Battle Universe

Battle Universe, or Hi5 Universe, was a YouTube Channel that featured many creative NERF related games. Outside of this, many episodes were themed around board games and sports.

Their channel description reads, "Check out some of the craziest NERF challenges you could ever see! NERF Battles, NERF Board Games, NERF Sports and SO MUCH MORE!!! Subscribe, hit the bell, and BATTLE ON!" Many Hi5 Studios "OG" members were in the videos until July 2019 when they relaunched it with a new team.

Check out Employees for a full list!

Before Battle Universe
They had an alternative name, Hi5 Universe, which was a vlog style set of videos that recorded daily life around Hi5 Studios. The plan was originally to have Michael Badal run Googly Eyes!, Hi5 Universe, and Team Edge Gaming at the same time. Kevin, Bryan's brother, was also the main camera operator for the channel before he started climbing the ranks up to COO.

The Start of Battle Universe
Originally, Matt, Bryan, J-Fred, Connor, and Paul all shot their videos in Orange Base. The videos was a mixture of both vlog-style content (ie. crafts, trying foods, ect) and NERF videos. J-Fred remembers that Michael always wanted to deep-fry foods like oreos and sandwiches.

However, the team was always drawn to NERF since it was the most fun they had, it was the easiest to film, and they were bringing in a lot of views.

Mike actually came forth as the 'Game Master' for the channel and adopted a persona with his outfit featuring a referee shirt, a gladiator cape, and a king's hat. His character voice was highly inspired by Arnold Schwarzenegger, but was highly disliked by fans.

The team decided to change the name from 'Hi5 Universe'. Connor was the one who actually came up with the idea after he said, "don't overthink it. Name it Battle Universe" and they all fell in love.

The Second Era of Battle Universe
After feeling cramped in the Orange Base unit, they decided to buy Blue Base specifically for the channel since it allowed the team to expand their space and their ideas. Their entire production could grow both in creativity and have bigger sets.

However, when the production started getting bigger and they hired new producers, they tried experiments with scripted content. However, both the team and the audience didn't like the feel of it. After this, the channel skyrocketed and they got on the YouTube trending page at #2 and their channel hit 10 million views especially when they were coming out with Fornite-related videos.

The Third Era of Battle Universe
After this, CJ was hired as BU's producer and the channel in a new direction with help from Christian and

Hannah, two production assistants. They were able to direct the focus of the channel a little bit more and came up with new challenges.

Eventually, 6 of the members (Matt, Bryan, J-Fred, Connor, Paul, and Tanner) all fazed out of the channel because they were focusing on other YouTube channels and their schedule was getting too heavy.

With a scared feeling of losing all that man-power, REKT actually ended up being cancelled and Patrick, Woods, and Alex (an editor) all came over to BU. Many people, from this time, said that this was a new era due to them acting as a family and experimenting with ideas outside of just NERF like regular sports-related games and board games.

The End of Battle Universe
On June 1, 2020, it was announced that Battle Universe was canceled. Matthias explained that it would not relaunch due to the coronavirus pandemic. The reasoning behind this was because the channel revolved around people being in close contact with each other. The team relied on sets and props and could not keep up with having Virtual videos (ie. Zoom calls). While this is true, Matthias has ALSO said that it was not because of COVID, but that the channel has ran its course and it was going through a burnout.

Through all of this, Matt still continues the legacy of "Battle Universe" with his new book that he is writing with the same title.

Special Guests

 * Alex Goyette
 * Arnold Tellegata
 * 1mill-Spence

Quotes
"You're such a cheater, bro!"

"Battle on!"

Milestones

 * September 2016- 100k Subscribers (when it was Hi5 Universe)
 * January 2017- 300k Subscribers
 * June 2017- 900k Subscribers
 * July 1, 2017- 1 Million subscribers.
 * December 2017- 1.6M Subscribers
 * March 1, 2018- 2 Million subscribers.
 * August 2018- 2.5M Subscribers
 * September 2019- 3M Subscribers