Jimmy Donaldson, a.k.a. Mr. Beast, is one of the highest-paid YouTubers on the planet.
Presently, MrBeast’s net worth is valued at around $500 million – and the growth trajectory shows no signs of slowing.
Although he spends around $300,000 producing a single video (and often more), MrBeast makes a minimum of $3 million per month from YouTube ads alone.
The internet star has amassed a tremendous net worth through investments in startups, owning multiple companies, as well as through partnerships and merchandise sales.
In 2021, the YouTuber reported earnings of $54 million, a number that has likely seen a substantial increase since then.
In fact, MrBeast’s net worth is so large that he can afford to buy a neighborhood for his staff to live in and even give his 100,000,000th subscriber a private island!
Forbes has projected that MrBeast will become the first YouTube billionaire. We are yet to see if it happens but for now, but we’re still going to discuss how the multi-millionaire is making his fortune.
How Much is MrBeast Worth in 2024?
- MrBeast, or Jimmy Donaldson, has a net worth of around $500 million, primarily from YouTube ads, merchandise, and investments.
- He spends significant amounts on video production, often over $300,000 per video.
- Key ventures include MrBeast Burger, Feastables, and philanthropic activities like #TeamTrees.
- Known for his unique content and large-scale giveaways, MrBeast has revolutionized YouTube philanthropy.
- He invests heavily in cryptocurrencies, NFTs, and real estate, adding to his wealth.
7 Fun Facts on Mr. Beast
- Early Start on YouTube: MrBeast, real name Jimmy Donaldson, started his YouTube career in 2012 at the age of 13 with the alias MrBeast6000.
- Counting Video Success: His turning point came in 2017 with the video “Counting to 100,000,” which took 44 hours and has been viewed over 21 million times.
- Philanthropic Stunts: MrBeast is known for his large-scale philanthropic stunts, including giving away $1 million in one video and funding surgeries to cure blindness for 1,000 people.
- MrBeast Burger: Launched in December 2020, MrBeast Burger sold over a million burgers and opened a physical location in New Jersey’s American Dream Mall.
- Cryptocurrency Investor: He has invested significant sums in cryptocurrencies and NFTs, reportedly buying 8 CryptoPunks NFTs and selling them at a 20x to 30x profit.
- Charity Work: His charity channel, Beast Philanthropy, has raised millions for various causes, including $3 million for Ukrainian refugees and over $33 million to remove trash from the oceans.
- Ava Kris Tyson Backlash: Mr. Beast was the topic of some recent controversy because a longtime collaborator has stepped down from the team and social media, following allegations of grooming a minor, which she denied.
The Many Controversies of Mr Beast
In 2024, MrBeast, also known as Jimmy Donaldson, has been embroiled in several controversies that have cast a shadow on his otherwise successful career.
The most recent issue with his new food venture, Lunchly, has drawn widespread criticism.
Several consumers, including YouTuber Rosanna Pansino, reported finding mold in the Lunchly products, particularly in the cheese of the pizza meal option. Pansino, leveraging her expertise in food safety, posted a viral video on YouTube showcasing moldy cheese despite the product’s expiration date being two months away.
She raised concerns about the health risks, particularly for children, and criticized the product’s packaging quality. Her findings have led to numerous complaints from other customers, with many sharing similar experiences.
This mold issue comes as a significant blow to MrBeast’s brand, especially in light of the product’s marketing as a healthier alternative to Lunchables. Critics argue that this controversy, combined with other legal battles MrBeast is facing, paints a troubling picture of his business ventures prioritizing profit over quality and consumer safety.
Other Mr. Beast controversies include:
- Lawsuit Related to Beast Games: One of the most significant legal challenges MrBeast faces is a class-action lawsuit related to his Amazon-backed show, Beast Games. Contestants allege poor working conditions, unpaid wages, and even sexual harassment on set. This lawsuit has drawn attention to the potential exploitation within his productions, especially as the show involved over 1,000 participants.
