On July 19, IShowSpeed became the first streamer ever to perform at a FIFA World Cup ceremony, in front of 82,000 people at MetLife Stadium. Two days later his BTS Reel took the record for most-viewed Instagram Reel in its first 24 hours. Elsewhere: Logan Paul peeled apart 1996 Pokémon cards on a livestream and the community turned on him, MrBeast granted 100 wishes to soft numbers, Jake Paul announced an MMA debut, and Ryan Trahan made a dedicated Los Angeles episode. All ten are embedded below, and the full 111-video calendar is at the bottom.
Ten from a month of 111 uploads across the 24 channels we track. Every one is embedded, so you can watch here rather than leave the page. The complete calendar is further down.
The Ten That Mattered
The Big Swings
IShowSpeed's World Cup Recap · July 26
Speed was the first performer onto the field at the closing ceremony before Spain versus Argentina, in an all-white suit, with drummers and dancers, for roughly three minutes in front of a crowd of over 82,000. He performed "World Cup (Champions)" from the Official FIFA World Cup 2026 Album.
FIFA approached him. He shared the bill with Post Malone, Robbie Williams, Jennifer Hudson, Madonna, Burna Boy, Shakira, BTS, and Uganda's Ghetto Kids across the day's ceremonies, alongside the first World Cup final halftime show, produced by Coldplay. His livestream of the final reportedly drew around 60 million cumulative views.
Then he broke a platform record. On July 21 the behind-the-scenes Reel he posted with BTS hit 300 million views in 24 hours, the most-viewed Instagram Reel in its first day, ever. The two accounts have roughly 130 million combined followers. The Reel did more than double that.
Logan Paul's Pokémon Peel · July 24
The best three-act story of the month.
Act one. Paul begins peeling individual cards off 1996 CoroCoro pre-production sheets, the earliest Pokémon cards that exist, to submit them for grading. The first results come back PSA 2 and PSA 5. He announces a July 30 livestream where he will peel a pristine sheet chasing the first PSA 10 earliest-Pikachu.
Act two, July 24. The backlash. The clearest version, from the community: "PLEASE get this man OUT OF THE POKEMON COMMUNITY I DONT CARE JUST LEAVE US ALONE YOU RUINED IT ENOUGH ALREADY." The complaint is not about the cards. It is that treating them as commodities worsens the scalping that prices younger fans out. The defense, also from the community, is more sympathetic than you would expect: "He was smiling, not because he pulled a 20k USD card, he was happy because he pulled his favorite Pokémon."
Act three, July 30, 9:30pm ET. The live peel fell short. A Pikachu and a Jigglypuff both survived intact, but neither looked like a PSA 10. Paul, on stream: "In my heart, I think it's a nine. It's that centering." Nothing was graded live. Peak concurrent viewership was around 31,000. Along the way he pulled two 1st Edition Charizards from a $450,000 box and five Michael Jordan rookies from a $160,000 basketball box.
MrBeast Granted 100 Wishes · July 26
Roughly 30 million-plus views, reaching viewers in 68 countries, with Disney and Stand Up to Cancer.
For most channels that is a career video. For MrBeast, who routinely clears 100 million, it is soft. Which is the actual story: charity content consistently underperforms stunt content, even for the largest channel on earth, and he keeps making it anyway.
Jake Paul's MMA Debut · July 31
Following the MVP and PFL merger, Paul confirmed both an MMA debut and a boxing comeback, and called out Nate Diaz as his first opponent. He also publicly told fighters to finish their existing contracts and join MVP-PFL, after trading jabs with Dana White.
Read it as creator-economy news, not sports news. A YouTuber-founded promotion consolidating with an established MMA league is the clearest signal yet of where creator capital is going next.
Airrack Got Banned From an Arcade · July 14
Eric Decker spent a video reverse-engineering arcade redemption games until a venue threw him out, which is the purest version of the format he built a channel on: pick one dumb premise, take it further than anyone sane would, get removed from the premises.
Worth knowing about the LA claim, because it turns up on every "LA YouTubers" list: Airrack has run LA-based stunts and signed with UTA in 2023, but we could not confirm a current Los Angeles base. Treat the LA filing as unconfirmed until someone shows a source.
