MrBeast: the YouTuber on track to become a billionaire

In Jimmy Donaldson’s high-school yearbook, nether the subheading “Things radical mightiness not cognize astir you”, helium wrote: “I person a YouTube channel.” He wasn’t exaggerating — adjacent his mum didn’t cognize he’d been making videos successful his chamber for 5 years.

And wherefore would she? The videos were chiefly abbreviated clips of Minecraft oregon Call of Duty gameplay interspersed with occasional video essays connected different YouTubers, estimating their nett worthy oregon studying their contented strategies. Donaldson’s teenage look seldom made an appearance; helium had less than 1,500 subscribers for the archetypal 2 years and would often instrumentality agelong breaks from uploading.

Donaldson is present known chiefly by his moniker, MrBeast. He’s 26 and, astatine the clip of writing, has 455 cardinal subscribers crossed his six antithetic channels. This makes him the astir subscribed YouTuber connected the level arsenic good arsenic a fully-fledged multi-millionaire — helium earned an estimated $101m (£81m) successful 2023, according to Forbes, who suggested helium whitethorn go the archetypal billionaire YouTuber. He’s successful the large leagues and made headlines for claiming helium turned down a travel connected the doomed Titanic submersive which imploded past year. On Twitter, helium wrote: “I was invited earlier this period to thrust the Titanic submarine, I said no. Kind of scary that I could person been connected it.”

As MrBeast, he’s moved connected from the Minecraft contented and is present celebrated for giving distant his millions — to pizza transportation guys, stateless people, waitresses, you sanction it. He besides pulls disconnected elaborate and costly YouTube stunts that look beyond the realms of quality imaginativeness (real-life Squid Game, anyone?).

In a video from 2014, erstwhile Donaldson was 16, helium thanked his assemblage for helping him to scope a landmark 1,500 subscribers. “I’ve deed 1,500 subs, which is conscionable a brainsick number,” helium said successful a dependable recording, which echoes implicit his Call of Duty gameplay. “It looks truthful chill to look at, I conscionable similar looking astatine it, similar 1,500 subs, that’s a batch of people.” Nearly a decennary later, it’s not uncommon for Donaldson to mean 100,000 caller subscribers per day. He’s the richest and astir fashionable idiosyncratic you’ve ne'er heard of.

So however has this awkward North Carolina teen go much affluent than Jay Z, Drake, Billie Eilish and the US President (by Forbes 2020 estimates), without anyone implicit 18 adjacent clocking? “He’s truly studied quality attention”, says videographer, contented creator and YouTube adept Harry Ainsworth. “They accidental successful video [strategy], the archetypal 5 seconds are what idiosyncratic volition ticker earlier they click disconnected and MrBeast has mastered that. As soon arsenic you click connected a video, he’s shouting astatine you. Everything from the title, to the thumbnail, to the archetypal fewer seconds. It’s crafted for virality.”

MrBeast has moneyballed his mode to viral fame, but helium wasn’t ever a YouTube genius. Here’s however helium became the under-the-radar Gen Z juggernaut helium is today.

Born successful Wichita, Kansas, Donaldson was raised successful the metropolis of Greenville, North Carolina, to which he’s remained fiercely loyal. He attended the section Christian backstage school, Greenville Christian Academy, wherever helium felt retired of spot and “like a weirdo” owed to his aboriginal obsession with YouTube. “For maine [growing up], determination was similar zero radical wrong a one-hour radius that really loved YouTube similar I did,” helium told The Colin and Samir Show. “Back past I didn’t realise, ‘Oh, I conscionable request to find antithetic people,’ I thought ‘My full beingness I’ll conscionable ne'er bask talking to people.’”

He started making YouTube videos astatine 13, with his Minecraft, Call of Duty and video effort formats. He became monetised (where you’re eligible to gain wealth from radical clicking the ads connected your videos) aged 15, though helium initially made precise small pouch wealth from his hobby.

“It’s not similar I was worrying astir wherever my adjacent repast would travel from, but we weren’t the astir good off,” he’s said of his family’s finances. When Donaldson graduated from precocious schoolhouse astatine 18, his mum convinced him to spell to the section college, East Carolina University. “It was beauteous simple, I said ‘Jimmy, you spell to college, you tin enactment successful the bonus country upstairs,’” his mum Sue recollected successful 2021.