- Ava Kris Tyson Controversy: A longtime collaborator of MrBeast, Ava Kris Tyson, faced allegations of grooming a minor, which caused her to step down from the team. MrBeast responded by announcing an independent investigation into the matter and expressed his disgust at the alleged actions
- Backlash Over Past Behavior: MrBeast has also faced scrutiny for past behavior, including the resurfacing of old videos where he used racially insensitive language and homophobic slurs. While he has apologized, these incidents have sparked further criticism of his brand.
- MrBeast Burger Lawsuit: Additionally, MrBeast is locked in a legal dispute with Virtual Dining Concepts, the company behind MrBeast Burger. The lawsuit accuses MrBeast of failing to uphold his contractual obligations, while MrBeast has countersued, citing poor food quality and damage to his brand.
MrBeast’s Net Worth: Full Breakdown
The estimated $500 million in MrBeast’s net worth isn’t set in stone – much of the necessary information isn’t publicly disclosed. Here is what we know.
MrBeast’s real name is Jimmy Donaldson. He was born on May 7, 1998, in North Carolina and completed his education at Greenville Christian Academy, a private school. After graduation, he enrolled in East Carolina University but dropped out soon after. MrBeast started his YouTube career at an early age. The first of his many YouTube videos was posted on 19 February 2012. At the time, he used the alias MrBeast6000. The video was nothing like you see on his channel today but he started out similarly to many top YouTubers; making Minecraft videos.
Asset
Contribution to Net Worth
2020 Earnings
$24 million from his YouTube channel, sponsorships, and merchandise sales
2021 Earnings
$54 million (including $32 million from ads and $9 million from sponsored content)
Monthly YouTube Ad Revenue
Minimum of $3 million (excluding in-video brand deals)
Merchandise Sales
40% of his annual income
Cryptos and NFTs
$1.5+ million
Car Collection
$500,000+
Real Estate
$2+ million
Total Net Worth
$500 million
MrBeast’s Early Life
However, it wasn’t until he dropped out of college in 2016 that he became a full-time YouTuber.
MrBeast’s Net Worth: How the YouTuber Became a Multi-Millionaire
The American YouTube took a pretty unique route to stardom. These days, he juggles multiple business ventures in addition to being a YouTube sensation. Let’s take a closer look at how he became a mogul on the YouTube platform.
The First Success of MrBeast
Jimmy’s turning point on the YouTube platform was in 2017 after the release of the video “Counting to 100,000”. In the video, the YouTuber spent 44 hours counting to 100,000 – as simple and silly as that.
The video has been viewed more than 21 million times and it encapsulates Donaldson’s style extremely well. He put a ton of effort into a simple concept and the strategy has paid off in droves ever since.
Soon after, he followed up with an ever longer video where he counted to 200,000.
The Progress of MrBeast’s First YouTube Channel
After the counting videos, MrBeast followed up with videos where he:
- Read the dictionary
- Said ‘Logan Paul’ 100,000 times
- Read the ‘Bee Movie’ script
- Ubered across America
- Watched ‘It’s Every Day Bro’ by Jake Paul on repeat for 10 hours
His ideas might have seemed silly, but they were totally one-of-a-kind and pretty entertaining.
Starting with simple video game commentary, he soon transitioned to unforgettable philanthropic stunts on YouTube, pulling in billions of views on his channels.
As a result, he now has several YouTube channels that combine over 320 million subscribers and over 30 billion video views. His channels now feature videos in different languages.
MrBeast’s YouTube Channels
MrBeast now runs several channels on the platform including:
- MrBeast (201 million subscribers)
- Beast Reacts (30.1 million subscribers)
- MrBeast Gaming (39.2 million subscribers)
- MrBeast 2 for Shorts (32.5 million subscribers)
- MrBeast Philanthropy (17.6 million subscribers)
This doesn’t even include his many foreign language channels that simply post the same videos but with dubs of various languages.
