A weekly report on paid YouTube creator sponsorships, published every Monday. We scan a watchlist of brands across the Scout index and rank the top paid-sponsorship volume for the previous 7-day window. Each issue includes a top-20 chart, biggest week-over-week movers, and a few editorial reads on what the data shows.

How is 'paid' defined?

A video is counted as paid when Scout classifies the brand mention as Dedicated (the full video is the sponsorship), Integrated (a scripted segment inside a longer video), or Affiliate (a creator link with a trackable code or URL). Organic mentions, where the creator talks about the brand without a deal, are excluded.

Which brands are in the watchlist?

Issue #1 covers 264 brands across sportsbooks, fantasy, VPNs, DTC health, supplements, meal kits, finance apps, creator tools, software, mattresses, telecoms, and more. The list grows each issue. If a brand you track isn't on the list, reply to this post and we'll add it next week.

Scout is Babbl Labs' creator-marketing platform. It indexes 100,000+ YouTube channels, their audiences, and the brands that sponsor them, so brand teams can find the right creators to work with. The Babblin leaderboard is powered by the same classification system that runs under the Scout product.

Top Brands Spending on YouTube This Week (Oct 6-12, 2026)

Name: Top Brands Spending on YouTube This Week (Oct 6-12, 2026)
Creator: Babbl Labs

1,228 paid YouTube deals across 264 brands this week.

Evan FinleyUpdated October 16, 2026

We analyzed 1,228 paid YouTube sponsorships from Oct 6-12 across the 264 brands we track in the Scout YouTube sponsor index. Here is the full board.

TLDR

FanDuel and PrizePicks ran 320 paid videos, 26% of every paid deal on the board.
PrizePicks +44% week over week, the biggest absolute gain (+47 videos).
Claude -52% (24 vs 50), the biggest absolute drop.
Helix Sleep +127%, Factor Meals +167%, both breaking out.

Biggest movers week over week

The absolute top of the board moves slowly. The movement to watch is lower down.

Biggest week-over-week movers in paid YouTube videos, Oct 6-12, 2026. PrizePicks up 47, Helix Sleep up 14, Factor Meals and AG1 up 10, Adobe up 5. Claude down 26, Patreon down 19, DraftKings down 18, NordVPN down 15, LMNT down 14, Surfshark down 7.

Up this week:

Brand	This wk	Prev wk	Change	Change %
PrizePicks	153	106	+47	+44%
Helix Sleep	25	11	+14	+127%
Factor Meals	16	6	+10	+167%
AG1	55	45	+10	+22%
Adobe	12	7	+5	+71%

PrizePicks is the single biggest absolute mover on the board. Helix and Factor are the breakout stories, both more than doubling week over week. AG1 moved into the top 5. Adobe is a quieter signal: 12 paid videos in a week on creator-tool channels is real.

Down this week:

Brand	This wk	Prev wk	Change	Change %
Claude	24	50	-26	-52%
Patreon	20	39	-19	-49%
DraftKings	14	32	-18	-56%
NordVPN	19	34	-15	-44%
Surfshark	17	24	-7	-29%
LMNT*	5	19	-14	-74%

*LMNT sits outside the top 20; included here for the movement.

Claude is the biggest absolute decline on the board. DraftKings dropped 56% while FanDuel and PrizePicks climbed, so the sports-betting pullback is operator-specific, not categorical. The VPN category softened across the board after a hot September.

The leaderboard (top 20 by paid videos, Oct 6-12)

Each top-10 brand links to its full creator list, the actual channels running paid reads for them this quarter.

Top 10 brands by paid YouTube videos, Oct 6-12, 2026: FanDuel 167, PrizePicks 153, BetterHelp 104, AG1 55, Quince 51, ButcherBox 44, Ting 34, Helix Sleep 25, Claude 24, Hims 23.

#	Brand	This wk	Prev wk	Δ	Last 30d	All-time
1	FanDuel	167	152	+15	617	1,985
2	PrizePicks	153	106	+47	449	1,817
3	BetterHelp	104	111	-7	434	2,896
4	AG1	55	45	+10	213	1,073
5	Quince	51	52	-1	280	3,750
6	ButcherBox	44	60	-16	146	485
7	Ting	34	33	+1	161	2,741
8	Helix Sleep	25	11	+14	111	6,614
9	Claude	24	50	-26	182	1,372
10	Hims	23	22	+1	78	309
11	Zocdoc	22	27	-5	132	1,022
12	Patreon	20	39	-19	126	2,574
13	NordVPN	19	34	-15	131	1,414
14	Acorns	19	19	0	90	537
15	Surfshark	17	24	-7	121	1,392
16	Mint Mobile	17	16	+1	79	11,258
17	Factor Meals	16	6	+10	72	558
18	ChatGPT	16	19	-3	65	522
19	Chime	15	19	-4	90	2,272
20	Hostinger	15	13	+2	56	751

Old money vs new money

Scatter of the top 20 brands: all-time paid deals vs paid deals in the last 30 days. FanDuel, PrizePicks, ButcherBox and Hims sit near 25-31%, Mint Mobile at 0.7% and Helix Sleep at 1.7%.

