YouTube’s most followed creator MrBeast has revealed he earns £550 million a year, but claims not to be rich.
The social media star, whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson, said that everything he earns from a video or post is reinvested into future content or giveaways.
MrBeast, 25, became the most followed person on YouTube in 2022 and with 240 million subscribers and counting in early 2024, he is very close to Indian record label and producer T-Series in the race for the top spot.
Despite those huge numbers that generate millions of dollars in advertising revenue and brand deals per video, he said TIME: ‘YO’We have reinvested everything to the point of, you might say, stupidity, simply believing that we would succeed. And it has worked.’
The star’s most expensive ticket gifts over the years have included a $2.5 million private jet and a $2 million private island, plus millions more in cash prizes, so how Can you afford it all?
YouTube’s most followed creator MrBeast (pictured) has revealed he earns £550 million a year – but claims not to be rich.
He said he reinvests what he earns into future videos. Previous rewards for viewers or contestants have included a private island and a Lamborghini, as well as big cash prizes.
The YouTuber also diversifies his income with forays into fast food, snacks and gaming.
In addition to the value of the prizes themselves, each video tends to involve a large budget, a specially designed set and hours of filming: up to 12,000 hours of video for a clip that is just 15 minutes long.
In exchange for the huge investments, he said each video generates “a couple million” in revenue through YouTube ads, plus a similar figure from ads inserted into the video itself, for which the brand pays a fee. considerable.
In January, he earned more than a quarter of a million dollars through ads on a single X post, which played before a video he reuploaded in September.
The Wichita, Kansas native has been working on this since February 2012, when he uploaded his first video, when he was 13 years old.
hThis initial content revolved around harmless pranks on friends.
His first success was a video in which he took four hours to count to 100,000. As his following grew, MrBeast moved into the giveaways that have become his trademark.
She started small, giving away cash prizes to members of her community, but quickly gained momentum and by 2018 was donating $100,000 worth of goods to a homeless shelter.
Since then, he has repeated the dose to an Uber driver, a waitress and people in parking lots.
In one video, he dropped $20,000 from a drone and gave a pizza guy the house he delivered to as a tip.
Steffie Solomon, a comedian who worked remotely on MrBeast’s TikTok channel in 2022, admitted that coming up with ideas that justify such large budgets can be a challenge.
But the YouTube sensation has also expanded to grow its brand and diversify its revenue: launching burger and chocolate brands, as well as apps and video game tournaments, and its Feastables chocolate will contribute to 70 percent of its revenue in 2023.
However, these companies, along with their philanthropic videos, have sometimes drawn criticism.
His burger company, MrBeast Burger, was criticized for serving raw meat and cold fries, prompting the front man to sue the ghost kitchen he hired for reputational damage.
But Virtual Dining Concepts responded by accusing the lawsuit of being “riddled with false statements” as well as “a thinly veiled attempt to distract” from alleged breaches of agreements between the two parties.
Amid the scandal, the YouTuber’s burger business ended in July 2023.
The previous January, he also came under fire after posting a video showing dozens of people in the U.S. and around the world whose severe cataracts he had removed with the help of a nonprofit eye care organization.
Some questioned whether he was being click-friendly, but the doctor who performed the surgery said many patients had benefited.
Similarly, he was criticized online for giving a new car to a young waitress; Critics alleged that the gesture was a blatant publicity attempt, as the Toyota was adorned with logos from its Feastables brand.
MrBeast’s Feastables chocolate brand reportedly accounted for 70 percent of its revenue in 2023.
Former employees have alleged that the YouTuber’s empire has a lax attitude toward safety standards or maintaining a healthy work culture.
MrBeast explained his generosity in a 2018 video.
“I really enjoy helping people,” he said, “it’s something I’ve struggled with, I’m a good guy.” I don’t know why, and I’m not just saying this to look good, I’ve always been a very nice guy.
A less easily explained area of criticism has to do with work culture when the cameras are not rolling.
In 2021, The New York Times He spoke to 11 people who worked for the YouTuber and said his “behavior changed when the cameras were not around” and described “a difficult work environment.”
Matt Turner, the internet icon’s editor in 2018 and 2019, said he was reprimanded almost daily and posted a video explaining the allegations.
He also wrote in a now-deleted Twitter thread that “MrBeast yelled at him, bullied him… and called him replaceable every day.”
Nate Anderson, who worked for MrBeast for just a week, also alleged that the YouTuber was a perfectionist who made unreasonable demands.
Gareth Boyd believes such accusations could be particularly damaging to Donaldson’s business model, saying it has been based on an impression of sympathy.
However, a MrBeast spokesperson said “safety is incredibly important and taken very seriously.”
Burger company MrBeast also took the star into hot water as customers claimed they were being served raw meat and cold fries. The project ended in July 2023.
“His personal brand is that he’s an average guy who reinvests his money and does it for fun,” Boyd said.
“He doesn’t drive a Lamborghini, he gives them away.
“But as he becomes more and more popular in the smaller inner circle he has (he’s still surrounded by childhood friends), there will be some who will eventually leave and leak stories and at some point the inside accounts will come to light. “.
Similarly, TIME reportedly spoke to a dozen former employees who spoke of a lax attitude toward safety standards or maintaining a healthy work culture, and one of them believed they were fired for raising concerns.
However, a MrBeast spokesperson told the outlet that the company has never let anyone go due to safety concerns.
They added that “safety is incredibly important and taken very seriously,” and on each set there are doctors and “experienced professionals tailored to production needs,” stating that the company is OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) compliant.