TOGETHER WITH

It's Tuesday and eagle-eyed viewers caught sight of an unexpected visitor during this month’s Jupiter Ice Moons Explorer launch: a space-loving sloth nicknamed Jerry.

YOUTUBE'S BIG WIN 🏆

YouTube just snagged its first Technology and Engineering Emmy

YouTube TV now has its very own  Technology and Engineering Emmy . The subscription TV service was awarded the honor for Views, a suite of features that collect and display real-time information about sports matches (and fantasy sports) across different disciplines and leagues.

According to YouTube TV group project manager Kathryn Cochrane, Views was most commonly used by subscribers in 2022 to catch up on regular season NFL games, Premier League soccer matches, and the World Cup. To date, the exec says Views’ key plays—a feature that showcases important match moments for instant replay—have been used in over 10 million YouTube TV watch sessions.

Cochran thanked the Academy in a company blog post, and noted that YouTube TV "couldn’t be more proud of our team’s work on delivering Views for our members."

The service's legion of fans weren't forgotten, either:

🔆 SPONSORED 🔆

Spotter has invested $740 million in creator careers since 2019. Here’s how the internet’s top stars leveraged those new funds:

Over the last year, Spotter has supported more than 1,100 channel partners with exclusive YouTube data insights, innovative optimization resources, and over $740 million in funding. The result: Spotter’s licensed video catalog now generates over 88 billion watch-time minutes every month—meaning their creator partners have put all those funds to good use.

So, how do the internet’s top stars spend their  Spotter funds ?

Check out what creators like Colin & Samir, MrBeast, Deestroying, and Dude Perfect discovered at this year's Spotter Summit:

• 25% of Spotter investments are dedicated to producing new videos 🎥

• 21% of those funds are allocated to studio purchases 🏬

• Another 13% supports brand-building initiatives and creator products 👕

• And finally, 9% of Spotter payouts go towards hiring editors 👨‍💻

In other words: from $100,000 to $50+ million, every Spotter deal is tailored to fit YouTubers’ exact needs—because when you partner with Spotter, you can  use your new funds to reinvest in yourself and your business .

What would you do with an investment from Spotter?

There’s no time like the present to find out. In fact, when you partner with Spotter, you’ll receive your funds immediately—which means you could start revolutionizing your channel in a matter of days.

 Fund your future with Spotter →

HEADLINES IN BRIEF 📰

• YouTube is sunsetting shoppable links,  an e-commerce feature  that has been in testing since 2021. (Tubefilter)
  
  

• Netflix Games has a new creative director: former Microsoft vet and  Halo writer Joseph Staten . (VentureBeat)
  
  

• Spotify's Global Head of Audiobooks, Nir Zicherman, is reportedly  leaving the company  in October 2023. (The Verge)
  
  

• AMC has announced that its streaming service, AMC+, will offer an  ad-supported subscription option  before the end of the year. (Gizmodo)

DATA • GLOBAL TOP 50 📈

Comedy's latest 'it' couple is bringing the sigma girl trope to Shorts

The  creators behind CuRe  (aka "the CuRe couple") know exactly how to tap into the biggest trends on the web.  The duo 's most popular videos include everything from couples' content and pranks to sigma girl skits and shopping hauls—plus a healthy dose of short-form comedy.

It's a surefire formula for success.

By targeting those top trends, the CuRe couple has managed to collect nearly  2 billion views  since launching their YouTube hub in 2021. One of the latest trends to hit CuRe's channel has been especially effective at boosting views: sigma girl skits.

Like an alpha, a sigma has a dominating presence and no shortage of confidence. That lethal combination—as embodied by the CuRe couple in their most recent videos—has generated hundreds of millions of views for the Shorts channel since February 2023.

• Their  most-watched video , for instance, is a sigma-themed clip with more than 153 million views.

• Videos like that one helped CuRe collect 215 million weekly views during our last seven-day count.

• That 41% week-over-week increase was more than enough to boost the channel to #44 in our  Global Top 50 .

TWITCH VS KICK

Is a rival platform wooing Twitch’s biggest streamer?

Kai Cenat's Twitch career has  gained a huge amount of momentum  this year—but the creator is willing to consider other options.

Twitch may need to up its game if it wants to hold onto its top star.

 Cenat smashed records on Twitch  during a 30-day sub-a-thon earlier this year. By the end of that campaign, he'd collected 300,000 concurrent subscriptions—the most active subs a Twitch broadcaster has ever had. As for the platform's response?

Instead of sending a contract (as Cenat had hoped), Twitch celebrated his accomplishment by gifting him a pair of purple shoes emblazoned with his “KC” insignia and the logo of  AMP.  It's not the first time the platform has disappointed its biggest streamer. In a  previous sub-a-thon , Cenat argued that Twitch doesn't do enough to support Black creators:

Kick isn't taking the streamer's frustration for granted. The rival streaming platform followed Twitch's custom shoe delivery by sending Cenat a brand-new pair of green Nike x OffWhite Air Force 1s—a move the creator described as the “ biggest one-up ." Kick has more going for it than just sick sneakers: some established streamers have already  made more than $30,000  in their first months on the platform. Still, Cenat isn't making any commitments just yet. According to the streamer, his top priority is just "to be good with my supporters."

WATCH THIS 📺

Creator Clash 2's headline fight was a thrilling four-round smackdown

The second iteration of Ian “iDubbbz” Jomha's influencer boxing event was  a smashing success . Creator Clash 2 included 11 fights and raised money for a range of creator-selected charities, including Sarcoma Foundation of America, Critical Role Foundation, and Kids Cancer Foundation.

The main card bout between Alex Wassabi and Jomha went the full four rounds, but only one fighter emerged victorious: in the end, two judges ruled in Wassabi's favor, while the third scored the fight as a draw.

Tune in  here  to see how iDubbbz fared after the fight.

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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.