After 10 years of Felice Schelberg, better known by his nickname PewDiePie, as the person with the most subscribers on YouTube and becoming the first person to reach 100 million subscribers in 2019, it’s time for the video-sharing platform welcome a new king.
This month, another YouTube creator managed to gain 112 million followers, surpassing PewDiePie.
This is Jimmy Donaldson, owner and lead writer of the MrBeast YouTube channel, who has gained considerable notoriety in recent years for his viral videos in which he performs bizarre dares, as well as those in which he gives away large sums of money to people at case. .
In parallel, MrBeast is also known for his serious charity work.
For example, in 2021 he launched a separate YouTube channel on the topic of philanthropy, which alone has more than 10 million subscribers. Additionally, Donaldson has a licensed charity that acts as a food bank to feed people in need across the United States.
Another of his key projects is aimed at environmental protection.
Together with his colleague Mark Roeber, they have launched a fundraising campaign in support of the TeamTrees organization, whose goal is to plant 20 million trees worldwide, as well as clean up more than 100 thousand tons of plastic and garbage from oceans, rivers and beaches.
The campaign raised more than $24 million, with PewDiePie himself contributing $70,000.
In December 2021, MrBeast won the biggest award at the YouTube Streamy Awards – Creator of the Year, for the second year in a row.
At the ceremony, both MrBeast and TeamSeas were highlighted in a special segment to showcase their work supporting underprivileged people and supporting the environment.
However, what makes him famous and appreciated are his videos. In one of them, he spent 50 hours buried in an underground coffin. In another, he’s offering $10,000 to anyone who dares lie down in a tank full of live snakes.
One of his undisputed most popular videos offers his version of the Netflix series Squid Game, with exact copies of the sets from the show. The winner of the game in the video walked away with $456,000, and on the bright side, no one died during the filming.
However, Jimmy Donaldson doesn’t rely solely on YouTube and invests a large part of his money in side businesses that will grow his company’s portfolio and diversify his sources of income.
So, in addition to his main YouTube channel, MrBeast also runs the Beast Reacts, MrBeast Gaming, and MrBeast Shorts channels, each of which has over 15 million followers. He also owns the talent management company, primarily YouTube content creators, Night Media.
According to Insider, Donaldson generates significant advertising revenue from these channels, which he uses largely to generate new content. He himself says that he invests an average of 7 to 8 million dollars a month in the production of new videos.
MrBeast explains in one of his videos that he works with a team of accountants to figure out how much money he can spend on an episode, and says they often react harshly to his plans.
The takedown of MrBeast’s burger restaurant
In addition to that, in 2020, Donaldson started a food delivery business called MrBeast Burger, which delivers to over 1,000 locations across the US, Canada and the UK. In September of this year, he also opened his first brick-and-mortar MrBeast Burger restaurant in New Jersey.
In January of this year, MrBeast debuted another one of its dessert and snack businesses: Feastables. According to a report from the company itself, in the first months of its existence, it has already generated sales of more than 10 million dollars.
According to analysts, while MrBeast Burger is a much bigger business than Feastables, it is the sweets and similar products that will prove more profitable for Donaldson’s company in a few years, as forecasts for 2022 call for MrBeast Burger to bring its owners $100 million in revenue.
However, the entire empire rests on the solid foundation of fans that Donaldson and his team have built over the years.
So even if YouTube isn’t their biggest earner any time soon, videos will continue to be the backbone of this business empire.
