Youtube sensation MrBeast recreated his own Squid Game tournament in 2021 complete with a $456,000 prize, but how did MrBeast get all of his money?
How MrBeast made his money is a question frequently leveled at the extravagantly generous YouTube personality. Many of MrBeast's biggest donations directly benefit other online streamers and gamers who aren't as successful as him, and this has helped put MrBeast on the map. Also known as Jimmy Donaldson, MrBeast is an internet sensation whose YouTube channel has racked up over 6 billion views since he started his channel in 2012 at the age of 13. 20 years later, MrBeast has a mammoth 95 million subscribers on his main account while MrBeast Gaming, Donaldson's gaming-dedicated channel, has amassed over 27 million subscribers. Donaldson's loyal and still growing fanbase is a critical factor in making him one of the richest YouTubers of all time while still in his 20s. However, when it comes to exactly how MrBeast got his money, many followers remain in the dark.
The giveaway-happy MrBeast first rose to worldwide prominence in 2018, after a video of the YouTube star donating $10,000 to a homeless man went viral. MrBeast has since become synonymous with the aggressive philanthropy he practices, with his generous giveaways and feel-good challenges handing out an eye-watering $1 million in the last two years alone. One of Donaldson's viral stunts of 2021 was a faithful recreation of the Netflix drama sensation Squid Game, in which 456 people compete in a series of Korean childhood games for a grand prize of $456,000.
The question of how MrBeast got his money often crops up in the aftermath of his increasingly generous donations. MrBeast's popularity is a massive factor here, with the YouTube personality earning a high pay-per-1000-views rate from his 90 million on-platform subscribers (across three self-owned channels). Fall Guys favorite MrBeast also receives huge sums from high-profile sponsors looking to advertise on his videos, which coupled with his own wildly successful merch store ensures Donaldson is a very wealthy man indeed.
How MrBeast Got His Money
While MrBeast is best known for his outlandish financial stunts, he had to find the money to drive those stunts first. First starting his YouTube career at 13 in 2012, Jimmy Donaldson built up a range of content over the years and the money made by his early videos enabled him to drop out of college to make YouTube his full-time career before generating enough income to start handing out money. After MrBeast garnered worldwide attention in 2018, MrBeast's worth skyrocketed exponentially over the next two years. His unique brand of online philanthropy instantly attracted a host of wealthy sponsors, including Quidd, CSGO Lotto, Honey, TikTok, and many others in 2021 alone. These prominent brands donate hefty sums to Donaldson for use as he sees fit, with MrBeast stating that he recycles the majority of this funding back into increasingly grandiose giveaways and production costs, as well as his growing self-branded merchandise. In short, MrBeast's biggest charity donations were first enabled by massive sponsorships, and considering Donaldson's still growing popularity, more of such deals could await him in the future.
How Much Money MrBeast Makes In A Year From YouTube
Yet funding is only the tip of the iceberg regarding MrBeast's revenue streams, one of which is YouTube itself. YouTube employs a payment system where an agreed sum is paid per thousand views, with the payment increasing alongside the streamer's popularity. For context, MrBeast's Squid Game recreation video amassed 4,584,856 views in less than two hours after its initial YouTube upload, and it now sits at over 250 million views. Several outlets have previously reported that Donaldson could be earning as much as $40,000 per day from his YouTube content alone, which adds up to a whopping $15 million a year from YouTube payouts.
However, how much money MrBeast makes from YouTube in a year stopped needing to be a point of speculation in early 2022 when it was revealed (via Forbes) that in 2021, MrBeast made $54 million off his various YouTube channels alone. This staggering amount is more than double the YouTube income of the most wealthy YouTuber of 2020 (Ryan Kaji at $29.5 million). MrBeast's Squid Game video in November of 2021 brought him even more attention, capitalizing on the worldwide success of the gripping Korean drama to rake in a staggering number of views. While it's impossible to predict what MrBeast might do next, he's sure to continue making lots of money off YouTube, especially as his various channels continue to amass subscribers and views.
How Rich Is MrBeast?
Much like the origin of his wealth, the answer to how rich is MrBeast is far from straightforward. MrBeast's net worth is on an upward trajectory that shows no signs of slowing. In November 2021, it was estimated that MrBeast was worth as much as $25, with the (now Emmy eligible) YouTube star taking home approximately $3 million per month from his combination of YouTube royalties, sponsorship payments, and merchandise profits. This skyrocketing personal value ensures MrBeast's giveaways and donations will continue to escalate accordingly as his avid YouTube audiences eagerly await Donaldson's next philanthropic stunt.
MrBeast’s Biggest Charity Projects
MrBeast's biggest charity effort to date is called TeamSeas, an ocean cleanup initiative for which MrBeast teamed up with fellow YouTuber Mark Rober to raise $30 million with the goal of removing 30 million pounds of trash from the seas. Prior to the success of TeamSeas, MrBeast donated 1 million meals to families in need during a November 2021 food drive, spending $500,000 and in the process achieving his largest donation milestone to date, surpassing the time he gave away $456,000 in his Squid Game video. Combined with MrBeast's YouTube earnings, the fast growth of his gaming-dedicated channel and his growing influence over multi-million dollar brands that want to support his charity work mean that audiences could soon see a much larger number overtaking MrBeast's most significant donations in the past.
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