James Stephen “Jimmy” Donaldson also known as MrBeast is an American YouTuber, online personality, and entrepreneur born on May 7, 1998. He’s known for his fast-paced exciting videos filled with crazy challenges and huge giveaways. He’s got over 277 million people subscribed to his channel making him the most popular YouTuber out there.
Growing up in Greenville North Carolina MrBeast started making videos for YouTube back in 2012 when he was just 13 years old. He used to go by the name MrBeast6000. His early videos were all sorts of stuff from playing games to making videos where he guessed how much money other YouTubers had.
In 2017, he became a sensation when one of his videos where he counted 100000 went viral racking up tons of views in just a few days. Since then his popularity has only skyrocketed with most of his videos getting tens of millions of views. As his channel grew he brought in some of his childhood friends to help run things. Now as of 2023, he’s got a team of over 250 people working with him.
Aside from his main channel MrBeast also runs a bunch of other YouTube channels like Beast Reacts MrBeast Gaming and Beast Philanthropy where he focuses on giving back to the community. He’s also the brains behind MrBeast Burger and Feastables. Plus he’s one of the creators behind Team Trees which raises money for planting trees and Team Seas which helps clean up the ocean. Together these campaigns have raised millions of dollars for their causes.
MrBeast has won some big awards too like the Creator of the Year at the Streamy Awards for four years straight and the Favorite Male Creator at the Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Awards twice. In 2023, Time magazine even named him one of the most influential people in the world.
| Full Name | Jimmy Donaldson |
| Date of Birth | May 7, 1998 |
| Place of Birth | Wichita, Kansas, U.S. |
| Occupation | YouTuber, Philanthropist |
| Height | 6 ft 3 in (1.91 m) |
| Partners | Maddy Spidell (2019–2022) Thea Booysen (2022–present) |
| Children | None |
| Net Worth | $100 million |
MrBeast Early Life and Education
James Stephen Donaldson was born in Wichita Kansas on May 7, 1998, to Sue Donaldson. He grew up mostly in Greenville North Carolina. Because his parents worked long hours and served in the military he moved around a lot and often had au pairs taking care of him. His parents split up in 2007.
He graduated from Greenville Christian Academy a small private Christian high school in 2016. He briefly went to East Carolina University but ended up leaving. During his time at Greenville, he played baseball as an outfielder.
After leaving college Donaldson and his friends tried to figure out how YouTube’s recommendation system worked and how to make videos that would go viral. He was obsessed with studying how things went viral and the YouTube algorithm for about five years. He spent a lot of time online with other YouTubers studying and discussing strategies. He even ordered food with Uber Eats so he wouldn’t have to leave his computer.
Career
Donaldson started his YouTube journey in 2012 at the age of 13 going by the name “MrBeast6000”. At first, he made videos about gaming and YouTuber gossip. Then he gained traction with a series making fun of bad YouTube intros.
By 2016, he decided to go all in on YouTube leaving college and moving out after his mom wasn’t on board. As his channel grew he brought on some childhood pals to help out. Over time they’ve changed with some leaving and new faces joining in.
His big break came in 2017 with a crazy video where he counted to 100000. From there he did all sorts of wild stuff like trying to break glass with megaphones and sitting through long boring tasks. He even got into some big YouTube showdowns backing PewDiePie against T-Series.
He’s not just about fun and games though; he’s done some good too. Like hosting a huge real-life game competition with a big cash prize. But sometimes things don’t go smoothly like when he got called out for using fake money in one of his videos.
His fame kept growing with him hosting big events like a rock-paper-scissors tournament that broke records for YouTube live viewers. But not everything’s been smooth sailing like when some accused the winners of cheating.
He’s not just a YouTube star anymore; he’s a mainstream name. He even took a stab at fixing YouTube’s yearly “Rewind” video. And he’s not just sticking to YouTube; he’s branching out to other platforms too.
But fame isn’t all sunshine and rainbows. He faced accusations of being racist for removing someone from a chat room though others defended him saying he was just trying to make space for more diverse voices.
One of his biggest hits was a real-life version of the show Squid Game with a huge cash prize. It got millions of views but some critics said it missed the point of the original show.
He’s not just about fun and games; he’s got serious cash too. Forbes named him YouTube’s top earner pulling in millions in 2021 alone. And he’s broken records left and right becoming one of the biggest names on the platform.
