Will MrBeast Be The First YouTuber Billionaire?

MrBeast (real name Jimmy Donaldson) is a popular YouTube content creator, philanthropist, and entrepreneur. He has made his money primarily through his YouTube channel, where he creates videos that feature elaborate stunts, challenges, and experiments. It’s estimated his net worth is $500 million dollars. 

MrBeast was born on May 7, 1998. Donaldson uploaded his first YouTube in February 2012, when he was just 13 years old. Donaldson is the shy younger son of a single mom in the military that worked two overnight shifts a week, they moved around a lot when he was a kid. He would spend many nights and most of his time making content with his brother’s camcorder. In 2016 MrBeast enrolled in college and lasted only two weeks before he dropped out, telling his mom: "I'd rather be poor than do anything besides YouTube." His mom made him move out of his childhood home in North Carolina at 18 because "she loves me and just wanted me to be successful," MrBeast later said.

MrBeast first went viral in January 2017, when he uploaded a video showing himself counting to 100,000. After that first video went viral, MrBeast found what the YouTube algorithm liked. He quickly amassed 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, MrBeast reached 1 million subscribers.

He started posting to YouTube as “MrBeast6000” in 2012 when he was 13. Back then he shot videos on his brother’s hand-me-down laptop. At first, Donaldson kept his online persona a secret, but his mother, Sue, found out when MrBeast hit 10,000 subscribers. As MrBeast attempted to game YouTube's algorithm, the aspiring YouTuber went through stages of trends on his channel and started to gain a following in 2015 and 2016 thanks to his "worst intros" series of videos, which rounded up and poked fun at YouTuber introductions. MrBeast's videos often involve large amounts of money, which he gives away to his friends, strangers, or charitable organisations. He earned $54 million in 2021, including $32 million from ads across his dozen-plus channels and $9 million from sponsored content. He’s the most-subscribed-to YouTube personality in the world, with 112 million. His earnings, already the highest of any social media creator, are set to double in 2023 to as much as $110 million.

YouTube Earnings

In July 2022, MrBeast hit a milestone: he became the second YouTube creator to hit 100 million subscribers on YouTube after PewDiePie. By November, he surpassed PewDiePie's subscribers. MrBeast now has 131 million subscribers on YouTube, more than any other creator on the platform. His average cost of making a video climbed from $10,000 to $300,000 by 2020.

According to Social Blade, Donaldson makes between $100k to $3 million per month in YouTube ad revenue from his primary channel. One particularly popular video that recreated the TV series Squid Game amassed more than 4.5 million views in the first two hours and now sits at around 340 million views. Donaldson has six additional YouTube channels, with the majority having subscriber counts in the millions. These include MrBeast Gaming, Beast Reacts, MrBeast Shorts, MrBro, MrBeast 2, and Beast Philanthropy. Forbes reported that Donaldson made $54 million on YouTube in 2021 with over 10 billion views across all his videos.

In September 2022, MrBeast revealed that he was offered $1 billion for his content empire but turned it down. In October 2022, MrBeast began speaking to investors, looking to raise $150 million for his YouTube and food business for 10% of his business; a deal that rich would value the studio at $1.5 billion, making Donaldson the world’s first billionaire YouTuber, his 90% stake worth $1.4 billion. Even now, Forbes estimates Donaldson is worth some $500 million. “Your probability of being a billionaire is higher if you don’t make that your goal,” Donaldson says. “Just focus on making a company that is dope.”

Audience-centric approach

Donaldson studies his videos with a level of detail few would be willing to match. He looks at when people drop off, what part of the video was the most replayed, and even which type of thumbnails earn the highest CTR. Donaldson was also a member of Daily Masterminds, a group comprised of YouTube creators who would discuss each other’s videos, deconstruct the videos of successful creators, and brainstorm ideas.  These sessions could be exhaustive and run from 7 am to 10 pm, but Donaldson credits them with allowing him to hone his craft and understand his audience in greater detail. Once MrBeast identifies an idea in which his own interests and those of the audience intersect, he relies on a team of over 100 employees to make it a reality. While Donaldson has an obvious passion for creating videos, it is the combination of this passion with his analytical skills and devotion to his followers that has seen him become the success he is today.