According to his social media posts, Jimmy invests the majority of his earnings back into video production. He reportedly spends around $300,000 producing a single video and spends days making sure it’s perfect.
Other Ventures and Income Streams
Even though the bulk of MrBeast’s wealth stems from his YouTube channel, he’s also raking in profits from various other sources. Let’s take a look at other business ventures and investments he’s made over the years.
MrBeast Burger
In December 2020, Jimmy Donaldson launched his MrBeast Burger venture in partnership with Virtual Dining Concepts. Jt seemed to be perfect timing as it was during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Following the release of the app, it quickly became the #1 most popular free app in the App Store.
The idea was for customers to buy burgers through the app and for existing restaurants to prepare the meals, deliver them, and share a part of the profits.
To this day, MrBeast has sold over a million burgers, and in September 2022, he opened a physical location for his brand in the American Dream Mall in New Jersey.
The initial ghost kitchen concept amassed millions in profits with deliveries in over 500 locations across the US. However, in August 2023, MrBeast filed a lawsuit against his partner, the Virtual Dining Concepts company, alleging that the company made low-quality, inedible food.
Beast Investments, his company, is asking for unpaid royalties it claims are still owed, as well as for VDC to stop using the MrBeast brand and image.
VDC recently filed its own lawsuit against Donaldson and his company asking for damages in the nine-figure range. It alleges that MrBeast didn’t deliver on his contractual obligations and failed to publicly support the business, which has caused ‘enormous financial harm’ and destroyed the reputation of MrBeast Burger.
The case is still pending but MrBeast Burger has since been shut down.
Finger on the App
In 2020, MrBeast partnered with MSCHF and launched “Finger on the App”, a one-time multiplayer endurance game with a very simple concept. The idea was to keep your finger on the phone screen in the app, and the last person who takes it off wins $25,000.
The app can still be found in the Apple store and on the official app website. Every time the app drops it is different from the previous one, and if you download the MSCHF app, you can get a notification about future drops. The twist is that the prize pool fluctuates, so it can be anywhere from $1 to $25,000.
Clothing Line
In addition to the ad revenue and sponsorship deals on MrBeast and his other YouTube channels, Donaldson also earns a significant sum from merchandise sales. His merchandise line is sold through mrbeast.store and currently includes t-shirts, hats, hoodies, water bottles, backpacks, mouse pads, and more.
Merchandise sales are one of the top two sources of income in MrBeast’s net worth, accounting for around 40% of his annual earnings.
Feastables
In January 2022, MrBeast started a food company that sells its line of chocolate bars called MrBeast Bars. The company’s name is Feastables.
In April 2023, the business venture was already a success thanks to several sweepstakes, many giveaways, and a few challenges. It then expanded to include a line of “Karl Gummies”, gummy candies made in collaboration with another popular YouTuber and friend Karl Jacobs.
Feastables is a subscription-based drink and snack service that offers organic chocolate bars stocked by Walmart.
Awards
Over the years, MrBeast has been nominated and won several awards.
In 2019, he won Breakout Creator at the Streamy Awards. He was also nominated for the categories Ensemble Cast and Creator of the Year.
The year after, in 2020, MrBeast won four Streamy Awards:
- Creator of the Year
- Social Good: Nonprofit of NGO
- Social Good: Creator
- Live Special
In 2020, he also won The YouTuber of the Year at the Shortly Awards.
In 2021, MrBeast was nominated for the category Favorite Male Social Star at the Kids’ Choice Awards, but didn’t win.
In 2022, he won two awards at Streamy Awards: Brand Engagement and Social Good: Creator.
MrBeast’s Philanthropic Endeavors
Jimmy is a known philanthropist who now has a separate YouTube channel for videos where he helps others.
Stunt Philanthropy
In 2017, MrBeast made a video about donating $10,000 to a homeless man. He got the money as part of a brand deal and decided to give it away.
