MrBeast

MrBeast (Jimmy Donaldson) is an American YouTuber, Internet personality, and digital creator.

MrBeast was born on May 7, 1998, in Wichita, Kansas. His older brother, CJ Donaldson, is also a social media content creator.

Although he was born in Kansas, MrBeast grew up in Greenville, North Carolina. At the age of thirteen, he started his YouTube channel, MrBeast6000, with a 240-subscriber count. He began by posting video games focused primarily on Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 and Minecraft.

MrBeast graduated from Greenville Christian Academy, a private high school in his childhood town. In 2016, he attended college for two weeks but dropped out to dedicate his time to growing his YouTube channel.

In January 2017, MrBeast posted a nearly twenty-four-hour-long video of himself counting to 100,000. In anticipation of reaching one million subscribers, he uploaded another video, counting to 200,000, the following month. MrBeast reached the 1 million subscribers milestone in May 2017. During this period, he gained popularity by participating in stunts like trying to break glass with megaphones and attempting to stay underwater for twenty-four hours.

MrBeast became one of the most subscribed-to YouTubers but was eventually dethroned by T-Series, the official YouTube channel of an Indian media company. In 2020, he was one of the most-viewed content creators on the internet. By 2021, MrBeast had more than 53 million YouTube subscribers.

Forbes ranked MrBeast as the highest-paid YouTube star in early 2022. In October of the same year, he announced that he was seeking investors to expand his YouTube business and start a venture in the food industry.

One of MrBeast's most popular videos

In 2017, MrBeast received his first sponsorship deal as he started gaining popularity on YouTube. The deal was for $10,000, but part of the agreement with the sponsor was that MrBeast could give away all of the money. He continues to donate money and make videos based on philanthropic stunts for his YouTube channel. He has donated money to other Twitch streamers and random children streaming Fortnite, and he donated a home to an unhoused person.

MrBeast also started a 501(c)3 (nonprofit) organization called Beast Philanthropy, which has the stated goal of using social media platforms to raise funds for philanthropic efforts, such as those to alleviate hunger, the challenges that come with being unhoused, and unemployment.

MrBeast has also been known for distributing his wealth in various investing opportunities. He holds a reported $2 million worth of Bitcoin and invested in several non-fungible token (NFT) collections, such as Cryptopunks. He is also a minority owner of the investment fund Creative Juice, which invests in creators who have the potential for a large audience.

MrBeast appears to have a venture capital studio named Beast Investments, LLC, which has invested in sectors such as ghost kitchens.