Brand sponsorships

As the MrBeast channel gained traction, it started working with progressively larger brands including Quidd, CSGO Lotto, Honey, and TikTok. Having sponsored his channel more than 20 times, the coupon-finding browser extension Honey is a particular fan of MrBeast’s and has seen more than a billion views. In short, brands are falling over themselves to work with Donaldson because he is making such a positive difference in the world.

Philanthropy and giving back to society are values with which brands want to be associated, and Donaldson demonstrated such values when he gave away his first $10,000 in sponsorship earnings to others. Brands also realise that MrBeast produces a style of content designed to go viral – a highly valued skill in a world with short consumer attention spans. 

Returning to the Squid Game video, Donaldson was sponsored by the gaming company Brawl Stars which was relatively unknown at the time. Five days after the video went live, however, the game experienced a 41% increase in downloads. While he has not revealed how much he received in the deal, Donaldson did note that the brand contributed to the production costs which included $2 million to build and produce plus a further $1.5 million in prizes.

Merchandise

MrBeast sells branded merchandise at shopmrbeast.com, with 100% of the profits going toward a food pantry for the disadvantaged. Products for sale include apparel, backpacks, caps, drink bottles, hats, phone cases, and socks. According to reports, Donaldson earns $1-2 million in revenue each year.

BeastBurgers

MrBeast Burger is a virtual restaurant developed in coordination with Virtual Dining Concepts in 2020. MrBeast Burger predominantly operates as a ghost kitchen chain, where delivery-only orders are prepared by third-party restaurants. There are now over 1000 locations across the United States, Canada, and Europe and has quickly become one of the fasting growing restaurant brands in the world. In September 2022, the first permanent brick-and-mortar store was on the third floor of a mall in the state of New Jersey. In 2021 it had $70 million in annual sales, and it’s on track to hit $100 million in sales this year, with a 30% gross margin and selling over 1 million burgers.

Feastibles 

Donaldson has sold over 4 million Feastables bars and $10 million in revenue with a 40% gross profit. Each bar is made with organic cacao and fewer than six ingredients, in the three months after its January 2022 launch. The brightly packaged candy bars are now available online and in 4,700 Walmart stores. Donaldson is the majority owner, with venture investors pumping in a reported $5 million for 20%. 

Investments 

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.

Beast Philanthropy

MrBeast does a lot for good causes. Wanting to help more people, MrBeast decided to set up a separate channel for his charity work, Beast Philanthropy. Starting in September 2020, the charity donates 100% of its revenue, brand deals, and merchandise sales to different causes.

They partner with other charitable organisations to alleviate homelessness, hunger, and unemployment. Primarily operating as a food bank, Beast Philanthropy has donated over an estimated 1 million pounds of food.

When New Orleans was hit by a hurricane in 2021, Jimmy's team helped cook meals to hand out to those in need. Other videos have seen MrBeast feed 10,000 families for Thanksgiving, give $300,000 to students and give $3,000,000 in aid to Ukrainian refugees. The team has also saved an orphanage in South Africa, rebuilt homes for tornado survivors, built wells in Africa and flown kids living on the streets to the 2022 World Cup. He donates 100% of ad revenue from the Beast Philanthropy channel to charity. He has also supported fundraising challenges like Team Trees and Team Seas.

MrBeast’s primary goal in life is to make the world a better place. He promises when he dies to have zero dollars in his bank account and is determined to make as much money as possible, just so he can give it all away. He enjoys the satisfaction he gets from being able to make others who are less fortunate than him happy.

MrBeasts’ gifts and donations are set to continue dominating his YouTube channel along with his worth. It seems there will be no shortage of upcoming giveaways, viral videos, and YouTube stunts in the making. Keep tuned to MrBeast channels to see what outrageous ideas he comes up with next!