MrBeast
- First Name
- James Stephen “Jimmy”
- Last Name
- Donaldson
- Additional Name
- MrBeast, MrBeast6000
- Date of Birth
- May 7, 1998
- Place of Birth
- Wichita, Kansas
- Occupation
- YouTuber
- Notable Awards
- Streamy Awards – Creator of the Year, Forbes 30 Under 30
When Jimmy Donaldson first started posting YouTube videos at the age of 11, he wasn’t sure what type of content would stick. But after throwing every type of entertainment at the wall, like Minecraft and Call of Duty playthroughs, gaming commentary, and a YouTube smorgasbord of opinion videos, he found his niche: viral money stunts. By offering real people (and, these days, his fellow content creators) gobstopping amounts of money to complete seemingly random tasks, he built a massive following, becoming the first person to reach 300 million subscribers on YouTube in July 2024. “I want to be the biggest YouTube channel ever,” he told Rolling Stone in 2022. “I just want it. It just gives me something to strive for, to get out of bed and grind for.”
With the most-subscribed channel on the platform and at least four successful offshoot channels, Donaldson has become the blueprint for how the attention economy works on a large scale. But this fame, and multi-million dollar video empire, hasn’t come without any backlash.
Accusations of using philanthropic stunts to pad his own pockets have followed Donaldson for years. And in 2024, the creator was also accused by multiple contestants competing in his branded reality series of having ill-prepared and dangerous on-set conditions. His company has said they are reviewing their policies. — CT Jones