The occupation was, Jimmy wasn’t interested. “I didn’t privation to spell to college, I don’t care,” helium said of his assemblage experience, “For me, I hatred school, I hatred it, I conscionable wanted to marque YouTube videos.” So, that’s what helium did. Instead of attending classes, Donaldson would archer his mum helium was heading to college, past beryllium successful his car successful the assemblage car parkland and edit YouTube videos.

This is wherever Donaldson archetypal gained traction, with viral video formats wherever helium did amazingly entertaining mundane tasks. These included counting from 1 to 10,000 successful 1 sitting (it takes him astir 3 hours), oregon wrapping himself successful 100 layers of clingfilm. “The archetypal video I saw of [MrBeast’s] was erstwhile helium was chanting Logan Paul’s sanction and he says it 100,000 times,” says Ainsworth. “He conscionable acceptable up his camera and it was successful 720p [a mediocre video resolution] and helium got fashionable due to the fact that of this. The contented isn’t needfully enriching, it’s conscionable an implicit spectacle, due to the fact that you’re reasoning ‘Who would bash this?’ particularly erstwhile these videos would beryllium astir 10 hours long.”

After “grinding” distant connected inane videos similar this for weeks and lying to his mum astir his assemblage attendance, Donaldson started making $20,000 (£16,000) a month, truthful helium came cleanable and moved out.

Then, arsenic the going was yet getting good, Jimmy was offered his archetypal marque woody for $5,000 (£4,000), aged 20. What helium did with it adjacent changed everything.

Instead of pocketing the $5k oregon making immoderate basal affiliate YouTube content, Donaldson haggled with the brand, asking them to treble the wealth truthful helium could springiness it distant to a stateless person. “I was pacing astir my neighbourhood for 3 hours convincing this [brand manager] feline connected the phone,” Donaldson has since recalled, “saying ‘just treble the money, I committedness the video volition spell viral. $10,000 conscionable looks amended successful a title, it’ll get much views, I committedness your [brand] volition bash better.’” The video attracted much than 10 cardinal views and kicked disconnected a agelong enactment of performative philanthropy content, a subgenre MrBeast is present credited arsenic having invented.

“This [giving wealth to stateless people] had been done a fewer times earlier connected YouTube, but ne'er with that magnitude of money,” Ainsworth says. “That was the video that started it all, that kicked disconnected brands giving MrBeast immense amounts of wealth to spend.”

While it’s not uncommon for Donaldson to walk upwards of $1 cardinal (£800,000) connected a azygous video these days, this was 5 years ago, erstwhile helium was a caller assemblage drop-out. It worked, truthful helium kept giving retired money. Since this archetypal stunt, Donaldson has fixed $10k tips to waitresses and pizza transportation guys; bought a stateless antheral a house; dropped $20,000 (£16,000) bills from a drone; adopted each canine astatine an carnal structure and recovered them a home; offered a cardinal dollars to fans but lone allowed them a infinitesimal to walk it; and, each time, the videos person garnered millions of views (he has an wholly abstracted transmission for this benignant of stunts, Beast Philanthropy, which has 13 cardinal subscribers alone). When helium archetypal started pulling these stunts, MrBeast was getting big, but obscurity adjacent the level helium is now. Donaldson often spent much than the video brought successful via advertisement gross and marque deals. Someone needed to equilibrium the books.

Enter Reed Duchscher, MrBeast’s manager. “[Donaldson] had a cardinal subscribers erstwhile I met him,” Duchscher recalled, “and helium was similar ‘I’m gonna person 10 cardinal subs by the extremity of the year’, I was similar ‘9 cardinal subs successful a year, this feline is crazy.’” But the brace got to work, with Duchscher streamlining Donaldson’s contented and getting escaped of thing that could perchance enactment disconnected brands.

“Early on, determination were immoderate questionable videos, wherever helium was similar shooting definite things,” Duchscher said. “Our biggest video was ‘Can 50,000 magnets halt a bullet,’ [which got] 57 cardinal views successful 3 days, and successful 2018 that was a banger, but astir [brands] were like, ‘Woah, guns? No way.’ So I was like, ‘We gotta halt the guns.’” The marque deals got bigger and better, moving from obscure apps and mobile games to large names including Amazon and Nissan.

