Mr Beast
James Stephen “Jimmy” Donaldson (born May 7, 1998), better known by his online alias Mr Beast, is an American YouTuber, internet personality, philanthropist, and businessman.
He is known for his fast-paced and high-production videos featuring elaborate challenges and lucrative giveaways.
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With over 312 million subscribers, he has the most-subscribed-to YouTube channel (a position it has held since June 1, 2024,
During which it became the first channel to reach 300 million subscribers), and is the third-most-followed creator on TikTok with over 103 million followers.
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James Stephen Donaldson
May 7, 1998 Wichita, Kansas, U.S.
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| Origin | Greenville, North Carolina, U.S. | ||||||||||||||||||
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| Education | Greenville Christian Academy | ||||||||||||||||||
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| Website | mrbeast |
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| Years active | 2012–present | ||||||||||||||||||
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He also has over 60 million followers on Instagram and 30.9 million on X (formerly Twitter).
Donaldson grew up in Greenville, North Carolina. He began posting videos to YouTube in early 2012 under the handle MrBeast6000.
His early content ranged from Let’s Plays to “videos estimating the wealth of other YouTubers”.
He went viral in 2017 after his “counting to 100,000” video earned tens of thousands of views in just a few days. His videos have become increasingly grand and extravagant.
Once his channel took off, Donaldson hired some of his childhood friends to co-run the brand.
Donaldson also runs the YouTube channels Beast Reacts (formerly BeastHacks), MrBeast Gaming, MrBeast 2 (formerly MrBeast Shorts), and the philanthropy channel Beast Philanthropy.
Donaldson is the founder of MrBeast Burger, Feastables, and a co-creator of Team Trees, a fundraiser for the Arbor Day Foundation that has raised over $24 million for its campaigns.
He also co-founded Team Seas, a fundraiser for Ocean Conservancy and The Ocean Cleanup that has raised over $30 million.
Donaldson won the Creator of the Year award four years in a row at the Streamy Awards in 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023; he also won the Favorite Male Creator award three times at the 2022, 2023, and 2024 Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Awards.
In 2023, Time named him as one of the world’s 100 most influential people. He has ranked on the Forbes list for the highest-paid YouTube creator in 2022 and has an estimated net worth of $500 million.
Early life
James Stephen Donaldson(Mr Beast) was born on May 7, 1998, in Wichita, Kansas. He was mainly raised in Greenville, North Carolina.
He moved often and was under the care of au pairs due to his parents working long hours and serving in the military. His parents divorced in 2007.
In 2016, Donaldson graduated from Greenville Christian Academy, a small private evangelical Christian high school in the area. He briefly attended East Carolina University before dropping out.
While at Greenville Christian, Donaldson played baseball as an outfielder for several years.
After dropping out of college, Donaldson and his friends tried to analyze YouTube’s recommendation algorithm and sought to deduce how to create viral videos.
Donaldson recalled during this period, “There’s a five-year point in my life where I was just relentlessly, unhealthily obsessed with studying virality, studying the YouTube algorithm.
I woke up. I would Uber Eats food. And then I would sit on my computer all day just studying shit nonstop with [other YouTubers].”
Personal life
Donaldson describes himself as an introvert. Donaldson admits to having difficulty maintaining a social life due to his obsession with YouTube and his intense work ethic.
Donaldson’s mother, Sue, attributes his withdrawn lifestyle to their frequent relocations and his struggles with Crohn’s disease.
Donaldson dated Maddy Spidell, a YouTuber, from 2019 to 2022. He has been dating Thea Booysen, a gaming streamer, since 2022.
In June 2023, after the OceanGate submersible Titan imploded in the Atlantic Ocean while on a tourist expedition to view the wreck of the Titanic, killing all five passengers,
Donaldson stated that he had been invited on the expedition, but declined the offer.
Personal views
In an April 2022 interview with The Daily Beast, Donaldson announced that he was no longer an evangelical Christian and identified as an agnostic theist.
He also stated that he had long disagreed with Christian opposition to homosexuality.
He states that during the time he grew up in the Bible Belt, he had religion “beat into [his] head every day”, and was taught that “gay people are the reason God’s going to come and burn this Earth”.
He has disavowed anti-LGBT rhetoric since then.
In October 2018, The Atlantic published an article on Donaldson’s history of using homophobic slurs.
The article stated that Donaldson, while still a teenager, had had a habit of referring to people as “fags” on Twitter and regularly treated being homosexual as a punchline in-jokes and “gay” as an insult.
