‘Strawberry Vampire’ Episode Two Draws 45K Views In One Day, Lands On YouTube’s Hype Chart

Emily Brundige’s creator-owned animated series Strawberry Vampire is proving that its breakout debut was more than a one-off viral moment.

The show’s second episode, “Bat Franny,” drew 45,000 views during its first 24 hours on YouTube. Brundige also announced that the episode had reached number 86 on the platform’s list of the 100 most-hyped videos.

Hype is a relatively new YouTube feature that lets viewers boost recent uploads from channels with 500 to 500,000 subscribers. Each Hype gives the video points, with smaller channels receiving a bigger bonus. The most-hyped videos then appear on country-specific leaderboards intended to give emerging creators some extra visibility.

Those numbers are a promising follow-up for Brundige, who financed the new episode through a $42,000 Kickstarter campaign. The original Strawberry Vampire pilot drew 60,000 views in 48 hours after debuting last Halloween. When Brundige asked her supporters whether they would rather see that pilot fully animated or get two more episode animatics, 70% chose more stories.

As Brundige told us earlier this year, YouTube’s real value for independent creators goes beyond what the platform pays them. Her argument seems even more relevant now that the service looks to be making it harder for creators to make money on its platform.

“The great thing about YouTube is not the revenue, really,” she said. “It’s that everybody’s on there. And that’s the way to look at it. Then you can do other things once you grow a fandom and momentum around your project.”

“Bat Franny” offers early evidence that the fandom Brundige built around the pilot is sticking around, and that a creator-owned animated series can keep growing without a studio or traditional distributor behind it, even if YouTube monetization isn’t quite what it once was.