TOGETHER WITH

It's Wednesday and Coca-Cola is jumping on the AI train. Its latest release: a “Y3000” flavor developed “with insights gathered from artificial intelligence.”

OLDIES BUT GOODIES

YouTube is revisiting the ‘70s through the ‘10s with an ode to 1.5 million “retrogaming” videos

Nostalgic gaming content is having a moment on YouTube. According to a recent post from the YouTube Trends team, “there were 1,000 times more uploads of videos related to retrogaming in 2023 as there were in 2007.” The platform celebrated that rise with a temporary logo change—and a massive breakdown of more than 1.5 million retro gaming videos dating back to 2006. (Yes, games from 2006 are now considered “retro.”)

Despite that evolution, classic gaming enthusiasts still have plenty of time for 20th-century titles. In fact, YouTube data shows that the majority of retro gaming videos feature titles from the 1980s. The platform’s sizable tech restoration community has a lot to do with the popularity of that era: of the 100 most-watched ‘80s gaming videos, 60% focus on hardware (such as consoles) rather than the titles themselves.

Still feeling nostalgic?

Check out YouTube’s video collab with creator Caddicarus here, or tune into this playlist to reminisce about the gaming community’s greatest throwbacks.

🔆 SPONSORED 🔆

Artlist is giving one creator $100,000 to realize their wildest creative vision. Here’s how you can apply:

Artlist just launched its ​biggest creator fund ever​.

At the core of Artlist is the mission to empower people everywhere to create. They provide high-quality music, sound effects, footage and templates to help unlock creativity. Now, Artlist is taking that mission even further by giving one creator $100,000 to make their dream project a reality.

How can you ​win $100,000​?

With Artlist funding, you can accomplish just about anything—from financing a ridiculously high-budget video concept to launching the YouTube channel of your dreams. To put together a stand-out application, think outside-of-the-box and don't be scared to go bigger than ever before. The more creative your application, the better your chances become. Applications to the 100K Fund are open to all video creators worldwide from today until October 12.

​Submit your application today →

HEADLINES IN BRIEF 📰

• Viral Nation has announced the launch of CreatorOS, an analytics platform designed to streamline creator-brand relations. (Tubefilter)
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• Bluesky broke 1 million users this week—a big milestone for an app that has repeatedly limited its user base with invite codes and a waitlist. (TechCrunch)
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• TikTok’s Shop tab is now officially available to all U.S.-based users. (Gizmodo)
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• Newly-released documents from the Department of Justice note that Elon Musk “may have jeopardized data privacy and security” during the “‘fundamental transformation’ of X Corp.” (Engadget)

DATA • U.S. TOP 50 📈

This Android-loving YouTuber embraces the weirdest parts of mobile gaming

DroidGameplaysTV doesn’t play just any mobile games. In fact, viewers browsing through the creator’s YouTube library will have a hard time finding playthroughs of conventional titles like Stumble Guys or Candy Crush Saga—but toss in a flying Scooby Doo character or a giant nose-picking finger, and Droid is all over it.

Luckily for the U.S.-based creator, Shorts viewers are always down for a little mobile mayhem.

From screaming virtual babies to panic attack simulators, the subjects of Droid’s videos are far from relaxing—but viewers can’t seem to look away from his oddly satisfying gameplay. Overall, the creator’s affinity for repetitive games with vertical orientations and eye-catching graphics has earned him nearly 2.3 billion views since 2014.

More than 100 million of those views flooded in over the course of just seven days.

Droid brought in a whopping 112.2 million views between September 4 and September 10, a figure that added up to more than three times the previous week’s total. The result: the creator’s channel climbed the ranks at a breakneck pace, landing at #50 in our U.S. Top 50 chart.

GAME ON

Another major gaming star just joined Loaded’s talent roster

It’s been a big year for Loaded. The management company has majorly expanded its roster of gaming stars over the last few months, with aceu, Sylvee, Squeex, QTCinderella, joshseki, and Vienna all coming aboard.

Now, Loaded is adding another big name to that list: Symfuhny.

The Call of Duty streamer (whose real name is Mason Lainer) has signed with Loaded for representation in all areas. That partnership comes at what the management company calls “a critical time” in Lainer’s career. The Twitch star has been an independent competitive gamer since 2020—having previously played on NRG’s pro Fortnite team—and is currently shooting to be in the top 250 players worldwide in CoD‘s ranked leagues. In the meantime, the multiplatform creator entertains 7 million followers with his gameplay (4 million of those followers tune in on Twitch).

Lainer echoed Loaded’s statement, noting that he’s “excited for how we’ll be able to shake things up, together.”

WATCH THIS 📺

Disney+ has a not-so-secret plan to turn Toy Story lovers into football fans

Disney+ and ESPN+ are leveraging an unexpected strategy to keep kids entertained during NFL season. Come October 1, the Atlanta Falcons and the Jacksonville Jaguars will face off in two places at once: London’s Wembley Stadium and Andy’s bedroom.

The latter setting will transport fans to the animated world of Toy Story for “a real-time, fully animated alternate presentation” of the in-person game. Check out the full video trailer here to find out more about the first Toy Story Funday Football event.

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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.