Do people care about big content creator events anymore? YouTuber iDubbbz admits Creator Clash 2 lost $250,000
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YouTuber Ian Jomha, professionally known as iDubbbz, was a co-creator of the Creator Clash 2 event in April, which promised to donate proceeds to various charities picked by the winning fighters.
In 2022, the first Creator Clash sold out the 10,000-seat Yuengling Center in Tampa, Fla., drew more than 100,000 pay-per-view audience members and raised $1.3 million for the American Heart Association, the Alzheimer’s Association of America and Healing Horse Therapy Center.
The event was seemingly the perfect combination of live interaction with content creators and boxing, which has inexplicably become the go-to way for influencers to settle beefs and the next career step for several creators.
But in a YouTube video uploaded on July 3, Jomha announced that “despite it being a fun event, despite good fights and lots of creators sacrificing a lot of time, money and energy, we lost $250,000 on the event.”
According to Jomha, one of the biggest reasons why the event lost money was a piracy issue. Apparently, of the 1.3 million to 3 million people who accessed the live event, only 50,000 of them paid. The venue was double the size of the previous year’s, and the additional fights, creators, commentators and charity partners cut into the budget.
Social media users reacted to the news and suggested Jomha step down from the event so they could get “better management.”
“idubbbz situation is wild,” someone added. “first he does a video like ‘f*** you guys i’m better now, creator clash 4 life’ and then his next vid is like ‘we lost all the money.’”
Ian should sell the rights to Creator Clash and use the money he makes from it to pay off the 250k and give back to the charities the event said they’d donate too
That way Creator Clash can continue under better management and the charities get their money.— Josh (@Bowblax) July 4, 2023
“I rarely comment on drama with other creators, but I stand by iDubbbz’s decision to open up about the failure of Creator Clash 2 and do what he can to make up for it,” another Twitter user wrote. “He screwed up, but his intentions were pure in this case.”
Jomha also denied rumors that he was “pocketing money” from the event.
“That’s extremely hurtful because it has been nothing but the opposite,” he explained. “I want to make it more right.”
He added that while he was OK with organizers losing money, he was “not OK with charities not getting any money.”
On July 4, Jomha started a 24-hour live stream on Twitch with the goal of raising the lost $250,000 for the charities involved in Creator Clash 2, which included Able Gamers, the Critical Role Foundation and the Alzheimer’s Association.
Throughout the stream, Jomha committed to several incentives to get viewers to donate, including shaving his mustache, completing the cinnamon challenge and getting his makeup done. The stream ended up raising $162,121.69.
Ty for your support. Y’all allowed us to help some great charities. Over $162,000. (Still time to donate)
And full creator clash 2 broadcast + individual fights will be uploaded on YT next week. pic.twitter.com/A33vZIarvQ— idubbbz (@Idubbbz) July 5, 2023
The novelty of creator-centric events — whether it be YouTube-specific, like Creator Clash or even beauty brand-sponsored influencer trips — seems to be wearing thin on audiences’ patience.
In April, fans started to question whether a music festival like Coachella was even about the music anymore, or whether it was, as its creator, Loren Gray, put it, whittled down to “the influencer Olympics.” Gray shared that influencers rarely go to the shows and instead, just rent out spots in the desert to post.
The “influencerification” of events seems to have taken the fun and authenticity out of meeting beloved YouTube stars. This new attitude could be the reason why so many people didn’t even want to pay to watch the pay-per-view showing of Creator Clash 2 — even though it was for charity.
“It’s the prioritising a 2 night stay at a hotel for all influencers who attended (even the ones who just watched) and a 2 day long party over funds that could have been donated,” one Reddit user wrote in response to the Creator Clash 2 news. “I believe him when he says he thought inviting and comping a ton of influencers stays was good publicity, as crazy as that sounds, but regardless, this was a disastrously mismanaged event and a massive failure.”
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