It besides boosted views and subscribers (they deed that 10 million-sub mark, and past some), due to the fact that his much child-friendly contented carved retired a coagulated fanbase of devoted teenage boys. “He’d similar to deliberation that his assemblage is simply a divided of men and women, young and old, but really I deliberation helium had attracted a younger demographic for sure,” Ainsworth says. “It’s rather childish, his content, but that’s wherever the wealth is — YouTube is precise restrictive connected radical that person curse words oregon hateful contented truthful you privation to really interruption into the kid assemblage market, due to the fact that it’s safer and brands volition privation to enactment much wealth in.”

And they person — Mr Beast has spent up to $4 cardinal (£3.2 million) connected videos successful caller years acknowledgment to marque deals and his skyrocketing success. If you’re questioning however idiosyncratic could perchance walk that overmuch wealth connected making a 20-minute video, well, work on.

Like MrBeast, galore YouTubers are present backed by immense accumulation companies of their ain making — the thought that it’s conscionable a antheral with charisma and a camera is agelong dead. People specified arsenic Jake Paul, David Dobrik and MrBeast person each been assisted by afloat accumulation teams with nonrecreational filming studios and budgets bigger than Oscar-winning films.

Donaldson has a full “campus”, MrBeastHQ, astatine his disposal, with studios the size of craft hangars, warehouses afloat of props near implicit from erstwhile videos (dune buggies, slime etc) and large plots of land. One of his studios (there are aggregate successful MrBeastHQs) is adjacent estimated to beryllium the largest connected the East Coast of the US.

It’s this, and his caller fiscal freedom, that has allowed Donaldson to make ambitious videos that look astir retired of spot connected YouTube fixed their whopping fund and brainsick accumulation requirements. The astir well-known of these is wherever the MrBeast squad recreated the crippled levels from Squid Game, the deed Netflix series, with near-exact replicas successful existent life. Not lone did helium enlistee 456 radical to play the game, but helium besides talented the victor the $456,000 (£365,000) prize money, arsenic depicted successful the Netflix series.

The video was a revelation connected YouTube — it had 406 cardinal views, 15 cardinal likes and 618,000 comments astatine the clip of writing. Donaldson and his squad recreated everything meticulously, to the constituent wherever they adjacent got explicit support from Hwang Dong-hyuk, the creator of Squid Game, to propulsion disconnected the replica.

But with each immense occurrence similar Squid Game, there’s a video which doesn’t marque the cut, adjacent if it has a ludicrously ample budget. “There’s tonnes of videos successful the graveyard,” Duchscher has said. “One video, specified a banger too, wherever they [Mr Beast’s team] travelled to the 7 wonders of the satellite [...] and it ne'er got posted due to the fact that they could ne'er fig retired the thumbnail for this video.” Ultimately, Donaldson is arsenic meticulous successful the contented helium puts retired arsenic helium is successful recreating silly games from Netflix series. “If helium doesn’t deliberation the video is simply a bully video, past it’s not getting posted,” Duchscher claims.

The benignant of perfectionism that has go cardinal to MrBeast’s occurrence is not without its faults. In a study from the New York Times, arsenic galore arsenic 11 erstwhile employees alleged that Donaldson’s "demeanour changed erstwhile the cameras weren't around" and that determination was a “difficult enactment environment” down the scenes of his videos. So it’s not each slime and bully times astatine MrBeastHQ, then. (Representatives for Donaldson person yet to remark connected these allegations and refused remark to The New York Times.)

Motivated by his performative philanthropy, employees thought MrBeast’s generous persona would agelong into existent life. Not needfully — erstwhile worker Matt Turner, who worked arsenic a video exertion for Donaldson for implicit a year, told the New York Times that Donaldson “berated” him astir each time during his clip moving there, and often utilized an ableist (discrimination and societal prejudice against radical with disabilities and/or radical who comprehend themselves arsenic being disabled) slur to bash so. These interactions would upset Turner truthful overmuch that would beryllium successful tears, helium said.

Donaldson besides antecedently utilized homophobic slurs successful older videos, thing which his squad did admit successful effect to the New York Times. “When Jimmy was a teen and was archetypal starting out, helium carelessly used, connected much than 1 occasion, a cheery slur. Jimmy knows determination is nary excuse for homophobic rhetoric,” the typical said, adding that Donaldson “has grown up and matured into idiosyncratic that doesn’t talk similar that.”

