The Fanvault blog
From the Vault.
Creator stories, platform updates, and actionable tips for fans and sellers
A cycling YouTuber was killed in Bolivia. His final video just went up.
Cho Jin-woo of Jin's Travel was killed by a cargo truck while cycling in El Alto, Bolivia. Three days later, a video he had already scheduled went live on his channel.
HAchubby has cancer. She's streaming through treatment in Korea.
Twitch IRL streamer HAchubby learned she has cancer live on stream, canceled TwitchCon, and flew to Korea for treatment. She says she'll keep streaming from there.
Hila Klein filed for divorce. The H3 split is now in court.
Hila Klein filed for divorce from Ethan Klein on November 2, ending a 14-year marriage. The H3 Podcast, Teddy Fresh and Teddy Glow now sit inside a family court case.
Brandon Herrera lost his congressional race. The AK Guy is staying on YouTube.
Brandon Herrera had 4.4 million YouTube subscribers, a Trump endorsement and a 3-to-1 money edge. He still lost TX-23 by about 8 points, and he is going straight back to YouTube.
Your podcast audience already moved to YouTube. Has your ad stack?
39% of US weekly podcast consumers now say YouTube is the service they use most often, nearly double Spotify's 20%. Video podcast CPMs run roughly $28-45 against $18-25 for audio host-reads, a gap worth about $4,500 per episode for a 300K-audience weekly show still selling audio-first.
EDP445 was arrested in Henderson. His own documentary reopened the case.
Former YouTuber EDP445 was arrested in Henderson, Nevada, on four Kern County felony counts. Prosecutors say his own words in a 2026 documentary reopened a case that went nowhere in 2021.
An influencer told a fan to pay before posting their selfie. 4 million people weighed in.
TikToker Caraline Catlett says an influencer demanded payment before she could post their selfie. Nearly 4 million views later, the fan won the argument and the followers.
Hasan Piker logged 1.75M hours on election night. Steve Kornacki's cam more than doubled him.
Hasan Piker pulled 1.75M hours watched on election night, second only to NBC's Kornacki Cam at 4.39M on YouTube. Here's what the gap really says about creators and legacy media.
Roblox's bookings fell 12%. Creator payouts fell half as much.
Roblox's Q3 2026 bookings fell 12% year over year, but developer exchange payouts to creators fell only 6%. Creators now get 23.7% of every bookings dollar, up from 22.3%, and the decline came from fewer paying players, not a smaller creator cut.
Lacy said trolls ran up a $12K restaurant bill on stream. The restaurant says no.
Lacy told chat that viewers stuck him with an almost $12K bill at Zauo Shibuya after his table's QR code leaked on stream. The restaurant says it only charged for food his group ate, and Lacy now admits he kept the bit going.
Kai Cenat flashed his TikTok balance on stream. It read $23,232.
Kai Cenat accidentally showed a $23,232.11 TikTok balance during a LIVE battle with Looze Cannon. The viral '$23K in 30 minutes' headline is wrong, and the real number says a lot about who gets paid in live gifting.
Druski just signed a multi-year Netflix deal. His YouTube pastor is first.
Netflix signed Druski to a multi-year exclusive deal and is licensing his Coulda Been catalog, which has 1B+ YouTube views. The streamers that passed on him are now paying for IP he funded himself.
Livestream commerce quietly hit its US inflection in H1 2026
US TikTok Shop GMV hit $11.8B in H1 2026, up 103% year on year, and growth is accelerating rather than cooling. Aggregator data suggests livestreams now drive roughly a quarter of that volume, and creators sit at the center of most of it.
Instagram is offering YouTubers up to $500K to post long videos
Instagram is paying select YouTubers $50K to $500K to cross-post long videos to Features, its new 90-minute format. Everyone else gets zero ad revenue. Here's why that's a signing bonus, not a business model.
How to actually read your payout statement: the 5 layers between gross and net
A creator payout statement stacks five layers between gross and net: platform fee, card processing, cross-border fees, dispute costs, and holds. On $10,000 a year of $10 paid DMs, those layers take about $2,365, and the headline platform fee explains less than two-thirds of it. Ticket size, not the fee page, decides the real rate.
Hasan Piker is suing Scott Jennings for $72.5 million over an edited Twitch clip
Hasan Piker filed a $72.5M defamation suit against CNN commentator Scott Jennings over a 42-second clip compilation. For every streamer with years of archived footage, this case is a stress test.
Kai Cenat's lawyers told his ex-friend Reggie to take the videos down
Kai Cenat's legal team sent Reggie Travers a cease-and-desist over unverified grooming claims that Cenat and RaKai both deny. Then came a restraining-order petition, according to papers Travers posted.
Pokimane said Atrioc's deepfake scandal still haunts her. He just dropped out of TwitchCon.
Pokimane said seeing Atrioc's name still gives her anxiety, three years after his 2023 deepfake scandal. A day later he quit his TwitchCon panel, and the backlash turned on her.
Telegram Stars, do the math: the easiest creator payment is also the most expensive
A fan who taps to buy Telegram Stars inside the iOS or Android app hands the creator about 65 cents of every dollar, an effective take rate near 35%. The same Stars bought on Fragment, Telegram's web marketplace, lose about 7.1%. The friction-free rail is the most expensive one in the system.
Komanche, a Salvadoran YouTube star, died at 30. His representative pointed to bullying.
Komanche, the Salvadoran streamer behind Squid Craft Games, died at 30 in Monterrey. No cause has been released, and his representative's tribute put online bullying at the center.
A Twitch streamer abused a puppy on stream. Now she's banned from being in a room with dogs.
Aspen Kartier hit a 3-month-old puppy on her own Twitch stream. Now she has 10 days in jail, a criminal record, and a year banned from being anywhere near a dog.
Ethan Klein dropped his Frogan lawsuit. She still owes $73K in legal fees.
Ethan Klein's company dropped its copyright suit against Twitch streamer Frogan in September without a single ruling against her. On October 24 she said she still owes $73K in legal fees.
The White House used PlaqueBoyMax's beat for a Trump TikTok. He told them off.
The official White House TikTok set a Trump "Man of the Year" montage to a beat PlaqueBoyMax produced. His profane reply passed 3M views in a day, and it exposes how little control creators have over their own sounds.
Ethan Klein is giving up H3 after the affair allegations. His own crew walked first.
The H3 Podcast is on hiatus, its crew has cut ties with Ethan Klein, and he says he will give up his stakes in the podcasts, Teddy Fresh and Teddy Glow after Hila Klein's affair allegations.
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