TOGETHER WITH

It’s Friday and after introducing a STEM feed to teens, TikTok is testing out the theory that adults might want to learn about science, too.

Today’s News

GAME ON

Ludwig’s Offbrand Games soared to the top of Steam charts after publishing its first title

The release: Offbrand's expansion into the video game industry is off to a promising start. The first title published by its new Offbrand Games division—Rivals of Aether 2—soared to the top of the Steam charts shortly after its release, surpassing well-known titles like Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, Factorio, and Counter Strike 2. It’s even outselling its own predecessor.

The context: While Aether Studios deserves recognition for that impressive performance, Rivals of Aether 2’s high-profile publisher probably has a lot do with its success.

Offbrand was established by creator Ludwig Ahgren, Mogul Moves president Nick Allen, and business partners Nathan Stanz, and Brandon Ewingin in 2022 as a live production firm geared towards streamer events. After achieving success with initiatives like The Streamer Games, Offbrand ventured into game publishing in 2024 and tapped Twitch streamer Jason “Thor” Hall (aka Pirate Software) to serve as Director of Strategy for Offbrand Games.

Hall's ability to draw large audiences likely contributed to Rivals of Aethar 2’s visibility on Steam. That’s good news for both Aether Studios and Offbrand itself, since evidence of an “Offbrand bump” could be a huge selling point for the publisher as it looks to recruit more developer partners.

🔆 SPONSORED 🔆

Motion Array just launched a new AI Voiceover Generator—and it’s designed specifically for you

Motion Array is already the ultimate catalog for creators, with video templates by the world’s top motion designers, presets, plugins, music, SFX, stock footage, graphics, motion graphics, stock photos, and more.

Now, Motion Array is adding yet another cutting-edge tool to its catalog: an AI voiceover generator designed specifically for video creators.

Motion Array’s new AI voiceover gives subscribers access to a unique, high-quality voice catalog crafted by top-tier artists.

By removing the need for external voiceover services, creators can save valuable time and resources. The result: you’ll be able to create content faster than ever before while unlocking storytelling possibilities with professional-grade narrations.

Ready to bring your vision to life? Motion Array’s AI Voiceover is available through the ‘Everything’ plan or as a stand-alone plan—so you can access the tool alongside unlimited royalty-free stock assets, or test it out on its own. 

Subscribe and try it out →

HEADLINES IN BRIEF 📰

• A new lawsuit aims to hold chatbot company Character.AI, its founders, and and Google responsible for the death of 14-year-old user Sewell Setzer III. (Tubefilter)
  

• New data from StreamElements shows that Twitch’s latest Subtember event corresponded with a rise in both monthly viewer numbers and hours watched. (VentureBeat)
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• Meta has tapped YouTube Shorts vet Jake O’Leary to serve as Instagram’s new head marketer. (AdWeek)
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• Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen has filed a lawsuit against TikTok that accuses the platform of knowingly serving addictive and “extreme” content to underage users. (The Hill)

NAILED IT

Which emotion is the best for thumbnails? Depends who you ask.

The strategy: Over the last few years, thumbnail design has become one of the most talked-about aspects of content creation. YouTube-wide trends have ebbed and flowed as creators of all sizes have looked to reap the benefits of viral designs.

One of the most popular templates has been MrBeast’s face-focused format. But how can creators determine which kinds of faces will play best with viewers?

The study: New data from Kapwing could help fill in the blanks. The video editing app teamed up with marketing agency NeoMam Studios to identify the most common thumbnail faces used by some of YouTube’s biggest stars. The duo’s study used AI facial recognition technology to categorize thumbnails into seven emotional groups: happy, sad, surprised, calm, surprised, fear, and confused.

Here’s how the data shook out:

• Overall, positive emotions showed up more frequently in the measured thumbnails. Surprise and happiness both appeared in nearly 27% of the listed videos, while calm came in third place. Sadness and disgust accounted for less than 2% of the measured thumbnails.
  

• Happiness was the most common expression in MrBeast thumbnails (although his channel featured all seven emotions). PewDiePie and KSI took the same approach.
  
  

• Mark Rober‘s thumbnails were entirely happy and calm, while Ludwig‘s all featured confusion, happiness, or fear.
  
  

• 70% of SSSniperWolf‘s thumbnails showed surprise.

The takeaway: The results of Kapwing and NeoMam’s study offer a window into both viewer preferences and the strategies that have helped YouTube’s top creators climb the charts. Here’s how Kapwing’s Co-Founder, Eric Lu, interpreted the companies’ findings:

GOING PREMIUM

Bluesky is capitalizing on X’s latest snafu with a $15M raise and creator monetization plans

The context: Bluesky is reaping the benefits of X’s latest snafu. Two particularly unpopular changes have contributed to an exodus from Elon Musk’s platform over the last month: first, it’s nuking the block feature by allowing users you’ve blocked to see your posts anyway. Second, it’s changed its TOS so all material uploaded to X is automatically licensed “for use with and training of our machine learning and artificial intelligence models.”

Those and similar changes have contributed to massive growth for Bluesky. The X rival—which was founded by Twitter founder/longtime CEO Jack Dorsey—has seen over 3 million new signups this month alone, growing its pre-October user base by nearly a third.

The strategy: Bluesky isn’t resting on its laurels, either. The platform announced yesterday that it’s raised a further $15 million through a Series A round led by Blockchain Capital and plans to introduce a subscription tier and a creator tip jar. According to Chief Operating Officer Rose Wang, both the $15 million and the future subscription revenue will go toward keeping Bluesky’s 20-person team funded while they improve the app, grow its “developer ecosystem,” and “explore business models beyond traditional ads.” (Bluesky has never actually run ads: so far, its funding has come from an $8 million seed round and a paid service that let users acquire custom domains for their handles.)

The details: Bluesky hasn’t yet revealed how much its subscription tier will cost, but noted that premium users can anticipate perks like profile customization and higher-quality video uploads. The platform also clarified a few of the things that won’t be offered to subscribers, including the type of visibility boosting and blue checks deployed by competitors like X. As for the creator tip jar, Bluesky says it plans to build “payment services for people to support their favorite creators and projects.”

WATCH THIS 📺

From Ancient Egypt to the Olympics, this Shorts star plays every part

The icon: There’s a reason I am MoBo just broke 5 billion lifetime views on YouTube. Over the last three years, the creator has played hundreds of characters and delighted viewers with skits featuring elaborate costumes and eye-catching backgrounds.

Some of his most popular videos center around comedic retellings of history—a fan-favorite genre across platforms like Shorts, TikTok, and Instagram Reels. One of MoBo’s most popular clips, for instance, has garnered more than 130 million views by reimagining the invention of the clock.

Check out his latest short-form retellings here.

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