Good Week, Bad Week: Dream slammed over streaming promise, Jake Paul donates to UFC rookie

With James Charles returning to YouTube and Gabbie Hanna dropping several videos about her various dramas, viewers have had a lot to talk about over the past week.

YouTube used to be the main hot spot for drama, and while TikTok looked as though it could have taken the video platform’s crown, it seems that it will always be YouTube drama that causes the biggest stir online.

People have been open about their criticism of James Charles amid his return to the site and deletion of his previous apology, and many are calling out Gabbie Hanna for bringing up old drama with several unexpected creators on YouTube.

But it hasn’t been such a dramatic week for every influencer.

Good Week: The NELK Boys are making $70 million from merch alone

The Nelk Boys might be known for their over-the-top videos and insane pranks, but these social media stars aren’t making bank from YouTube… in spite of their 6 million+ subscribers.

In fact, it may very well be because of their wild content that YouTube isn’t too fond of monetizing their videos. The group was even demonetized in 2020 after engaging in several massive fan meetups amid nationwide social distancing guidelines and made as little as 23 cents from a video with over 15 million views.

In summer 2021, a report from the New York Times revealed that Nelk actually gets the bulk of their income from merchandise and subscriptions — a whopping $70 million yearly, in fact.

“Every video, we’re swearing, we’re doing some stuff that could be questionable or illegal, we’re making sexual references or drug references,” Nelk’s Kyle Forgeard told the Times. “So we were making no money on YouTube at all.”

Luckily, it seems the group is doing quite well for themselves in spite of the Man, and there’s no telling what more is in store for the Boys in the future if they continue their explosive forward expansion.

Bad Week: Dream under fire after nearly breaking promise to stream throughout Pride Month

Minecraft star Dream has raised over $140,000 for the Trevor Project as a celebration of Pride Month — but many of his critics are claiming that his efforts aren’t enough.

As June kicked off, Dream had promised that any money raised during his streams throughout the month would go to the Trevor Project, a charity meant to benefit LGBTQIA+ youth.

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However, likely due to the avalanche of controversies he’d suffered throughout June, Dream didn’t end up streaming much… but on the final day of the month, he came through with a broadcast that ended up raising $90,000 alongside another stream earlier in June.

Alongside a contribution from the ‘dteam,’ this totaled a whopping $140,000 — but many critics aren’t happy that Dream didn’t keep to his proposed promise of streaming throughout the entire month.

That being said, Dream’s contribution isn’t anything to sneeze at, and many fans are showing support to the Minecrafter in wake of his massive charity fundraiser.

Good Week: Jake Paul donates to fighter in need

Jake Paul began his amateur boxing career in 2018 when he fought Deji Olatunji as part of the undercard for Logan Paul vs. KSI, and ever since then, he’s been making it his mission to take his sporting career to the next level.

Although Jake still has a reputation for being somewhat of a troublemaker, it’s clear he still has plenty of good deeds up his sleeve, as proven after he helped out a fellow fighter in need.

UFC Flyweight rookie Sarah ‘Too Sweet’ Alpar had to start a GoFundMe page in order to raise the funds for her upcoming fight with Erin Blanchfield, looking for $30,000 to cover travel costs, gym fees, and other expenses.

Paul wrote on Twitter: “Imagine a rookie in the NBA had to start a GoFundMe to play. I let Sarah Alpar know she has my support and contribution.”

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He followed through on his promise to help, donating $5000 to the fund. Since Jake donated, Sarah has now raised the full amount to help fund her future in the sport.

This comes amid Jake’s feud with UFC president Dana White over “not paying his fighters.”

Bad Week: Gabbie Hanna faces backlash over drama series

YouTuber Gabbie Hanna is not holding back as she continues to release episodes of a series in which she addresses just about every key drama she’s been a part of — but the backlash has been fierce, to say the least.

Things became particularly heated after she released an episode title, ‘Escape the Nightmare,’ in which she accused producers of YouTube series Escape the Night, Joey Graceffa and Daniel Preda, of “bullying” her.

Gabbie claimed she was poorly treated on set, and that specific needs that were important to her mental health were not catered to. This was disputed by Daniel and Joey in their separate videos, however, exposing receipts that tell the real story of what went on behind the scenes.

The backlash was fuelled even more after she posted a video claiming former-friend Jessi Smiles was her “abuser,” with people coming out in droves to call Gabbie’s claims “delusional.”

It doesn’t look like Gabbie has any plans to halt her series amid the backlash, meaning there will almost certainly be more criticism to come.

Bad Week: James Charles slammed over return to YouTube

In April, beauty YouTuber James Charles addressed a series of allegations of inappropriate behavior towards and grooming of minors, in a video titled “Holding Myself Accountable.”

He said: “These conversations should have never happened, there is no excuse for it, I take full responsibility for that,” going on to apologize to the people involved for his “unacceptable” behavior.

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James has been more or less quiet on the internet since then apart from a couple of occasions, but on July 2, the influencer posted his first YouTube video since the apology, titled ‘An Open Conversation,’ in which he discussed some of the allegations.

However, the video was met with a lot of backlash, largely due to the fact that James has now deleted his first apology video.

“You’re not sorry, you’re sorry you got caught,” one viewer on Twitter wrote, echoing a lot of other responses to the comeback.

If James returns to regular posting, it seems that backlash is likely to continue as discussions over his decision to delete his previous video are ongoing.

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With these big YouTube dramas seeming to get bigger and bigger, at this point no one knows which influencer will end up in the center of the controversy next.