Donaldson later removed the tweets, and in 2021, a spokesperson for Donaldson said that he had “grown up and matured into someone that doesn’t speak like that”.
After Ava Kris (then Chris) Tyson, Donaldson’s childhood friend and employee, acknowledged in April 2023 that she was receiving feminizing hormone replacement therapy,
Donaldson defended her against backlash she had received: “Yeah, this is getting absurd.
Chris isn’t my ‘nightmare’ he’s[c] my fucken [sic] friend and things are fine. All this transphobia is starting to piss me off”. Tyson subsequently came out as a trans woman.
MrBeast
Donaldson considers himself apolitical because he wants to avoid alienating his audience, which would interfere with his goal of charity.
On a podcast in September 2022, Donaldson commented that he would consider a run for president of the United States “in like 20 years”, adding that the U.S. is “due for younger presidents”.
On July 6, 2024, during the 2024 presidential election, Donaldson wrote on Twitter, “if we lower the age to run for president I’ll jump in the race”. Donaldson clarified on another Twitter post reiterating his apolitical position.
YouTube career
Early viral attempts (2012–2017)
Donaldson uploaded his first YouTube video in February 2012, at the age of 13, under the name of “MrBeast6000”.
His early content ranged from Let’s Plays, mainly focused on Minecraft and Call of Duty:
Black Ops II, videos estimating the wealth of other YouTubers, videos that offered tips to upcoming YouTube creators, and commentary on YouTube drama. Donaldson appeared infrequently in these videos.
Current members of the Mr Beast crew. From left to right: Karl Jacobs, Nolan Hansen, and Chandler Hallow.
In 2015 and 2016, Donaldson began to gain popularity with his “Worst Intros on YouTube” series poking fun at YouTube video introductions. By mid-2016, Donaldson had around 30,000 subscribers.
In the fall of that year, Donaldson dropped out of East Carolina University to pursue a full-time career as a YouTuber. His mother disapproved of his decision and made him move out of the family home.
As his channel grew, Donaldson hired four childhood friends—Chris Tyson (now Ava Kris Tyson), Chandler Hallow, Garrett Ronalds, and Jake Franklin—to contribute to his channel.
Franklin left the crew in 2020. Afterward, Karl Jacobs, previously a cameraman, was promoted to take his place.
YouTube content
Early in his career, James Stephen “Jimmy” Donaldson’s(Mr Beast) content usually consisted of Let’s Plays, “best and worst” videos and YouTube commentary.
Donaldson’s present-day videos are categorized into three genres: stunt videos, where Donaldson or other participants perform challenges that are interesting, challenging, or dangerous; “junklord” videos,
Where Donaldson uses a large quantity of a particular product unusually or spends an extravagant amount on it; and giveaway videos,
Where Donaldson gives away large amounts of money or extravagant prizes to people, usually including a competitive aspect.
Giveaway videos are considered to be a distinctive feature of Donaldson’s content.
Donaldson’s videos leverage YouTube’s recommendation algorithm to go viral, mainly by maximizing click-through rate and viewer retention.
To maximize click-through rate, he focuses on creating effective topics, titles, and thumbnails.
In an interview with Lex Fridman, he stated that for him to create a viral video, it needed to be “original, creative, something people really need to see, ideally never been done before”.
His titles are designed to attract attention by promising outrageous stunts, and using certain keywords like “24-hours” and “challenge”.
His thumbnails are designed to be easily understandable, clearly focused, and brightly colored.
To maximize viewer retention, Donaldson paces the videos to have viewers engaged throughout. His videos typically span 10–30 minutes.
He hooks viewers by explaining the premise in under half a minute at the start of the video, and promises a “finale” to have viewers engaged until the end of the video.
Donaldson’s funding for these videos mainly comes from sponsorships and Google’s AdSense program. Donaldson was reported in 2022 to spend about $1 million on each video.
Most of his funding comes from sponsorships. Donaldson uses his reaction channel and gaming channel to help finance his main channel, as their videos are relatively cheap to produce and make a substantial amount of money.
The Verge noted that his revenue is self-perpetuating: “The more viral he becomes, the more brands want to work with him, and the bigger his own AdSense earnings get.
He can then entice viewers with even bigger giveaway videos. It’s a never ending cycle”. He stated in an interview with Rolling Stone: “I could be doing cheaper videos, […] But I just don’t want to.
