If you’ve ever watched YouTube, you will likely have come across YouTube’s biggest star, MrBeast. He has amassed a subscribership rivalling that of Netflix worldwide. His channels are known for their extraordinary stunts and sizeable giveaways. He is the only YouTuber that can boast a minimum of 10 million views from every single uploaded video in the past year. Besides, the name ‘MrBeast’ is a very cool name!
Background on MrBeast
MrBeast’s real name is Jimmy Donaldson. He is 23yrs old and lives in North Carolina, USA. He started making YouTube videos under the name of ‘MrBeast6000’ (later shortened to ‘MrBeast’) when he was just 11yrs old. The name ‘MrBeast’ came from a random name generator from an online Xbox Live game he was playing. As he posted his first video, in his own words, he was ‘instantly obsessed with YouTube’. His goal, right from the very beginning, was to be the most successful YouTuber.
He made no money during his first few years on YouTube and then later only made about $1 a day. He saved up for a couple of months and bought a microphone. Continued saving allowed him to subsequently buy a better computer. Each time, effectively putting money back into his business to grow. Reinvesting into his business this way from the start, set the tone for the way he would run his business in the future; always reinvesting back.
Sensational and inspirational are words to describe the massive phenomenon that is known to many YouTubers as the infamous Mr Beast.
Starting with no money
At 18yrs old, he was still making no money but continued to make and upload YouTube videos. Forced by his mother to enrol into community college, he would skip classes and sit in his car, editing videos. He quickly realised that he needed to figure out how to seriously start making an income from his YouTube videos.
He was hyper obsessed with YouTube. And found 4 other YouTubers just as obsessed as he was. They formed a Skype group called ‘Daily Masterminds’ and would discuss topics like: ‘what makes a good video?’, ‘what makes a good thumbnail?’, ‘what is good pacing?’, ‘how to go viral?’ They collectively spent long hours, for years, analysing every detail of what makes a great YouTube video.
The Daily Masterminds would work 15hr days for months and years uploading video after video, testing all the various elements of a video to see what would make them go viral, in order to make money. Eventually one month, some of his videos did really well and he finally managed to make $20,000.
The Evolution of MrBeast
Most of MrBeast’s earlier videos are about video gameplay. Minecraft, Pokemon, Black Ops, Project Zomboid, Call of Duty etc. Then he starts to change his videos up a bit. He starts to make videos about random topics like: ‘My Mom Found My Channel’, and ‘Airplane Pilots Last Words Before Death; or ‘Psycho Friend Smashes My Laptop’ and starts to put himself in the videos. Slowly, he learns how to create catchy video titles that will gain clicks.
MrBeast’s 12yr evolution is all on his YouTube channel. He has documented it all and it’s fun to watch. He has created videos of every subscriber milestone, 50k, to 100k, to 1 million subscribers. MrBeast creates videos on what he has learnt about YouTube viral videos. He creates time capsule videos that he recorded at 18yrs old and sets them up on YouTube to auto upload in 5yrs, 10yrs, and 50yrs time. A lot of the most recent videos are extraordinary stunts with large money giveaways. His most expensive video to date is his Squid Games video which cost over $4 million to make.
Mr Beast’s main channel is called MrBeast with 92.4M subscribers. But he also has:
MrBeast Gaming with 26.5M subscribers.
Beast Reacts with 16.4M subscribers.
MrBeast Shorts with 12.8M subscribers.
Beast Philanthropy with 7.94M subscribers
MrBeast 2 with 5.63M subscribers.
That makes up a whopping 161.7M subscribers over all his channels. In comparison, there are 222M subscribers of Netflix worldwide, which makes Mr Beast’s achievement pretty amazing.
Learning how to become the biggest YouTuber
If you want to learn how to become the biggest YouTuber, watch the earlier MrBeast videos. These are valuable case studies. He has also been a guest on many podcasts sharing valuable YouTube insights.
MrBeast has documented all his YouTube career milestones. From posting when he hit 10k subscribers, to 50k, to 100k. He posts useful videos like ‘Do Dislikes Matter On YouTube‘ or ‘How To Get Active Subscribers On YouTube?‘ or ‘How Do YouTubers Make Money?‘
His secret formula is to focus on making great content. He says: “It’s easier to get 5 million views on 1 video than 100,000 views on 50 videos”. So, focus on making the best videos that you can. Put in all your effort to create that great video.
What makes MrBeast so inspiring
It’s always an inspiration to watch a person that is wholly obsessed with their craft. And that is exactly what you feel when you listen to him talk about creating his content on YouTube. He has been in this game for so long, that he talks about it with absolute confidence. He knows how to make a hit, viral video. And he does it time and time again with every video he posts.
His youth belies his career experience. He has never had a job or worked for anyone, he has solely made YouTube videos for the past 12 years. His work ethic, focus and intensity about YouTube content creation are an inspiration.
His success at YouTube make him one of the top advisors on content creation. With all this specialist knowledge, he mentors other creators. Helping them to create viral videos and providing feedback on things that won’t work.
MrBeast comes across as having a good natured personality and easy to talk to. Always smiling, his optimism comes through on his videos and podcasts.
He has remained humble and generous. Repeatedly he mentions that his only goal in life is to make money and give it all away. When asked if he has ever gone crazy spending all the money he has made, he replies that he did that once, but quickly realised that material items did not make him happy. Making other people happy, makes him happy. And of course, making a ton more YouTube videos.
MrBeast’s inspiring business goals
Having reached his first goal of becoming the biggest YouTuber, he has his sights set on his next goal: making the most money possible and giving it all away. Wisely, he will remain on YouTube and build other business that leverage his audience off of YouTube. He launched MrBeastBurgers in December 2020. And created a snack brand called Feastables, starting with 3 chocolate bars in January 2022.
MrBeast is extremely passionate about his philanthropy. He works on countless project to help people in need or donate food and items to food banks. His goals are to work with more non-profits stuffing their warehouses full of items that will help people in need. View his MrBeast Philantrophy channel for more information.
A very clever tactic to gain even more recognition and more views, make more money and thus to give away even more money is to make his videos go worldwide. When MrBeast realised that only 10% of the world speaks English, he started to dub his videos into Spanish, Portuguese, and Japanese. To excite his fans even more, he hires local voice actors to voice him and his fans go wild that he sounds like the Spanish Spiderman or a famous Japanese anime star.
Why you should watch MrBeast
MrBeast is the biggest creator on YouTube right now, and all the money he makes he gives away. It is pure content creation centred on philanthropy.
MrBeast’s quick, easily consumed 15-20min videos are great to watch. The thumbnails urge you to click through, the pace of the videos keep a good flow, they have enough suspense to keep you from clicking away and they give away a lot of money. He is the modern day Oprah of “You get a car, you get a car“.
It’s hard to copy his formula. He’s been able to gain large brand sponsorships because of his large following. This in turn, allows him to make bigger, more impressive stunts and give away more money. He does this at an impressive rate, over and over again, and it’s impossible to stop watching. This is his genius. And it has taken a decade to play at this level.
What you should watch next
When you need a quick break from your next Korean Drama, flick to YouTube and watch these popular MrBeast videos.
