and Just Chatting streams. But who actually transforms that footage into viral VODs?

The answer, of course, is editors like Taylor (‪@JumpCutProYT‬), Hayden (‪@HillierSmith‬), Jhinxx (@_jhinxx), and Rush (@RushsBasement1‬). Those four pros have worked with the best of the best—and now, they’re passing their hard-earned knowledge to the next generation.

Check out this video from creator-slash-editor finzar to “learn the secrets of how they got these life-changing roles and what advice they have to new and upcoming editors.”

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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.