In June 2024, he hit a major milestone becoming the most-subscribed channel on YouTube beating out T-Series with a whopping 267 million subscribers.
YouTube Empire
MrBeast mostly made videos like Let’s Plays “best and worst” compilations and gave his thoughts on YouTube. Now he focuses on three main types of videos:
- Stunt Videos: These are where Donaldson or others do cool tricky or risky challenges.
- Junklord Videos: Here Donaldson uses a ton of one thing weirdly or spends a lot on it.
- Giveaway Videos: In these Donaldson gives away big cash or awesome prizes often with a competition.
To get his videos seen by more people Donaldson plays the YouTube game. He works on making titles topics and thumbnails that make folks want to click. He says for a video to go viral it has to be new creative and something folks gotta see. His titles promise wild stunts and use buzzwords like “24-hour” and “challenge.” His thumbnails are clear and colorful to grab attention.
To keep folks watching Donaldson plans his videos to keep you hooked from start to finish. They’re usually 10–20 minutes long. He starts by explaining what’s up in under 30 seconds then promises a big finish to keep you interested.
Donaldson’s money mostly comes from ads on his videos and sponsors. He’s said to drop about $1 million on each video even though they often don’t make him money back. He’s more focused on growing his channel than making cash saying he wants to keep pushing the limits. He also gets cash from sponsorships and other YouTube channels he runs which cost less to make but bring in more cash.
He’s got a big team of over 250 folks working for him including writers editors and producers. Lots of them are friends or family. Some former employees say working for him was tough. They claim he yelled at them and didn’t give them credit for their work. Donaldson denies this saying his standards are high but it’s not a bad place to work.
So while MrBeast’s videos might be all about giving away cash behind the scenes it’s not always smooth sailing.
Other ventures
In June 2020 Jimmy Donaldson working with an art group called MSCHF launched a game called Finger on the App. It’s a multiplayer game where players keep their fingers on their phone screens and the last one to take it off wins $25000. Eventually, four winners got $20000 each for holding on for over 70 hours. The game was super popular so they planned a sequel for December 2020 but had to delay it to February and then March 2021 due to too many people trying to play it at once which caused the game to crash. This time the prize was bumped up to $100000 and the winner lasted about 51 hours with the second-place player getting $20000.
Later in November 2020, a guy named Will Hyde who works with Jimmy Donaldson’s channel spilled the beans that they were creating a virtual restaurant called MrBeast Burger set to open in December 2020. They teamed up with a company called Virtual Dining Concepts to make this happen. MrBeast Burger would sell the rights to serve their burgers to different restaurants across the U.S. and people could order them online.
In August 2022, Jimmy announced that the first MrBeast Burger restaurant in the U.S. would be in New Jersey’s American Dream Mall near New York City. It opened in September 2022. But then by June 17, 2023, Jimmy wanted to shut down MrBeast Burger because he was worried about the food quality. He blamed a company called Virtual Dining Concepts for not caring enough about the food and only wanting to make more restaurants. He even sued them in July 2023 saying they ruined his reputation and didn’t pay him.
In January 2022, Jimmy launched a new food company called Feastables starting with chocolate bars called “MrBeast Bars”. They launched with a big giveaway of over $1 million in prizes. In June 2022 they made a video where people could win a chocolate factory or $500000. Famous chef Gordon Ramsay even judged the final part of the competition. Feastables made around $10 million in its first few months.
In March 2023, Jimmy asked fans on Twitter to help make Feastables bars look better in stores and offered a $5000 prize for proof. Some people got mad saying he was using his fans for free work. But in January 2024 Jimmy changed the chocolate bar’s recipe to make it even tastier responding to fans’ feedback.
Jimmy also invested in a tech company called Backbone which makes smartphone controllers and in a financial network called Creative Juice which helps content creators. But he got some heat in April 2021 when fans lost money in a cryptocurrency deal he promoted.
In November 2022, Jimmy teamed up with East Carolina University to create a course about making YouTube videos. He also became a judge on Gordon Ramsay’s Food Stars show in May 2023.
Then in September 2023, Jimmy partnered with Samsung making their phones the official cameras for MrBeast’s vlogs.
In 2023, Jimmy launched a free TV channel called Mr. Beast on Roku showing his old YouTube videos with ads.
