It's a blood sport—more often than not these bug gladiatorial videos end with the death of one of the insects and, somewhat surprisingly, it's very popular (like mulit-million views popular.)

For centuries we have been watching animals fight to the death for our entertainment: man vs. man, lions vs man, tigers vs panthers, wolverines vs warthogs and now, thanks to YouTube and high-def iPhones, insects vs. other insects.

These aren't encounters filmed in the wild. Instead, these insects are either bought or found and put into a terrarium and forced to fight. There are thousands of these videos, some garner hundreds of thousands to millions of views and come from all across the globe. In this world you can find whatever you want: a wasp taking on a millipede; a tarantula taking on a dung beetle; hell, you can even find black widow taking on a scorpion. They run the gamut in style as well: some have commentary while others are deathly silent, a few are filmed on expensive cameras but a good portion are clearly filmed on your creepy neighbour's iPhone 6.

Understandably, some of you will be repulsed by these videos, but on the flip side will feel intrigued and want to watch more—a, probably more substantial subsect, won't care in any way. It's safe to assume that a majority of us would be disgusted by dog-fighting but it's different with bugs. Why is that? I reached out to an expert for some answers, but first, let's take a closer look at these fight videos.

We're going to start with a channel named Insect TV. At first the channel's trailer makes it look like a typical nature channel with a predilection for insects but at the end of it a massive "FIGHT" comes over the screen and the creator makes his findings fight in a bucket or glass terrarium. Insect TV now sits at 16,000 subscribers. One of their video "Japanese Giant Hornet vs European Wasps Fight" has grabbed a little over three million views.

Like many of these YouTubers, Insect TV states that the "video was made for educational purposes"—like all good educational videos, this one is set to a song called "I Don't Give A Mother f* *k." On this channel you'll find a giant wolf spider taking on praying mantis or, in a video that's actually a huge bummer, a bunch of red ants killing a scorpion.

Other channels—as in more than one—seem to reuse what can only be described as an older Japanese TV show or web series and either add music to it or dub in their own commentary. The best part of these videos, bar none, is the cheesy CGI opening and the super stoked Japanese commentators. Some of these channels give their fighters names—my favourite is Lil' Diablo the beetle vs. Judas Grief the scorpion. One channel like this, called V for Venom, even started a Patreon account but in the end only got $3 a month for his videos.

Some of the videos take a more gladiatorial coliseum take on the death matches. In a very popular series of weekly videos, a man named Leo created what he calls "A Tank of Death." Inside the tank exists several Red Backs (the cranky Australian counterpoint to the Black Widow). Leo catches all sorts of bugs, newts, and whatnot, which he then puts into the tank to see how long they'll last. Over the top of the videos Leo gives warm, genuine commentary—it's very odd, almost wholesome to a point.