As good arsenic allegations of verbal maltreatment and the usage of slurs, ex-employees besides assertion that Donaldson was reluctant to springiness his co-workers recognition unless they were his puerility friends (“I was not to beryllium credited for thing I did,” Turner told the Times. “I’d inquire for credit, he’d recognition idiosyncratic else”) and placed “unreasonable demands” upon his staff.

One video editor, Nate Anderson, moved to Greenville to enactment for MrBeast, but discontinue aft a week owed to his perfectionism. “Nothing ever worked for him,” Anderson said of Donaldson, “he ever wanted it a definite way”. Anderson aboriginal released a tell-all YouTube video wherever helium spoke openly astir his gripes with Donaldson. “My Experience Editing for Mr. Beast (Worst Week of My Life)” outlined however helium had received decease threats aft criticising the beloved MrBeast, contempt galore of his cardinal fans being teenagers and children.

In October 2024, chap YouTuber Rosanna Pansino said she had reported Donaldson to the FBI implicit Telegram messages - attributed to his erstwhile employees - which referenced and joked astir underage intersexual activity, Nazi symbolism and incest. In her ain YouTube video, ‘MrBeast knew each along’, Pansino said the alleged messages were attributed to Donaldson’s longtime collaborator Ava Kris Tyson.

Earlier this year, Tyson - a chap YouTuber - stepped down from her co-hosting duties with Donaldson aft being accused of sending inappropriate messages to a minor. In her video, Pansino shows screenshots of the alleged messages and claims that Donaldson was alert of Tyson’s past. When Tyson stepped down, Donaldson said helium was “disgusted” by the allegations. “I person been focused connected hiring an autarkic 3rd enactment to behaviour a thorough probe to guarantee I person each the facts,” helium said connected X.

He added: “That said, I’ve seen capable online and taken contiguous enactment to region Ava from the company, my channel, and immoderate relation with Mr Beast. I bash not condone oregon enactment immoderate of the inappropriate actions.”

Donaldson and Tyson are yet to respond to the messages and allegations made by Pansino.

Donaldson’s philanthropy has besides drawn criticism, contempt its surface-level kindness. Vice writer Katie Way described however she followed MrBeast connected TikTok, not due to the fact that she enjoyed his content, but due to the fact that determination was a tiny accidental that 1 time idiosyncratic would halt her successful the thoroughfare and inquire if she followed MrBeast connected TikTok. If she said yes, she said they could manus her a suitcase of cash. She knows this due to the fact that she’s already seen it hap successful a MrBeast video, which she finds concerning.

“There’s conscionable thing disfigured astir the easiness with which these influencers and contented creators portion with the cash,” Way writes. “The enactment of walking done the streets and handing retired hundred-dollar bills similar they’re pamphlets is simply a much blatant show of wealthiness than immoderate car oregon nonfiction of covering could be. It’s besides hard to ticker ‘regular’ radical get excited astir what for them, for astir of us, is astir apt a life-changing magnitude of money, due to the fact that it calls to caput the changeless authorities of precarity astir of america unrecorded in, whether oregon not we cognize it.”

Donaldson occasionally defends himself against these allegations of foundation for views. After helium paid for 1000 radical to person cataract country (and made a video astir it, titled “1000 radical spot for the archetypal time”), TechCrunch criticised his conflation of cataracts with blindness arsenic “systemic ableism.” Donaldson replied to the tweet “So you’d similar we don’t assistance radical get life-changing country they privation and they asked for?”

What bash MrBeast and the viral Big Red Boots person successful common? They’ve some worked with MSCHF (the retailer of the boots) connected projects designed to acceptable the net connected fire. In 2020, MrBeast made his archetypal existent foray into further concern ventures erstwhile helium collaborated with MSCHF connected a one-time multiplayer app called “Finger connected the App”. This progressive the past subordinate successful the satellite to person their digit connected the app surface winning $25,000 (£20,010).

In the end, Donaldson had to inquire players to springiness up aft 70 hours and rewarded 4 antithetic participants with $20,000 (£16,000). Its sequel, Finger connected the App 2, with an accrued prize wealth of $100,000 (£80,000), was truthful palmy that the flood of downloads caused the app to crash. Developers had to re-adapt it for the accrued magnitude of players. The victor yet won the 100k aft 51 hours spent with their digit connected the app screen.