The Rest of the Ten
Ryan Trahan's Los Angeles Episode · July 18
The most directly useful video in this article for anyone who cares about Los Angeles. Trahan's July series is a ten-part destination run, and Los Angeles gets its own full episode, alongside New York City, Las Vegas, the Golden Gate Bridge, Washington D.C. and Niagara Falls.
A top-tier American creator making a dedicated LA travel video, with his audience, is the exact lane this city's tourism narrative lives or dies in. Watch it to see which version of LA gets shown, then argue with it about what got left out. The version with the addresses is in our Los Angeles travel guide.
Dhar Mann Is the Biggest Studio Nobody Names · July 30
Dhar Mann Studios is in Burbank, and it is the largest creator employer in the Los Angeles area: roughly 125,000 square feet, around 200 staff, approximately 2,000 actors a year, and up to eight crews shooting simultaneously. Dhar Mann ranked number two on Forbes' Top Creators list with an estimated $65 million, holds an NFL "Chief Kindness Officer" role, and signed a Fox Entertainment vertical-video deal in January 2026.
His July output ran 13 videos, roughly every other day, on a slate that is essentially a television studio operating under a YouTube channel name. LA covers its film industry obsessively and this operation almost never.
Danny Duncan Went Looking for Trouble · July 29
Duncan closed July in a swamp, three days after attending the Glacier View, Alaska Fourth of July Car Launch, an actual annual local event where cars are launched off a roughly 300-foot drop. Bam Margera was there with his wife Danni Marie, having teased it beforehand as a "redneck 4th of July car launch."
No LA angle, no controversy, and two of the better pieces of only-in-America footage anyone shot last month.
The Logan Paul and Tom Brady Thread · July 30
We are flagging this as unresolved on purpose. Two data points sit next to each other and nobody has joined them publicly. On July 20, an IMPAULSIVE episode carried the title fragment "Logan Paul SLAPPED By Tom Brady." On July 30, Paul posted the video above.
Dude Perfect Hit 250 · July 10
Overtime reached its 250th episode, which makes it one of the longest-running formats on the platform and the reason Dude Perfect turned into a company rather than a channel. Nothing about it went viral and that is the point: the most durable thing in creator media is a format that survives a decade of algorithm changes.
The LA Creator Map, Corrected
A lot of "LA YouTubers" lists are wrong, and being wrong about your own city is worse than being wrong about someone else's.
Confirmed in LA: Dhar Mann Studios, Burbank, detailed above.
Not here, despite what you may assume:
- Veritasium is no longer LA-based. Derek Muller has been reported as living in Europe and travelling since 2025. He formerly lived in Los Angeles, where he met his wife.
- Joe Rogan and Kill Tony are Austin, not LA. The "Sunset Strip Comedy Club" on Deathsquad's site is an Austin venue named as homage. Same correction runs in our July podcast roundup.
- IShowSpeed's World Cup moment was at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey.
- Airrack has done LA-based stunts and signed with UTA in 2023, but we could not confirm a current LA base.
And the honest gap: we found no verifiable LA-specific creator events, meetups, collabs or drama in July 2026. That is a real hole in the month, not an oversight. If it happened, it did not leave a public trail.
The Business Underneath
Six things happened in July that will still matter in a year:
- Patreon cut 20 percent of its workforce, citing AI as what enabled the restructuring. Structurally, the biggest story of the month.
- Peacock and YouTube announced a bundling deal: Peacock Premium for YouTube Premium subscribers, starting in early 2027.
- Substack partnered with the AI-detection tool Pangram to flag AI-generated newsletters.
- Arizona State University launched a content-creation major through its journalism school.
- Jacksepticeye relaunched Thankmas as a six-month campaign with a December livestream finale, having already raised $90,000 for Make-A-Wish and granted nine wishes against a 300-wish target.
- Dave Jorgenson's Local News International hit 424,000 YouTube subscribers in its first year.
The Full July Calendar
Every upload from the 24 channels we track, 111 in all, each linked straight to the video. The picks above are ours. This is the record of the month.
