Youtubers Life 2 Afk Tournament

[Chloe Sarnoff]

JamesStephen "Jimmy" Donaldson[a] (born May 7, 1998), better known by his online alias MrBeast, is an American YouTuber, entrepreneur, and philanthropist. He is known for his fast-paced and high-production videos featuring elaborate challenges and lucrative giveaways.[11] With over 306 million subscribers, he has the most-subscribed channel on YouTube. He is also the third most-followed creator on TikTok, with over 103 million followers.

Donaldson grew up in Greenville, North Carolina. He began posting videos to YouTube in early 2012[12] under the handle MrBeast6000. His early content ranged from Let's Plays to "videos estimating the wealth of other YouTubers".[13] He went viral in 2017 after his "counting to 100,000" video earned tens of thousands of views in just a few days, and he has become increasingly popular ever since, with most of his videos gaining hundreds of millions of views.[13] His videos have become increasingly grand and extravagant.[14] Once his channel took off, Donaldson hired some of his childhood friends to co-run the brand. As of 2024, the MrBeast team consists of over 250 people.[15] Donaldson also runs the YouTube channels Beast Reacts, MrBeast Gaming, MrBeast 2 (formerly MrBeast Shorts)[16] and the philanthropy channel Beast Philanthropy.[17][18] He formerly ran MrBeast 3 (initially MrBeast 2), which is now inactive.[19][20]

Donaldson is the founder of MrBeast Burger, Feastables, and also a co-creator of Team Trees, a fundraiser for the Arbor Day Foundation that has raised over $24,000,000 for its campaigns.[21][22] He also co-founded Team Seas, a fundraiser for Ocean Conservancy and The Ocean Cleanup that has raised over $30,000,000.[23] Donaldson won the Creator of the Year award four years in a row at the Streamy Awards in 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023; he also won the Favorite Male Creator award three times at the 2022, 2023, and 2024 Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards. In 2023, Time named him as one of the world's 100 most influential people.[24] He has ranked on the Forbes list for the highest paid YouTube creator in 2022[25] and has an estimated net worth of $500 million.[26]

James Stephen Donaldson[a] was born on May 7, 1998,[27] in Wichita, Kansas,[28] as the son of Sue Donaldson.[29] He was mainly raised in Greenville, North Carolina.[30][31] He moved often and was under the care of au pairs due to his parents working long hours and serving in the military. His parents divorced in 2007.[30] In 2016, Donaldson graduated from Greenville Christian Academy, a small private evangelical Christian high school in the area. He briefly attended East Carolina University before dropping out.[32][33] Whilst at Greenville, Donaldson played as an outfielder in baseball for a number of years.[34] After dropping out, Donaldson and his friends tried to analyze YouTube's recommendation algorithm and sought to deduce how to create viral videos.[35] Donaldson recalled during this time, "There's a five-year point in my life where I was just relentlessly, unhealthily obsessed with studying virality, studying the YouTube algorithm. I woke up. I would Uber Eats food. And then I would sit on my computer all day just studying shit nonstop with [other YouTubers]."[36]

Donaldson uploaded his first YouTube video in February 2012, at the age of 13, under the name of "MrBeast6000".[37] His early content ranged from Let's Plays, mainly focused on Minecraft and Call of Duty: Black Ops II,[37] videos estimating the wealth of other YouTubers,[38] videos that offered tips to upcoming YouTube creators and commentary on YouTube drama. Donaldson appeared infrequently in these videos.[37]

In 2015 and 2016, Donaldson began to gain popularity with his "Worst Intros on YouTube" series poking fun at YouTube video introductions.[37] By mid-2016, Donaldson had around 30,000 subscribers. In fall 2016, Donaldson dropped out of East Carolina University to pursue a full-time career as a YouTuber.[13][38] His mother did not approve of this and made him move out of the family home.[32]

In January 2017, Jimmy Donaldson published an almost day-long video of himself counting to 100,000, which became his breakthrough viral video.[14] The ordeal took him 40 hours, with some parts sped up to "keep it under 24 hours."[42] Donaldson gained popularity during this period with stunts, such as attempting to break glass using a hundred megaphones, watching paint dry for an hour,[33] attempting to stay underwater for 24 hours, which ended up failing due to health issues, and an unsuccessful attempt to spin a fidget spinner for a day.[43] By 2018, Donaldson had given out $1 million through his outlandish stunts, which earned him the title of "YouTube's biggest philanthropist".[32]

During the PewDiePie vs T-Series rivalry in 2018, a competition to become the most-subscribed channel on YouTube, Donaldson bought billboards and numerous television and radio advertisements to help PewDiePie gain more subscribers than T-Series.[44][45] During Super Bowl LIII, he bought multiple seats for himself and his team, whose shirts spelled out "Sub 2 PewDiePie."[46][47]

