Inside MrBeast’s $500 million YouTube empire amid bullying allegation
GREENVILLE, NORTH CAROLINA: MrBeast, aka Jimmy Donaldson, is the most-followed individual YouTuber in the world with 145 million subscribers. Not just that, he is also the world’s richest YouTuber, with an estimated net worth of over $500 million. But it didn't happen overnight.
Born in Wichita, Kansas, on May 7, 1998, before growing up in Greenville, MrBeast uploaded his first YouTube video on February 21, 2012, titled, 'Worst Minecraft Saw Trap Ever???' He was just 13. At that time, his YouTube handle was called ‘MrBeast6000,' states Spiel Times.
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MrBeast's first video
Being the first video ever uploaded to the channel, he pinned a comment which reads, "I was 13 when this was filmed lol. Go watch my other first videos, I'll leave pinned comments on each for you :)." However, he started to gain a following in 2015 and 2016, as per Business Insider. By mid-2016, he had 30,000 subscribers. But it was the 23-hour, 48-minute, 4-second long video titled 'I Counted to 100,000!', uploaded on January 8, 2017, that changed the game for him. It became his first video to go viral which currently has over 27 million views. He gained more views with similar stunts like spinning a fidget spinner for 24 hours and watching Jake Paul's 'It's Everyday Bro' music video for 10 hours straight. By November 2017, he hit a million subscribers. He hired his childhood friends — Chris, Chandler, Garret, and Jake — to work for him and his YouTube channel.
YouTube's biggest philanthropist
As he started to grow popular, his expensive giveaways became his trademark, states DailyMail. He started with cash prizes which gathered momentum. He then gave out cars for free, did charity stunts. In 2018, he donated $100,000 worth of products to a homeless shelter, earning him the title of 'YouTube's biggest philanthropist'. In one video, he dropped $20,000 out of a drone and gave a pizza man the house he was delivering to as a tip. He also made headlines for curing 1,000 people's blindness by paying for their eye-surgery in January 2023. He bought one of them a Tesla, and donated $50,000 to another's college fund.
Gareth Boyd, head of growth at Finty.com, says MrBeast's popularity outgrew other YouTubers because his stunts "were totally and utterly different to anything else anyone was doing. Going to a football training ground and seeing who can hold onto an airplane the longest - what other TV show does that?"
In a video from 2018, his mother refused his attempts to give her a check of $100,000. MrBeast joked, "If I don’t give it to you, I don’t have a viral video." His mother then asked, "So you’re using me for views?’ To which he replied, "Yes, but you get money too, so we’re both happy." However, as per DailyMail, there is no information on how much MrBeast makes for himself. He once wrote in July 2020, “I really want to be Elon one day,” referring to Elon Musk, the chief executive of Tesla and one of the world’s richest people.
Criticized for offensive jokes
His early videos and posts were criticized for their use of slurs and offensive jokes. Speaking of the offensive content, a representative for him said, "When Jimmy was a teenager and was first starting out, he carelessly used, on more than one occasion, a gay slur. Jimmy knows there is no excuse for homophobic rhetoric.” They added that MrBeast “has grown up and matured into someone that doesn’t speak like that.”
Allegations of toxic workplace
In 2021, The New York Times reported 11 people who worked for the YouTuber said his "demeanor changed when the cameras weren’t around. They described a difficult work environment." Matt Turner, a young editor for MrBeast from February 2018 to September 2019, said the YouTuber "had berated him almost every day" and often called him by "a phrase used to insult people with mental disabilities" which used to leave Turner in tears. “I was not to be credited for anything I did. I’d ask for credit, he’d credit someone else,” he explained. Another former employee Nate Anderson, who who moved to Greenville to work for MrBeast in March 2018, quit after a week. “Nothing ever worked for him. He always wanted it a certain way," said Anderson, who added, "My Experience Editing for Mr. Beast (Worst Week of My Life).”
Commenting on these allegations, Gareth Boyd, said they can be damaging for MrBeast's business model. MrBeast is the founder of MrBeast Burger and Feastables, and a co-creator of Team Trees. Boyd said, "His personal brand is that he is an average guy who reinvests his money and he’s doing it for fun. He’s not driving around in a Lamborghini, he’s giving them away. But as he gets more and more popular the smaller inner circle that he has - he is still pretty much surrounded by childhood friends - there will be a few that eventually leave and leak stories and sometime or another the inside accounts will come out."