How much of each brand's all-time paid YouTube volume landed in the last 30 days. Mint Mobile: 79 of 11,258 (0.7%). FanDuel: 617 of 1,985 (31%).

What jumped out

Bubble chart of the top 20 brands: paid YouTube videos this week vs change from last week, bubble size by all-time paid deals. Factor Meals +167% and Helix Sleep +127% lead growth; Claude -52% and Patreon -49% cool the most.

Sports betting isn't slowing down, it's reshuffling. FanDuel and PrizePicks combined for 320 paid videos in one week, more than the next six brands combined, and 26% of every paid deal on the board. Meanwhile DraftKings slid 56%. The dollars aren't leaving the category; they're moving between operators.

Claude losing half its weekly volume is the quiet story. 26 paid videos vanished week over week while ChatGPT held at 16 and Gemini at 10. If Anthropic is pulling back on creator spend, that reshapes the AI-brand category fast. Deeper look at who's advertising on AI YouTubers right now: brands sponsoring AI YouTubers in 2026.

BetterHelp is still the all-time king. 2,896 paid YouTube deals on record. Even on a down week (-7 vs prior), BetterHelp held #3. The therapy-app category has a durable creator strategy that most DTC brands don't match.

Hims cracked the top 10 at #10 (23 this week, 78 over 30 days), and Mint Mobile sits on 11,258 all-time paid deals, the biggest number on this board. Full case study on how Mint did it: Mint Mobile YouTube sponsorships.

The Scout universe snapshot

As of this pull:

100,000+ YouTube channels indexed
42.3 billion combined reach

Top channel categories by count:

Technology & Software: 11,354
Entertainment & Comedy: 9,443
Education: 7,532
Home & DIY: 7,283
Lifestyle: 7,194

Creator or talent manager?

These are the brands buying creator sponsorships right now. Claim your free Scout creator profile so they can find you, or read the two-minute walkthrough first. No fees, no cut of your deals.

If this report was useful, these go a few layers deeper on the same data:

Brands sponsoring AI YouTubers in 2026: the full category view behind the Claude/ChatGPT/Gemini shifts above.
Brands sponsoring personal-finance YouTubers in 2026: the category that keeps the top of this board (sportsbooks, trading apps, budgeting tools).
Brands sponsoring tech-review YouTubers in 2026: where AG1, Hims, and Adobe keep showing up.
How to sponsor YouTubers: the playbook: if you're a brand looking to build what the top of this leaderboard runs every week.
YouTube sponsorship rates in 2026: what the deals on this board actually cost, by creator size.
Mint Mobile YouTube sponsorships case study: how a single brand built an 11,258-deal creator playbook.

Frequently asked questions

What is Babblin?: A weekly report on paid YouTube creator sponsorships, published every Monday. We scan a watchlist of brands across the Scout index and rank the top paid-sponsorship volume for the previous 7-day window. Each issue includes a top-20 chart, biggest week-over-week movers, and a few editorial reads on what the data shows.
How is 'paid' defined?: A video is counted as paid when Scout classifies the brand mention as Dedicated (the full video is the sponsorship), Integrated (a scripted segment inside a longer video), or Affiliate (a creator link with a trackable code or URL). Organic mentions, where the creator talks about the brand without a deal, are excluded.
Which brands are in the watchlist?: Issue #1 covers 264 brands across sportsbooks, fantasy, VPNs, DTC health, supplements, meal kits, finance apps, creator tools, software, mattresses, telecoms, and more. The list grows each issue. If a brand you track isn't on the list, reply to this post and we'll add it next week.
What is Scout?: Scout is Babbl Labs' creator-marketing platform. It indexes 100,000+ YouTube channels, their audiences, and the brands that sponsor them, so brand teams can find the right creators to work with. The Babblin leaderboard is powered by the same classification system that runs under the Scout product.