I want to push the boundaries to go bigger, bigger”. Donaldson earns passive income through merchandise, MrBeast Burger, and Feastables.
As of 2023, Donaldson employs over 250 people. They include writers, editors, and producers. Many employees are people familiar to Donaldson, such as friends and family members.
Some former employees alleged that Donaldson nurtured a difficult work environment.
In a May 2021 New York Times article, Matt Turner, an editor for Donaldson from February 2018 to September 2019, claimed that Donaldson berated him almost daily, including calling him a “retard”.
Turner reported that he was regularly not credited for his work. Reporting by Insider showed that Turner previously posted a video in 2018 explaining his allegations and, in October 2019,
Released a deleted Twitter thread which stated that he was “yelled at, bullied, called mentally retarded and replaceable by Donaldson every single day”.
Nate Anderson, another editor, quit after working for Donaldson for a week in 2018 over what he said were unreasonable demands and called Donaldson a perfectionist.
After releasing a video describing his experience, Anderson reportedly received death threats from Donaldson’s fans.
Nine other employees who worked for Donaldson also stated that while he was sometimes generous, his demeanor would change when the cameras were off.
Donaldson disputes these claims, stating: “We have high standards, but it’s not a toxic work environment”.
Donaldson also claims that he gave Turner $10,000 and suggested a job at another company to him at the end of his contract.
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Other ventures
Finger on the App
In June 2020, Donaldson, in collaboration with Brooklyn-based art collective MSCHF, released a one-time multiplayer mobile game titled Finger on the App.
In the game, players touch their phone screen and the last person to remove their finger from the screen wins $25,000.
In the end, four people ended up winning $20,000 each after keeping their finger on the app for over 70 hours.
The game was reportedly so successful that a sequel titled Finger on the App 2 was planned to originally launch in December 2020.
The game was postponed to February, and then further delayed to March 2021 due to a flood of downloads, causing the game to crash and requiring the game’s developers to upgrade their servers.
This time, the game featured a grand prize of $100,000.
The winner kept their finger on the phone screen for around 51 hours. The second-place finisher also received a prize of $20,000.
MrBeast Burger
Will Hyde, a producer for the MrBeast channel, announced in a November 2020 article with The Wake Weekly that Donaldson would launch a virtual restaurant called MrBeast Burger in December 2020.
Hyde said his team worked with Virtual Dining Concepts during the development of the restaurant concept.
He said MrBeast Burger will sell franchise rights to serve the burgers to restaurants across the U.S., and customers will be able to order the burgers via online delivery services.
In August 2022, Donaldson announced that he would bring a MrBeast Burger shop to the American Dream Mall in East Rutherford,
New Jersey, near New York City, to be the location of his first U.S. restaurant. The restaurant opened on September 4, 2022.
On June 17, 2023, Donaldson expressed wishes to shut down MrBeast Burger due to fears that quality cannot be guaranteed,
Saying he regrets signing “a bad deal” with Virtual Dining Concepts, LLC, but said the company “won’t let me stop even though it’s terrible for my brand”.
On July 31, 2023, Donaldson sued Virtual Dining Concepts to end their partnership, alleging that the company damaged his reputation by prioritizing the expansion of the MrBeast Burger brand over food quality.
Donaldson also claimed he received no payment from the partnership. Virtual Dining Concepts disputed the claims, stating Donaldson had grown his reputation due to the MrBeast Burger brand,
And accused Donaldson of attempting a new deal for personal gain and resorting to “bullying” when rejected.
Feastable
In January 2022, Donaldson announced the creation of a new food company called Feastables, which launched its own brand of chocolate bars called “Feastables”.
At launch, they offered three flavors of bars: original, almond, and quinoa crunch.
The launch corresponded with a sweepstakes with over $1 million in prizes, including $10,000 prize winners who would receive a chance to compete for a chocolate factory in a future video, emulating Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
The video, released in June 2022, contained a series of elimination challenges where the winner won the choice of the chocolate factory or a $500,000 cash prize.
Michelin Star chef Gordon Ramsay featured as a judge in the final challenge of the video and ultimately decided who won the cash prize. Feastables reportedly made $10 million in its first few months of operation.
On March 3, 2023, Donaldson asked fans on Twitter to “clean up the presentation” of Feastables displays on store shelves and suggested that they obscure competing products.
Feastables offered fans entry into a $5,000 raffle if they provided proof of their assistance. The tweets drew criticism and accusations that Feastables was exploiting fans for unpaid labor.
