The Fanvault blog
From the Vault.
Creator stories, platform updates, and actionable tips for fans and sellers
The 98% open rate: why creators are routing fans into texts and DMs
Creators are moving fan communication off the public feed and into SMS and DMs because the read rates are 3-4x higher. Business SMS opens at 95-98%, Instagram DMs at 88-90%, and email at 20-28%. Stack reply behavior on top of the open-rate gap and the DM rail looks roughly 135x more efficient per recipient than an email blast.
A federal judge just greenlit Mizkif's defamation suit against Emiru. Asmongold walks.
A federal magistrate just recommended Mizkif's defamation suit against Emiru move forward, rejecting her 'emotional truth' defense. Asmongold got out clean, but Emiru is heading for discovery, depositions, and a jury.
The Stokes Twins just handed Netflix 140 million subscribers.
Netflix just signed the Stokes Twins to a non-exclusive content pact for their 140M-subscriber archive and a 2027 original, and the twins didn't leave YouTube. This is the multi-platform creator playbook, and it is rewriting who has leverage in 2026.
Skai Jackson is now a Kai Cenat student. The Disney pipeline broke.
Skai Jackson, 24, with 22.3M TikTok followers, joined Kai Cenat's Streamer University Class of 2026. What that means for the creator economy, and why Disney's talent pipeline just stopped shipping successors.
FIFA is investigating the racist abuse of IShowSpeed at the World Cup, and the creator economy is watching
FIFA opened a formal probe on July 7 after an Argentina fan told IShowSpeed to 'go cry to the zoo' at a Miami World Cup match. Speed isn't just a spectator, he's a co-broadcaster pulling 9.2M viewers per simulcast, and the investigation is the first duty-of-care test for the creator co-broadcast era.
Connor Murphy drowned in a Thai lake after a psychotic episode. The looksmaxxing YouTuber had 3.6 million subs.
The 32-year-old fitness YouTuber behind the viral 'Fake Shirt Trick' drowned in a Samut Prakan lake after a psychotic episode in front of neighbors. Between two channels, Connor Murphy had 3.64 million subscribers and no off-ramp.
MrBeast's Feastables missed by half a billion. Investors are threatening to sue.
Early Feastables backers have hired lawyers and are preparing legal action against Jimmy Donaldson over image-rights and exclusivity breaches, after the snack brand missed its $520M 2025 target by hundreds of millions.
The company that owns Vimeo, WeTransfer, and StreamYard just IPO'd. Creator infrastructure is now public.
Milan's Bending Spoons raised $1.68 billion in a Nasdaq IPO on July 1, closed up 40%, and now sits at a ~$25.7B market cap. The company owns Vimeo, WeTransfer, StreamYard, and Splice, which means the creator toolchain just got its first public-market proxy.
Netflix just bought BuzzFeed, Vogue, and Variety's video pipes. YouTube is the target.
Netflix just licensed BuzzFeed, Vogue, Variety, and three more publishers to push short, personality-driven video onto its homepage. The target is YouTube.
Charli D'Amelio Says Nearly Eight Figures Went Missing While Her Parents Ran the Accounts
A Deuxmoi tip claims nearly eight figures vanished from Charli D'Amelio's personal accounts on her parents' watch. She quietly exited D'Amelio Brands six months before the story broke.
The billionaires' favorite podcaster just told $50 million to walk.
Fortune says David Senra has turned down roughly 15 offers to buy Founders, including one valued above $50M. His solo podcast is the loudest 2026 argument for the ownership-first creator business.
Kaceytron just got her fifth Twitch ban. She was arguing with chat about her sobriety while driving.
Twitch pulled Kaceytron offline on July 5 after she argued with chat about her sobriety mid-drive to McDonald's. Her 5th ban lands one week after the ExtraEmily crackdown, and the platform is quietly redrawing the line for every creator streaming from the driver's seat.
Two ex-Fortnite mapmakers just outsold Apex and Overwatch with a $5 game.
Two Japanese ex-Fortnite mapmakers built Meccha Chameleon in eight weeks and sold 15 million copies at $5.99, with zero ad spend. The cleanest 2026 receipt yet for owning your own storefront.
Aaron Phypers wants half of Denise Richards' $250K-a-month OnlyFans. A judge gave him $5K.
Aaron Phypers wants 50% of Denise Richards' OnlyFans income in their July 7 divorce, arguing he owns the photos. Here's what a $250K-a-month case means for every creator with a partner behind the camera.
Kai Cenat snubbed Soulja Boy. Soulja Boy launched Rapper University.
Kai Cenat left Soulja Boy off the Streamer University 2026 roster. Within hours, Soulja launched a Twitch-based knockoff called Rapper University, and the 'university' format for creator bootcamps is officially a genre.
DreamDoll Brii was gunned down in a Miramar Lambo. She had 450K followers and just turned 21.
DreamDoll Brii, a 21-year-old South Florida creator with roughly 450K combined followers, was shot dead in a targeted 5:30 AM drive-by on a lime-green Lamborghini Urus in Miramar. Miramar police say the SUV was 'deliberately targeted' and no suspect is in custody.
A Brazilian YouTuber just pulled 21 million viewers off Globo.
CazéTV's Brazil vs. Japan stream peaked at 21.1M concurrent viewers on June 29, believed to be the largest live stream in YouTube's history and roughly 6x what Casimiro Miguel drew at the 2022 World Cup. Here's how a Rio streamer took the World Cup off Globo in the demographic that actually matters.
YouTube just killed BrandConnect. Brand deals now live inside Google Ads.
YouTube dissolved BrandConnect into Google Ads on July 1, 2026, expanding its new Gemini-powered Creator Partnerships hub to the UK, Germany, Japan, and Singapore. Brand deals now sit next to search and DV360 inventory, matched to 3M+ YouTube Partner Program creators.
Dude Perfect built its own theme park. It opens July 11 with real bulldozers.
Dude Perfect just co-branded a permanent construction-themed park with Dig World at Grapevine Mills, opening Saturday. It is the loudest signal yet that top creators are leasing physical square footage instead of dropping merch.
Jay Shetty just pulled his podcast off YouTube for a $100M Netflix and Spotify deal.
Jay Shetty is yanking On Purpose off YouTube for a multi-year Netflix and Spotify video pact reportedly worth up to $100 million, the first time the two streaming rivals have jointly bankrolled a single creator.
Kai Cenat killed his Twitch exclusivity. A million viewers watched him do it.
Kai Cenat broke a nine-month silence with his first-ever Twitch + YouTube simulcast, peaking at 708,563 on Twitch and 400K+ on YouTube. The Twitch loyalist who turned down $60M from Kick just made multistreaming the default posture at the top of the market.
MrBeast just crossed $300 million. The gap to number two is $235 million.
MrBeast topped the Forbes 2026 Top Creators list at $300M, 4.6x ahead of #2 Dhar Mann. The gap tells you what kind of industry the creator economy actually is now.
IShowSpeed anchors FIFA's first YouTube Creator Cup, and 25 creators just became a World Cup broadcast lane
FIFA made 25 creators its World Cup broadcast lane. IShowSpeed leads the inaugural YouTube FIFA Creator Cup in Central Park on July 12, with 350M+ subscribers behind him.
The top 50 creators just cleared $1 billion. It's a founder story now, not a YouTuber one.
Forbes' 2026 Top 50 Creators list crossed $1.02 billion in combined earnings for the first time, up 20% from 2025. The bigger read: the top of the ranking stopped competing on views and started competing as media founders.