Numlock News: June 4, 2026 • S'mores, Drake, Benzene

Jun 04, 2026

By Walt Hickey

S’mores

According to Hershey’s, $250 million of their 2025 annual revenue was attributable to people using their chocolate to make s’mores, up nine percent year over year. Hershey’s sees significant growth opportunity in the s’mores business, and thinks it can generate another $50 million in chocolate sales annually over the next three to five years if it plays its cards right in getting people to make s’mores more often, presumably bring their tenuous alliance with the graham cracker and marshmallow forces to bear. Based on their data, households with children eat s’mores about five times per year on average.

Christopher Doering, Food Dive

Stadiums

Most of the 16 stadiums that will be hosting World Cup games in North America are being rebranded, with banners being hauled over the existing corporate branding and new, in some cases rather funny, branding taking its place. Lumen Field has become Seattle Stadium and Banorte Stadium has become Mexico City Stadium for the time being. FIFA is allowing Mercedes-Benz’ logo to remain on the Atlanta stadium only because removing it could cause structural damage to the retractable roofs. Several venues that host city teams miles away from their advertised locations are getting somewhat loquacious rebrands; Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara is now San Francisco Bay Area Stadium because they could get away with San Francisco Stadium, and the large air conditioner in the swamps of north Jersey ordinarily known as MetLife Stadium will for the time being become New York New Jersey Stadium.

Anne M. Peterson, The Associated Press

Bingo

Drake released 42 tracks at once, a shotgun blast of songs aimed at the Billboard Hot 100 charts, and in doing so, has reduced the number of Hot 100 ranks he has yet to hit. Drake has appeared on the Hot 100 with 402 different songs over the course of his career, the highest of any artist, and well ahead of No. 2 Taylor Swift, who has 276 appearances. He’s had so many songs on the list that after this most recent effort — thanks to “Firm Friends” peaking at No. 31 — Drake’s songs have now reached every single possible rank on the Top 40. In fact, out of all 100 of the possible peak ranks of the Hot 100 chart, Drake has had a song peak at all but five spots: Nos. 46, 77, 96, 98 and 99.

Gary Trust, Billboard

YouTube

According to Digital i, YouTube has surpassed Netflix in terms of daily usage per account. YouTube’s average daily usage per account has increased from 87.2 minutes in 2024 to 99.1 minutes in 2025, while Netflix saw a drop from 100.5 minutes to 93.4 minutes over the same period. YouTube has managed this by increasingly claiming viewership in the living room: YouTube was responsible for 35 percent of television viewing in the living room in December 2025, up from 28 percent in January 2024, while Netflix dropped from 35 percent to 31 percent over the same period.

Erik Gruenwedel, Media Play News

Acne

In 2025, a number of acne-control skincare products were contaminated with benzene and subsequently recalled. Previously-unreleased results of government testing revealed that the level of benzene in the creams was remarkably high in several products. Based on the FDA’s testing of 105 products containing benzoyl peroxide, 85 percent of the products tested positive for some level of benzene. Some were pretty bad: 13 of the products were contaminated with benzene levels well above the two parts per million limit, while another 14 products came in between one and 1.9 parts per million. The worst of the lot came in at 30.2 parts per million.

Anna Edney, Bloomberg

Gamers

The latest data from the Entertainment Software Association found that 212.3 million Americans play video games for at least one hour per week, good for 67 percent of the population aged five to 90. Incidentally, that is up by 7.2 million people, or three percent of the population, compared to 2025. The median American is, if anything, a casual gamer, but still 27 percent of active players play for 16 or more hours every week.

Jen Glennon, Polygon

Catastrophe Gap

The overall value of uninsured natural catastrophe losses worldwide increased seven percent last year to hit an estimated $424 billion, according to the Swiss Re Institute. Insurance coverage has been going down in plenty of hazardous areas, such as California, where the fraction of residential property policies that cover earthquake damage dropping from 30 percent in 1994 to 12 percent as of 2024. Historically, annual insured losses have come in around a $100 billion annually. Insured losses came in at $107 billion last year, and have the potential to reach $186 billion by 2030.

Laura Millan, Bloomberg

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