On October 2, 2023, Feastables signed a partnership with the Charlotte Hornets to include MrBeast’s insignia on their jerseys.
On January 11, 2024, Donaldson announced changes to the original Feastables bar, including a new shape and formula.
Investments and partnerships
Donaldson is an investor in the tech startup Backbone, which produces the Backbone One,
A controller that makes smartphones appear more similar to Nintendo Switch controllers, and the Backbone app, a content creation and social tools app for its users.
In March 2021, Donaldson partnered with Creative Juice financial network to introduce Juice Funds, a $2 million investment fund for content creators.
In April 2021, Donaldson became a long-term investor and partner of financial technology company Current.
The same month, Donaldson received backlash after fans lost large amounts of money in a cryptocurrency scheme that Donaldson had invested in and promoted.
In November 2022, Donaldson partnered with East Carolina University to create a course centered around YouTube content creation.
In May 2023, Donaldson was featured as a judge on Gordon Ramsay’s Food Stars show.
In September 2023, Donaldson partnered with Samsung, making the Samsung Galaxy smartphone series the official vlogging camera of MrBeast.
FAST Channel
In 2023, a free ad-supported streaming television network named Mr. Beast that only shows previously released MrBeast YouTube videos began airing on the Roku Channel service.
Beast Games
In March 2024, Donaldson and Amazon MGM Studios announced their plans to create a new reality competition series Beast Games, set to air exclusively on Prime Video.
It is set to become the biggest reality competition series with 1,000 contestants competing for a $5 million cash prize—the biggest single prize in the history of television and streaming.
Criticism
The show faced criticism after contestants complained that they had been denied food, water, medication, and beds during production.
Several contestants were hospitalized during the first filming sessions, with over a dozen contestants claiming that various injuries had occurred while participating in the challenges and that many had been seen being removed from the arena on stretchers.
A spokesperson of Donaldson would blame external factors such as the global computer systems outage caused by CrowdStrike’s update to its software, “extreme weather and other unexpected logistical and communications issues”.
Philanthropy
#TeamTrees
On October 25, 2019, Donaldson and former NASA engineer and YouTuber Mark Rober announced a collaborative fundraising challenge event on YouTube called #TeamTrees.
The goal of this project was to raise $20 million for the Arbor Day Foundation by January 1, 2020, and plant trees “no later than December 2022”.
Every donation goes to the Arbor Day Foundation, which pledges to plant one tree for every dollar donated.
Notable YouTubers such as Rhett & Link, Marshmello, iJustine, Marques Brownlee, The Slow Mo Guys, Ninja, Simone Giertz, Jacksepticeye,
And Smarter Every Day brought attention to the project, and trees began to be planted in October 2019 in US national parks.
On December 19 of that year, the $20 million goal was surpassed.
The project has received large donations from corporate executives Jack Dorsey, Susan Wojcicki, Elon Musk and Tobias Lütke, as well as from companies such as Discovery, Verizon, and PopCap.
Tobias Lütke, founder and CEO of Shopify, holds the record for the highest donation at 1,000,001 trees planted. As of June 5, 2024,
The original goal of 20 million trees has been far surpassed, with over 24.7 million trees in the ground.
#TeamSeas
On October 29, 2021, Donaldson and Rober organized another collaborative challenge event on YouTube titled #TeamSeas.
The goal of this project was to raise $30 million for the Ocean Conservancy and The Ocean Cleanup by January 1, 2022. The $30 million goal would fund the removal of 30 million pounds of plastic and other waste from oceans, rivers, and beaches.
Donaldson and Rober enlisted thousands of content creators, including AzzyLand, DanTDM, TommyInnit, LinusTechTips, TierZoo, LEMMiNO,
The Infographics Show, Hannah Stocking, Dhar Mann, and Marques Brownlee, and partnered with BEN and TubeBuddy’s initiative of eight million global creators, to promote the fundraiser.
As of June 5, 2024, the original $30 million goal has been surpassed by 12–13%, with more than $33.7 million raised.
Beast Philanthropy
On September 17, 2020, the YouTube channel Beast Philanthropy was created.
Greenville received Thanksgiving meals as part of an initiative by Beast Philanthropy and Jennie-O.
On the channel’s first video, Donaldson announced the charity and food bank and named Darren Margolias, who had appeared in previous videos, as executive director.
According to the channel description, 100% of its advertising revenue, brand deals, and merchandise sales are donated to charity.