The big news came in March 2024 when Jimmy announced he was teaming up with Amazon MGM Studios for a reality show called Beast Games with a $5 million prize the biggest ever on TV or streaming.
Philanthropy
In June 2020, Jimmy Donaldson working with an art group called MSCHF launched a game called Finger on the App. It’s a multiplayer game where players keep their fingers on their phone screens and the last one to take it off wins $25000. Eventually, four winners got $20000 each for holding on for over 70 hours. The game was super popular so they planned a sequel for December 2020 but had to delay it to February and then March 2021 due to too many people trying to play it at once which caused the game to crash. This time the prize was bumped up to $100000 and the winner lasted about 51 hours with the second-place player getting $20000.
Later in November 2020, a guy named Will Hyde who works with Jimmy Donaldson’s channel spilled the beans that they were creating a virtual restaurant called MrBeast Burger set to open in December 2020. They teamed up with a company called Virtual Dining Concepts to make this happen. MrBeast Burger would sell the rights to serve their burgers to different restaurants across the U.S. and people could order them online.
In August 2022, Jimmy announced that the first MrBeast Burger restaurant in the U.S. would be in New Jersey’s American Dream Mall near New York City. It opened in September 2022. But then by June 17, 2023, Jimmy wanted to shut down MrBeast Burger because he was worried about the food quality. He blamed a company called Virtual Dining Concepts for not caring enough about the food and only wanting to make more restaurants. He even sued them in July 2023 saying they ruined his reputation and didn’t pay him.
In January 2022, Jimmy launched a new food company called Feastables starting with chocolate bars called “MrBeast Bars”. They launched with a big giveaway of over $1 million in prizes. In June 2022 they made a video where people could win a chocolate factory or $500000. Famous chef Gordon Ramsay even judged the final part of the competition. Feastables made around $10 million in its first few months.
In March 2023, Jimmy asked fans on Twitter to help make Feastables bars look better in stores and offered a $5000 prize for proof. Some people got mad saying he was using his fans for free work. But in January 2024 Jimmy changed the chocolate bar’s recipe to make it even tastier responding to fans’ feedback.
Jimmy also invested in a tech company called Backbone which makes smartphone controllers and in a financial network called Creative Juice which helps content creators. But he got some heat in April 2021 when fans lost money in a cryptocurrency deal he promoted.
In November 2022, Jimmy teamed up with East Carolina University to create a course about making YouTube videos. He also became a judge on Gordon Ramsay’s Food Stars show in May 2023.
Then in September 2023, Jimmy partnered with Samsung making their phones the official cameras for MrBeast’s vlogs.
In 2023 Jimmy launched a free TV channel called Mr. Beast on Roku showing his old YouTube videos with ads.
The big news came in March 2024 when Jimmy announced he was teaming up with Amazon MGM Studios for a reality show called Beast Games with a $5 million prize the biggest ever on TV or streaming.
What Is Mr Beast’s Net Worth?
MrBeast has an estimated net worth of $100 Million, according to Celebrity Net Worth.
Personal life
MrBeast is someone who prefers his own company. He finds it hard to balance socializing because he loves spending time on YouTube and takes his work very seriously. His mom thinks this might be because they’ve moved around a lot and he also has health issues with Crohn’s disease.
He used to date a YouTuber named Maddy Spidell until 2022. Then he started dating a gamer named Thea Booysen in the same year.
In June 2023, Tom was asked to go on a trip to see the Titanic’s wreck underwater but decided not to go. Luckily, he didn’t because the submarine that was going to take them ended up breaking apart in the ocean and everyone on board died.
In an interview in April 2022, Tom said he used to be a devout Christian but now he’s not sure about his beliefs. He thinks it’s wrong for Christians to be against gay people especially since he was taught that when he was young. He’s changed his mind and doesn’t support anti-gay ideas anymore.
There was an article in 2018 that talked about how Tom used to say mean things about gay people online when he was younger. But he’s deleted those tweets now and says he’s grown up and doesn’t talk like that anymore.
When his childhood friend Kris told everyone she was transitioning Tom stood up for her when people were mean about it. He doesn’t think it’s right to be rude to transgender people.
Tom doesn’t talk about politics because he doesn’t want to upset his fans. He once joked on a podcast that maybe in 20 years he might think about being president because he thinks younger people should get a chance to lead the country.
