Virtual Gameday
YouTube reveals the top trends of the year, a new VR game drops you into real soccer matches, and Rainforest Café is cool now
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Here’s something to get you out of the midweek slump. Last night, an asteroid the size of a football stadium and moving at 27,500 mph barely missed Earth. Are you awake now? Okay, confession: the asteroid was actually 1.37 million miles away… but that’s close enough to be designated a “near Earth object” by NASA. It was so close — relative to the vastness of space — that you could see it streak past Earth through an eight-inch telescope. Nifty.
DAILY TOP TRENDS
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YouTube Drops Its Top Trends
YouTube’s annual top trending list shows MrBeast reigns supreme, Kendrick Lamar really rules the airwaves, and Shorts captures the zeitgeist of a very specific moment.
The Big Picture: YouTube’s list reveals that while some creators remain stars of the platform, trending topics ebb and flow to match the biggest cultural events.
Between the Videos: Ranking as one of the top annual trends on YouTube truly is the stamp of approval of global popularity.
MrBeast ranked as the most popular creator for the fourth year in a row, which is an incredible feat of longevity, considering that he’s the only creator from the 2022 list who’s still in the top 10.
And MrBeast has a halo effect — after little-known creator Camilla Araujo appeared in his viral Squid Game recreation, she’s now in the top 10.
Kendrick Lamar beat Drake (and every other artist), appearing in the top 10 most-searched topics overall, while “Not Like Us” was the year’s top-trending song.
Sabrina Carpenter was also a big winner, ranking as a top search topic after several of her songs went viral on YouTube Shorts.
Closing Thoughts: Tubefilter notes that the conversion rate of a hit on Shorts becoming a hit overall on the platform is still pretty low. When it comes to songs, only Tommy Richman‘s “Million Dollar Baby” charted on both. That may lead to a bifurcated creator economy where there are influencers known specifically for Shorts and others for long-form videos.
Together with Bombas
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Can A Video Game Make You Relive Your Favorite Game?
UK VR startup Rezzil — which is behind VR-enabled drills that pro athletes use — has developed a game that drops players right into the middle of Premier League soccer games.
Why It Hits: As sports leagues and media companies search for more ways to immerse audiences in matches, rolling out a feature that allows people to feel like what it is to relive games and play alongside their favorite players could be… well… a game-changer.
Between the Matches: Wired got a first look at Premier League Player, which is still in the testing phase and will kick off in August at the start of the next season.
Using VR headsets, players are dropped into one of the 20 playable English Premier League stadiums, where they are then tasked with recreating plays — passes, headers, penalty kicks, shots on goal, goal blocks — from actual games.
Currently, players “kick” by swinging their arms as they hold a headset, but the company is working on a way where people will actually be able to kick with their feet.
As you play, recreations of players executing moves they did in the game will appear alongside you — a feat captured by on-field iPhones and rendered by computer-vision programs that capture 10,000 points on each player’s body.
The Future: The “real killer application,” per Wired, will be when the game allows players to change the course of past games. For example, say your favorite team failed to score a winning goal. Players could try their hand at making the goal and winning the game. Of course, that’s revisionist history, but that sort of hypothetical gameplay is catnip for diehard fans. Expect every league to get in on Rezzil’s technology to develop a new kind of media-rights deal.
Together with Masterworks
Here’s What You Can Do When Your Bank Starts Apologizing
You may have recently gotten a “sorry” email from your bank, saying that if you had a 5% APY cash account, that privilege is being snatched away.
And with interest rates set to keep sinking… where to pivot?
Now, for a slice of their portfolio, Masterworks’ art investing platform is offering shares to 66,000+ investors — each of their 23 sales has returned a profit to investors.
Here’s a snapshot of three illustrative sales:
+17.6% net annualized returns
+17.8% net annualized returns
+21.5% net annualized returns
***This content is not intended to provide legal, tax, or investment advice. No money is being solicited or will be accepted until the offering statement for a particular offering has been qualified by the SEC. Offers may be revoked at any time. Contacting Masterworks involves no commitment or obligation.
“Net Annualized Return” refers to annualized internal rate of return net of all fees and expenses, calculated from the offering closing date to the date the sale is consummated. For additional information regarding the calculation of IRR for a particular investment in an artwork that has been sold, a reconciliation will be filed as an exhibit to Form 1-U and will be available on the SEC’s website.
This communication is sent exclusively from Masterworks and is not endorsed by or affiliated with Bank of America. Masterworks did not contribute to the creation of the linked content. The report is not intended to be regarded as investment advice, an offer, or solicitation of an offer to enter into any Masterworks offering.
DEEP DIVES
Read: Deadline chats with filmmaker Robert Eggers and the cast of the upcoming Nosferatu about creating the new vampire tale.
Watch: Forbes interviews Chris Davis, Brand President and Chief Marketing Officer at New Balance, about leading a revival of the brand.
Explore: The Forbes “30 Under 30” list is here.
Do you discover new artists on YouTube? |
82% of you voted No in yesterday’s poll: Have you ever launched your own ecommerce business?
“I’ve sold things on eBay but not as a business.”
“Yes, but I don’t make any money.”
“Like dropping a pebble into the ocean. Sure, there’s some ripples, but…”
“I owned a small, brick-and-mortar retail shop prior to COVID. When the pandemic hit, I had to quickly pivot, and Shopify met my needs.”
“My wife started hers in 2019... right before the world shut down, so she didn’t start selling products until December 2020, and supply chain issues slowed that growth, but here we are in 2024, where I quit my office job of 25 years to commit to our growing business!”
Let’s keep the conversation going. Join our Poll Of The Day newsletter so your opinions can shine. Discover how your views line up with your peers’, check out cool insights, and have some fun. It’s data with personality.
QUICK HITS
→ Entertainment / Media
🎞️ PG-rated films are killing it at the box office, counting for a third of ticket sales this year.
🎥 Raya and the Last Dragon director Carlos López Estrada’s Antigravity Academy is teaming up with Dolby on a short film studio.
🏆 Gersh acquired the sports agency You First to launch Gersh Sports.
→ Technology
🤖 Meta president of global affairs Nick Clegg is reporting that deepfakes luckily didn’t play a big part in the election as originally feared.
🖥️ Amazon is really taking on Nvidia by creating a supercomputer, company-made microchips, and a new AI server.
👔 OpenAI hired its first CMO, meaning the company is entering its advertising era.
→ Creator Economy
🧮 Kai Cenat took back the record for the most-watched livestream ever, with 727,7000 concurrent viewers.
🐸 Rainforest Cafe is going viral, thanks to Gen Z. Hilarious.
Let us know how we are doing... |
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Today’s email was written by David Vendrell.
Edited by Nick Comney. Copy edited by Kait Cunniff.
Published by Darline Salazar.
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