Jump to a show: MrBeast · Stokes Twins · Alan's Universe · Dude Perfect · Ben Azelart · IShowSpeed · Markiplier · SSSniperWolf · Brent Rivera · Preston · Smosh · Dhar Mann Studios · SSundee · Rebecca Zamolo · Logan Paul · James Charles · Ninja · Jake Paul · Unspeakable · Ryan Trahan · Veritasium · Airrack · Lexi Rivera · Danny Duncan
MrBeast
Channel · 1 in July
| Date | Episode |
|---|---|
| Jul 26 | I Granted 100 Kids Their Biggest Wish! |
Stokes Twins
Channel · 2 in July
| Date | Episode |
|---|---|
| Jul 10 | An Assassin Tried To Kill Me.. |
| Jul 19 | I Tested Deadly Childhood Myths! |
Alan's Universe
Channel · 1 in July
| Date | Episode |
|---|---|
| Jul 25 | My Twin Sister Got Revenge | Alan’s Universe |
Dude Perfect
Channel · 1 in July
| Date | Episode |
|---|---|
| Jul 10 | OVERTIME 250 IS HERE |
Ben Azelart
Channel · 1 in July
| Date | Episode |
|---|---|
| Jul 6 | I Got Injured… |
IShowSpeed
Channel · 1 in July
| Date | Episode |
|---|---|
| Jul 26 | How I Performed At The World Cup Finals! |
Markiplier
Channel · 10 in July
| Date | Episode |
|---|---|
| Jul 3 | LAIR of TORMENT |
| Jul 4 | THE FINAL ANGEL COMB | Subnautica 2 - Part 12 |
| Jul 6 | Supermarket Together |
| Jul 7 | INSIDE THE GREAT JAW | Subnautica 2 - Part 13 |
| Jul 10 | Little Nightmares II - Part 1 |
| Jul 11 | Little Nightmares II - Part 2 |
| Jul 12 | Little Nightmares II - Part 3 |
| Jul 13 | Little Nightmares II - Part 4 |
| Jul 14 | Little Nightmares II - Part 5 (ENDING) |
| Jul 14 | BAD END B |
SSSniperWolf
Channel · 12 in July
Brent Rivera
Channel · 1 in July
| Date | Episode |
|---|---|
| Jul 2 | Exploring an Abandoned Shipping Container Lost at Sea! |
Preston
Channel · 5 in July
Smosh
Channel · 5 in July
| Date | Episode |
|---|---|
| Jul 9 | Slumber Party | Cut For Time |
| Jul 9 | America's Next Top Best Singer | Bit City |
| Jul 11 | We Threw A Slumber Party | Bit City |
| Jul 24 | Angie Springer | Cut For Time |
| Jul 25 | The Angie Springer Show | Bit City |
Dhar Mann Studios
Channel · 13 in July
SSundee
Channel · 23 in July
Rebecca Zamolo
Channel · 7 in July
| Date | Episode |
|---|---|
| Jul 3 | Surviving Every Summer Movie |
| Jul 10 | 10 Teens vs 1 Secret Imposter |
| Jul 18 | Gymnasts Compete In Soccer Tournament |
| Jul 19 | Every Time I Win, the Sport Gets Harder |
| Jul 23 | I Secretly Hid 24 Animals Inside My House |
| Jul 26 | Someone Stole My Jeep |
| Jul 31 | Last To Leave RV Wins |
Logan Paul
Channel · 4 in July
| Date | Episode |
|---|---|
| Jul 9 | I Took The Biggest Risk In Pokémon |
| Jul 13 | My $10,500,000 Purchase |
| Jul 24 | I Spent $2,713,096 on The World’s First Pokémon Card |
| Jul 30 | See you in court, Tom |
James Charles
Channel · 4 in July
Ninja
Channel · 7 in July
| Date | Episode |
|---|---|
| Jul 3 | I'm done… |
| Jul 10 | Epic Needs to Do Something About This |
| Jul 13 | I love the new Fortnite season, BUT… |
| Jul 18 | The Funniest Fortnite Duo |
| Jul 23 | Was Fortnite Chapter 6 Loved |
| Jul 27 | Take Me Back To Chapter 3 |
| Jul 31 | the worst Fortnite season of all time |
Jake Paul
Channel · 1 in July
| Date | Episode |
|---|---|
| Jul 31 | It's Finally Happening |
Unspeakable
Channel · 3 in July
| Date | Episode |
|---|---|
| Jul 4 | [If You Break My Ice House, You Keep It!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ubPMZjJWUns) |
| Jul 11 | World's Biggest Bowl Of Cereal! |
| Jul 25 | 5 Nights AT DAYCARE! |
Ryan Trahan
Channel · 1 in July
| Date | Episode |
|---|---|
| Jul 18 | I Tried the "Top 10 Things To Do" in America |