He then gave his mom $100,000, opened pop-up shops for cheap electronics, and bought his friend a house after destroying his old house. He even bought every car at a dealership and sold them for a few dollars – or for free!
The YouTuber started the now-popular practice of stunt philanthropy. One of his most popular philanthropic YouTube stunt videos featured MrBeast giving $1,000 to strangers. When people saw that he was giving away money, they started actively subscribing to his channel.
At one point, he even gave away $1 million!
In December 2019, MrBeast posted a video where he challenged people to keep their hand on a stack of $1 million. The last person to remove the stack got to keep the million.
Soon enough, Donaldson started turning brand deals into a whole new form of philanthropy, an action that grew his channel significantly.
He has since bettered the lives of thousands if not millions of people through his philanthropy. He paid for eye-surgery to cure 1,000 people’s blindness and recently built over 100 wells across Africa to provide fresh and clean water for schools, hospitals, and entire villages that previously had little or no access to it.
Some people criticize his philanthropic efforts, saying that he only does it to gain views and subscribers but he seems to genuinely care about his various causes. He often donates much or all of the proceeds of his videos to help even more people too.
Charity
MrBeast has also donated tens of millions to charities both in his videos and offline.
He has donated items to homeless shelters, Saint Jude Children’s Research Hospital, the Veterans Army Wounded Warrior Program, an animal shelter in Los Angeles, and many more charities.
- In 2022, MrBeast donated $3 million in aid to Ukranian refugees.
- His #TeamTrees event raised $20 million for tree planting.
- He donated $300,000 to buy students laptops, tablets, and other supplies they needed.
- He raised over $33 million to remove trash from the oceans
All of these actions – and many more – are featured in videos on his YouTube channel Beast Philanthropy (and sometimes on his main channel as well), with over 20 million subscribers
MrBeast’s Other Investments and Assets
While a vast majority of MrBeast’s income goes towards his videos, business ventures, and charities, he is also known to invest in crypto, NFTs, real estate, and cars.
He’s not a big fan of investing in stocks, however, saying:
Cryptocurrencies and NFTs
MrBeast has invested large sums in crypto, reportedly investing $1.5 million into NFTs and Bitcoin. He bought 8 CryptoPunks NFTs and sold them at a 20x to 30x profit.
One of his best partnerships is with XCAD, a company that allows content creators to monetize their content through NFTs. He’s a savvy investor with active involvement in Coinbase and Refinable.
Real Estate
MrBeast has hefty real estate investments, too. He’s continuously invested money into properties to help run his business. For instance, he invested $1.2 million in a private island located in the Bahamas.
In Greenville, North Carolina, where he lives, MrBeast owns office spaces, studios for his employees and his family, warehouses, etc. The exact number and value of these assets are not public.
Despite his riches and real estate holdings, the YouTuber still lives in a two-story home with four bedrooms that he bought for around $320,000 in his hometown.
Car Collection
At one point, MrBeast owned some of the most expensive cars in Greenville. He started parting with some of the cars in his collection, so we aren’t sure which vehicles he still owns.
Some of MrBeast’s cars over the years have been:
- Lamborghini Gallardo estimated at around $151,429 to $214,000
- BMW 3 Series estimated at around $43,445
- Lamborghini Huracan Spyder estimated at around $213,104
- Tesla Model 3 estimated at around $48,400
- Nissan Armada estimated at around $50,745
What Can We Learn From MrBeast’s Success?
MrBeasts’ success over the years imparts several lessons that we can apply in different fields in life. His dedication is second to none in the YouTube space, matching up with his unmatched success.
He likes to say that all you need to do to succeed in life is find something that you love and try as hard as you can to perfect it.
His commitment to creating authentic videos underlines how important this is for success nowadays. He’s living proof that unconventional thinking and innovation can turn your life around in an instant.
Finally, MrBeast’s philanthropic endeavors are a testament to the transformative power of using influence for the greater good.