His adjacent task was the “world’s archetypal virtual restaurant”, MrBeast Burger, designed successful concern with Virtual Dining Concepts, successful November 2020. Visitors to the virtual edifice tin bargain MrBeast burgers, which are past made successful existent participating restaurants, and delivered to customers’ houses. Donaldson besides created a escaped pop-up edifice to beforehand his burger franchise (via a YouTube video, of course), which attracted thousands of visitors, with the enactment reaching 20 miles astatine points.

MrBeast Burger proved successful, with expansions to Canada and the UK (there are 5 locations, each successful London) taking spot wrong six months of its launch.

Then, successful January 2022, Donaldson turned to different food-based concern idea: Feastables, his ain nutrient company. The institution launched with its ain marque of cocoa bars called “MrBeast bars” which 1 Mashable writer called “pretty good.” Like the “free restaurant” which helium utilized to beforehand MrBeast Burger, Donaldson utilized the powerfulness of YouTube to hard-launch Feastables — by creating a real-life mentation of Willy Wonka’s cocoa factory. The selling powerfulness was real: Feastables reportedly made $10 cardinal (£8 million) successful its archetypal fewer months of operation.

MrBeast’s pivot from contented creator to businessman is each portion of his longstanding ngo to go a world-changing entrepreneur, chopped from the aforesaid cloth arsenic Steve Jobs oregon Elon Musk. But what does a enactment obsessive specified arsenic Jobs, Musk or, successful this case, Donaldson, bash successful their spare time? And bash they adjacent person immoderate spare time?

“Imagine spending 10 years of your beingness lone reasoning astir 1 happening each azygous day,” Donaldson has said of his obsession with YouTube, admitting that his full beingness is centred astir contented creation.

“I was truthful obsessed [when helium was younger], I’m telling you, it’s unhealthy,” though helium argues that the cognition of his obsession has changed owed to his success. “At immoderate point, you transverse that tipping constituent wherever radical spell from judging you, like, ‘You’re excessively obsessed, you’re a freak, to ‘Oh, woah, congrats, look astatine you [...] It’s benignant of blurry wherever that enactment changes.”

We bash cognize a fewer things astir his idiosyncratic life, though. MrBeast has had 2 girlfriends: Maddy Spidell, a chap YouTuber whom helium dated for 3 years from 2019 to 2022; and Thea Booysen, a South African eSports commentator and Twitch streamer, who he’s been with since past year. The brace question unneurotic a lot, be grant shows, and she’s adjacent appeared successful 1 of his videos erstwhile helium was debased connected consenting participants (100 Girls vs 100 Boys vie connected who tin enactment successful a ellipse for the longest clip to triumph $500,000 (£400,000).

He’s a family-oriented antheral and has stayed successful North Carolina for that crushed (MrBeastHQ is based there). He besides employs his mum, Sue, who works astatine MrBeastHQ and was 1 of his archetypal employees.

Donaldson is protective implicit his friends, including erstwhile person Tyson, who was revealed to beryllium successful the process of transitioning and faced transphobic maltreatment arsenic a effect past year. After YouTuber SunnyV2 released a video titled “Why Chris Will Soon Be a Nightmare For MrBeast”, Donaldson deed backmost successful a uncommon amusement of anger, tweeting: “Yeah. This is getting absurd. Chris isn’t my ‘nightmare’, he’s my f***** person and things are fine. All this transphobia is starting to piss maine off.”

Despite making much than $100 cardinal (£80 million) past year, Donaldson insists that helium doesn’t unrecorded a lavish life. “I mean, like, wealth is cool, but, you know, I unrecorded successful my studio,” helium told the My First Million podcast. “I don’t have, like, a mansion. I don’t thrust a Lamborghini. So, it’s like, I similar wealth due to the fact that I tin prosecute much people, and turn a concern but not truthful I tin summation my lifestyle, oregon whatever.”

In this aforesaid podcast, the big points retired Donaldson’s alternatively telling prime of decor for his office. “A seat property straight adjacent to the desk, and past the walls were conscionable like, a Steve Jobs quote, an Elon [Musk] quote, a Steve Jobs quote. There was, like, a timeline. Like, astatine this age, Steve Jobs was here.”

It mightiness beryllium hard to instrumentality a antheral who started retired making Minecraft videos seriously. However, Donaldson has proven implicit and implicit again that helium doesn’t attraction if you similar him oregon not — you’ll ticker him astatine immoderate point. And, adjacent if you don’t, everyone nether the property of 18 already is anyway.