Veritasium
Channel · 2 in July
| Date | Episode |
|---|---|
| Jul 15 | The Scariest Chart in Electrical Engineering |
| Jul 26 | Why does every mammal get 1 billion heartbeats in their life? |
Airrack
Channel · 2 in July
| Date | Episode |
|---|---|
| Jul 14 | I "Cheated" Until the Arcade Banned Me |
| Jul 28 | How Many Days Can I Secretly Live At 7/11? |
Lexi Rivera
Channel · 2 in July
| Date | Episode |
|---|---|
| Jul 6 | I Asked YouTuber Millionaires For A Job! |
| Jul 26 | I Tested 1-Star vs 5-Star Waterparks! |
Danny Duncan
Channel · 2 in July
| Date | Episode |
|---|---|
| Jul 26 | I Went to Alaska's 4th of July Car Launch with Bam Margera! |
| Jul 29 | We Found America’s Most Dangerous Swamp! |
Quiet in July
Mark Rober, Zach King, CoryxKenshin. 3 channels we track published nothing in July, which is worth knowing if you were waiting on one.
Frequently Asked Questions
What was the biggest YouTube moment of July 2026?
IShowSpeed performing at the FIFA World Cup final closing ceremony at MetLife Stadium on July 19, the first streamer ever to perform at a World Cup ceremony. Two days later his behind-the-scenes Reel with BTS became the most-viewed Instagram Reel in its first 24 hours in the platform's history, at around 300 million views.
Why did Logan Paul get backlash over Pokémon cards in July 2026?
He began peeling individual cards off 1996 CoroCoro pre-production sheets, the earliest Pokémon cards in existence, to submit them for grading, culminating in a July 30 livestream. Collectors argued the practice treats irreplaceable artifacts as commodities and worsens scalping that prices younger fans out. The July 30 live peel didn't produce the PSA 10 he was chasing.
How did MrBeast's July 2026 video perform?
"I Granted 100 Kids Their Biggest Wish!" reached over 30 million views across 68 countries, which is soft by his channel's standards and consistent with charity content underperforming stunt content. The more meaningful figure is that roughly 90 percent of donors to the associated campaign were first-time donors to the organization.
Which big YouTubers are based in Los Angeles?
Dhar Mann Studios operates out of a 125,000 square foot facility in Burbank with roughly 200 staff, making it the largest creator employer in the LA area. Several creators widely assumed to be LA-based are not: Veritasium's Derek Muller is no longer LA-based, and Joe Rogan and Kill Tony both record in Austin, Texas.
Did Ryan Trahan make a video about Los Angeles?
Yes. His July 2026 series "I Visited the Top 10 Places in America" includes a dedicated Los Angeles episode, alongside episodes on New York City, Las Vegas, the Golden Gate Bridge, Washington D.C., and Niagara Falls.
The Verdict
Two things changed in July.
The ceiling moved. FIFA asked a 21-year-old streamer to open the World Cup final. Not a brand deal, not a watch-along. The ceremony. Whatever "creator" meant five years ago, it does not mean that anymore.
And the floor got shakier. Patreon cut a fifth of its staff and named AI as the reason. MrBeast's charity video underperformed while his stunt videos do not. The economics underneath all of this are moving faster than the highlight reel suggests.
Watch the Trahan LA episode, then go read the Patreon story. They are the same month.
Want the creator-economy read without watching 40 hours of video? Find out before it happens in The LA Today Newsletter, free, along with hidden gems we never publish anywhere else. Subscribe free →