There’s a lot of ways to get rich seemingly overnight.
You could win the lottery. You could hit a 10-plus-game parlay on the best Canadian online betting site. Or perhaps, most unconventionally, you can stumble into a Mr. Beast YouTube video and be rewarded massive riches by the YouTuber himself.
Maybe you know who Mr. Beast is, maybe you don’t. But he’s arguably the biggest YouTuber on the planet. The crazy part? He’s done so by giving millions upon millions of dollars away in his videos — each prize seemingly getting bigger than the last.
We wanted to profile Mr. Beast and figure out what’s the “method to his madness.” How has this 22-year-old accumulated more than 90 million subscribers across six YouTube channels? Let’s find out:
Show Me The Money
Mr. Beast has earned a fortune from his YouTube efforts, however, he’s given most of it right back. His videos cost millions to produce, mainly because almost every single one has a prize at stake in it.
In one video, Mr. Beast housed $1 million inside of a glass case. He then challenged four contestants to keep their hands on the case, whoever kept their hand on it until the very end (with no breaks allowed) would take home the prize. It was 36 hours before a winner was decided.
In another video, Mr. Beast bought every single car at a dealership, spending roughly 100,000 doing so. He proceeded to give these cars away free of cost to random bystanders.
Then there’s the “finger on the app” contest. It took the same elements of the $1 million video, but instead opened it up to everyone through a downloadable app. Whoever held their finger on the screen the longest took home a $100,000 stake.
Mr. Beast’s brand of videos combines several genres — game show, pranks, comedy, and vlogging. That pedigree, along with the magnitude of the prizes, has grown his channel exponentially and the runway remains long ahead, which we’ll cover next.
Huge Growth Trajectory Ahead
Mr. Beast’s main channel has close to 60 million subscribers. However, he’s outright said this channel isn’t profitable — not yet, at least. So how does he fund his massive projects then?
Welp, he has several other YouTube channels that do turn a profit. There’s his gaming channel, where he live streams himself playing Minecraft. Then there’s his reactions channel, where he puts random objects against one another — Lava versus a Macbook Pro, anyone? He also has a “shorts” channel for under-a-minute-long content. The revenues from these platforms get funneled back into his main channel to up his stunts.
But now, Mr. Beast is building revenue streams well outside the walls of YouTube. Sure, he has a merchandise line like every other Internet celebrity, but in late 2020, he launched Mr. Beast Burger. You guessed it, it’s a fast food chain that’s quickly expanded to over 400 kitchens.
We suspect this is only the tip of the spear, though. In today’s world, attention is one of the most monetizable assets and make no mistake about it, Mr. Beast has millions in the palm of his hands. Any business venture of his can get quickly eaten up — pun fully intended — by his diehard following.
Philanthropist At Heart
The charm of Jimmy Donaldson — the real name of Mr. Beast — doesn’t end with his over-the-top personality and tendency to give away millions. He also seems to have a heart of gold for people not directly involved in his videos.
Another YouTube channel of his is dedicated to philanthropic efforts. To kickstart the channel, Mr. Beast donated well over 60,000 meals during the Thanksgiving and Christmas season. Along the same lines, he hosts four food drives a week near his home in North Carolina.
Homeless people are a particular soft spot for Mr. Beast. He’s mentioned he plans to open thousands of homeless shelters throughout his life. Whereas some YouTubers are buying Lamborghinis for themselves (cough, cough, Jake Paul), Mr. Beast is, to no surprise, giving it all right back.
Whether it’s his give-away nature or just the “craziness” of his videos, Mr. Beast is truly in a lane of his own among YouTubers. Only 22 years young, he could be on his way to becoming the first-ever YouTube billionaire.
