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MrBeast, aka Jimmy Donaldson, has grown his YouTube following to 240 million. Here’s how he did it.
Jeff Cheatham/HCK2
MrBeast is one of the most-viewed YouTubers thanks to his attention-grabbing stunts.
He earns between $600 to $700 million a year but still doesn’t consider himself wealthy.
See how the 25-year-old leveraged his fame into a globally recognized brand.
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At 25 years old, Jimmy Donaldson, also known as MrBeast, is one of YouTube’s most-viewed and highest-paid creators.
His early viral videos included challenging feats — from reading every word in the dictionary to counting from zero to 100,000 for 40 straight hours — and his ambitious challenges and money giveaways, like “curing” 1,000 people’s blindness, have helped him grow his channel to roughly 240 million subscribers: the most in YouTube’s history.
Check out how MrBeast rose to fame:
MrBeast was born as Jimmy Donaldson on May 7, 1998.
Greenville, North Carolina.
Hi-Tech Hikers/YouTube
The YouTube star and his brother, CJ, grew up in eastern North Carolina in the city of Greenville. In 2016, he graduated from Greenville Christian Academy, a private high school in the area, according to Business North Carolina.
Donaldson uploaded his first YouTube in February 2012, when he was just 13 years old.
MrBeast in a video in 2015.
MrBeast/YouTube
The teenager began his YouTube career posting videos under the username “MrBeast6000,” according to Newsweek. For the first few years, Donaldson attempted, unsuccessfully, to master the YouTube algorithm by creating the content he thought would attract the largest audience.
As MrBeast attempted to game YouTube’s algorithm.
MrBeast playing “Call of Duty” on his channel in 2014.
MrBeast/YouTube
The aspiring YouTuber went through stages of trends on his channel: funny compilations of playing “Minecraft” and “Call of Duty,” estimating YouTubers’ wealth, offering tips and tricks to aspiring creators, and commentating on YouTuber drama, Newsweek reported. MrBeast himself made very few appearances in his videos in the early days.
MrBeast 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 he discovered on the platform.
MrBeast was on track to YouTube fame in the mid 2010s.
MrBeast/YouTube
By mid-2016, MrBeast hit 30,000 subscribers.
In late 2016, MrBeast enrolled in college.
…but that didn’t last long.
MrBeast/YouTube
The YouTuber said he lasted only two weeks before he dropped out, telling his mom: “I’d rather be poor than do anything besides YouTube,” according to a post on X. His mom made him move out of his childhood home North Carolina at 18 because “she loves me and just wanted me to be successful,” MrBeast later in a post on X.
MrBeast first went viral in January 2017, when he uploaded a video showing himself counting to 100,000 — which he later revealed took him 44 hours.
Dropping out of college fueled MrBeast’s ambitions to become successful.
MrBeast/YouTube
“I just really wanted it,” MrBeast later said about the challenge, according to a video on Casey Neistat’s YouTube channel. “I had dropped out of college, I wasn’t really making much. I knew it would go viral.”
After that first video went viral, MrBeast found what the YouTube algorithm liked.
By 2017 MrBeast was at the 1 million mark.
Casey Neistat/YouTube
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, according to a post on X.
Now, MrBeast has a few types of videos that serve as his bread-and-butter on his channel.
MrBeast, left, watching over a challenge competing for $1 million.
MrBeast/YouTube
He still puts on exhausting, hours-long stunts — which have been referred to as “junklord YouTube” — as well as last-person-to-leave challenges in which he gives out thousands of dollars, The Verge reported. These videos’ titles range from “Going Through the Same Drive Thru 1,000 Times” to “Last To Remove Hand, Gets Lamborghini Challenge.”
MrBeast also puts on attention-grabbing donations and charity stunts.
MrBeast donating $10,000 to a Twitch streamer with 0 views.
MrBeast/YouTube
He once opened up a car dealership where he gave out cars for free, and is known to dole out thousands of dollars to small streamers on Twitch and YouTube, as well as to waitresses and Uber drivers in person.
As Donaldson has grown his channel, he was able to hire four of his childhood friends — Chris, Chandler, Garret, and Jake — to work for him and his YouTube channel.
MrBeast and his college crew often appear on his YouTube channel.
MrBeast/YouTube
The group often makes cameos in some of MrBeast’s wildest last-person-to-leave challenges, and each one has become an iconic name in the MrBeast empire, according to Newsweek.
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