Notable initiatives by Beast Philanthropy include giving away 10,000 turkeys to his hometown of Greenville,
Donating 20,000 shoes to children in Africa, building 100 wells in Africa for villages with limited access to clean water, and gifting $300,000 worth of technology to various schools.
Public image and influence
As of July 2024,James Stephen “Jimmy” Donaldson (Mr Beast) is the most subscribed channel on YouTube, surpassing T-Series.
A February 2021 poll from Insider showed that 70% of respondents had a favorable view of him, compared to 12% who had an unfavorable view. His channel appeals strongly to younger viewers.
Donaldson’s way of displaying his philanthropy as a form of entertainment builds a very positive public image for him.
In particular, Donaldson links audience engagement to charitable acts through statements like “every single time someone subscribes,
I will give away ten cents” and “100% of my revenue earned from [Beast Philanthropy] is going to my charity”, which allows Donaldson to perform acts of charity and build a large and loyal fanbase.
Donaldson also builds a parasocial relationship with his viewers by “looking directly at the camera and talking to the audience” and displaying himself as “an exciting, relatable, authentic, down-to-earth person”.
However, some critics have questioned Donaldson’s motives and ethics. Users on social media accused Donaldson of exploiting poverty for views, deeming his content “charity porn”.
His philanthropy has been criticized for not addressing the root causes of inequity in society.
In response, Donaldson claimed that he does not profit from Beast Philanthropy or its videos and that all revenue goes towards charity. He also stressed the importance of the government’s role in solving systemic issues.
According to Charissa Cheong of Insider, Donaldson becoming the most-subscribed YouTuber marks a shift in YouTube content away from traditional vlogging towards high-production, elaborate videos that create a more “television-like experience”.
She wrote that “the future of YouTube content will likely look more ‘experimental’ now that Donaldson’s high-stakes challenges are performing so well.
Creators are going to keep trying to ‘push the boundaries of what is possible’ by trying new and ‘extreme’ formats and genres”.
Fellow YouTuber and former NASA engineer Mark Rober wrote that Donaldson is “constantly raising the bar for creators whether it’s through re-creating Squid Game in real life or paying for the eye surgeries of 1,000 blind people”.
Donaldson has inspired many young YouTubers. His “extreme challenge videos” have influenced other YouTubers like Fidias and Airrack, who similarly try to attempt difficult challenges in their videos.
This trend has been called the “MrBeast-ification of YouTube”.
Filmography
| Year | Title | Role | Notes | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem | Times Square Bystander | Voice | |
| Under the Boardwalk | Hot Sauce Crab | |||
| 2024 | The Sidemen Story | Himself | Documentary | |
| Kung Fu Panda 4 | Panda Pig | Voice |
Awards and nominations
| Year | Ceremony | Category | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 9th Streamy Awards | Breakout Creator | Won | |
| Ensemble Cast | Nominated | |||
| Creator of the Year | Nominated | |||
| 2020 | 12th Annual Shorty Awards | YouTuber of the Year | Won | |
| 10th Streamy Awards | Creator of the Year | |||
| Live Special | ||||
| Social Good: Creator | ||||
| Social Good: Nonprofit or NGO | ||||
| 2021 | 2021 Kids’ Choice Awards | Favorite Male Social Star | Nominated | |
| 11th Streamy Awards | Creator of the Year | Won | ||
| 2022 | 2022 Kids’ Choice Awards | Favorite Male Creator | Won | |
| 12th Streamy Awards | Creator of the Year | Won | ||
| Collaboration | Nominated | |||
| Social Good: Creator | Won | |||
| Creator Product | Nominated | |||
| Editing | Nominated | |||
| Brand Engagement | Won | |||
| Social Impact Campaign | Nominated | |||
| 2023 | 2023 Kids’ Choice Awards | Favorite Male Creator | Won | |
| 13th Streamy Awards | Creator of the Year | Won | ||
| Collaboration | Won | |||
| Creator Product | Nominated | |||
| Brand Engagement | Nominated | |||
| 2024 | 2024 Kids’ Choice Awards | Favorite Male Creator | Won |
Publications
| Publication | Year | Category | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|
| Forbes 30 Under 30 | 2021 | Social Media | |
| Guinness World Records | 2022 | Largest vegetarian burger | |
| Most subscribers for an individual male on YouTube | |||
| 2023 | First person to reach 1 million followers on Threads | ||
| Highest-earning YouTube contributor (current) | |||
| Most YouTube subscribers gained in one week | |||
| 2024 | Most subscribers on YouTube |