In March 2019, Donaldson organized and filmed a real-life battle royale competition in Los Angeles with a prize of $200,000 (two games were played, making game earnings of $100,000 for each game) in collaboration with Apex Legends.[48] The event and prize pool was sponsored by Apex Legends publisher Electronic Arts.[49]

Donaldson was accused of using counterfeit money in his video titled "I Opened A FREE BANK", published on November 23, 2019.[32] He later explained that he used fake money to avoid participant safety concerns and that participants received real checks after the shoot.[32]

In April 2020, Donaldson created a rock, paper, scissors competition stream that featured 32 influencers and a grand prize of $250,000, which at the time became YouTube's most-watched live Original event with 662,000 concurrent viewers.[50] The event was won by Nadeshot.[51] In October 2020, Donaldson hosted another influencer tournament, this time trivia, featuring 24 competitors with a grand prize of $300,000. The tournament was won by siblings Charli and Dixie D'Amelio, which caused controversy due to claims that they cheated.[52]

On January 1, 2021, Donaldson released the video "Youtube Rewind 2020, Thank God It's Over".[53] In Donaldson's video, he explains that he had always believed that YouTubers "should get more say in Rewind", and with this in mind, he decided to call "hundreds of YouTubers".[53] At the end of the video, Donaldson gives a shout-out to PewDiePie, citing him and his 2018 Rewind as the inspiration for Donaldson's Rewind.[53] A month later, Donaldson signed a Facebook and Snapchat content distribution deal with Jellysmack.[54][55]

During a Clubhouse room in February 2021, Donaldson booted entrepreneur Farokh Sarmad after he allegedly said he could not pronounce his name, a move that Sarmad later said was racist. Sarmad's claims were questioned and denied by other Clubhouse users, who were present at the call who argued against Sarmad's claims, claiming that Donaldson removed him along with others to make room for women to be more inclusive.[56][57]

In November 2021, Donaldson uploaded "$456,000 Squid Game in Real Life!", a recreation of the survival drama streaming television series Squid Game in real life. The video had 456 people compete for a $456,000 cash prize.[58] The video was one of the most-watched YouTube videos of 2021, receiving over 130 million views within a week.[59] A review of the video in Vice argued that it "badly misunderstood the anti-capitalist message of Squid Game".[60] Despite this, Squid Game creator Hwang Dong-hyuk has reacted positively to recreations and parodies of the series.[61]

In December 2021, Donaldson created a third influencer tournament featuring 15 competitors with a grand prize of $1,000,000.[62][63][64] In January 2022, Forbes ranked Donaldson as YouTube's highest-earning creator, earning an estimated $54 million in 2021. Forbes stated that his income in 2021 would have placed him 40th in the 2020 Forbes Celebrity 100, earning as much money as Vin Diesel and Lewis Hamilton did in 2020.[65][66]

On July 28, 2022, Donaldson surpassed 100 million subscribers on his main channel, making him the fifth channel and the second individual YouTuber to achieve the milestone.[67][68] On November 17, 2022, Donaldson achieved the Guinness World Record of "Most Subscribers for an Individual Male on YouTube" with his MrBeast channel at 112,193,139 subscribers.[69] The previous record holder, PewDiePie, had held the record as the most subscribed YouTuber for almost ten years.[70] Donaldson achieved one billion video views over a period of 30 days on his main YouTube channel in November 2022.[71] On October 15, 2023, Donaldson surpassed 200 million subscribers.[72] His YouTube Shorts video "Would You Fly to Paris for a Baguette?" is the most watched video on his main YouTube channel, having more than 1.3 billion views and 50 million likes as of January 2024.[73]

On June 2, 2024, Donaldson surpassed Indian-based music label and film production company T-Series in subscribers for the title of the most subscribed channel on YouTube, at 267 million.[74] On July 10, 2024, Donaldson became the first YouTuber to surpass 300 million subscribers.[75] On July 13, 2024, Donaldson uploaded his 300 million subscribers special, "50 YouTubers Fight For $1,000,000". The video featured guest appearances from Howie Mandel, Miranda Cosgrove, and Joey Chestnut.[76] This video reached 71 million views in the first 24 hours, becoming Donaldson's most-viewed video within its first 24 hours.[77]

On July 24, 2024, Donaldson removed Tyson from the MrBeast brand after allegations of inappropriate misconduct with a minor were made by various third-party YouTubers. However, Tyson put out her own statement, saying she willingly stepped away and that her decision to leave was mutual.[78][79] The alleged victim has denied being groomed, referring to it as "massive lies and twisting the truth" and saying that Tyson had only "made a few edgy jokes".[80][81] However, they later changed their mind in another statement, saying that, "These conversations should not have happened with people at the age I was at the time", and that "I was a minor in this situation [...] I did not see this as wrong at the time."[82] Donaldson released a statement saying he was "disgusted and opposed to such unacceptable acts" as had been alleged, and was hiring an independent investigator.[83]

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