Inside MrBeast’s Rise to Fame as YouTube’s Highest Paid Creator

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Jimmy Donaldson, more popularly known as MrBeast, is one of the most-followed online personalities to date –– but his success didn’t happen overnight.

Donaldson, 26, grew up in Greenville, North Carolina, and started posting videos on YouTube at age 13 from his mom’s house in early 2012 as MrBeast6000. The page mainly consisted of Minecraft and Call of Duty let’s play videos and did not gain much traction until 2015 and 2016 when the account garnered around 30,000 subscribers due to a series titled Worst Intros, which ridiculed other YouTube video introductions.

Despite his mom’s insistence on attending college, Donaldson decided to drop out to make videos more seriously, which prompted his mother to kick him out of their family home.

The YouTuber remembered his obsession with making viral videos in a podcast interview on the Colin and Samir podcast in 2021 and said, “That’s all I ever talked about at school. I thought I was a freak of nature. People would tell me, ‘All you do is talk about YouTube videos. You’re too obsessed with YouTube. Get a life.'”

His dedication seemingly paid off when a video of himself counting to 100,000 went viral in 2017. Donaldson’s popularity grew exponentially after the release of that breakthrough video, and the same went for the concepts of the videos that came after. The content on his page regularly featured charity stunts like giving away cash, cars, houses, and even paying for people’s medical procedures. By the end of 2018, MrBeast had given away a total of $1 million through his videos, earning him the title of “YouTube’s biggest philanthropist.”

As the channel grew, Donaldson hired his friends Chandler Hallow, Ava Kris Tyson (formerly known as Chris Tyson), Jake Franklin, and Garrett Ronalds to help with the videos and content creation. The new hires appeared regularly in videos and often competed for prizes themselves.

In the following years, Donaldson solidified himself as a mainstream YouTuber with bigger videos and giving away more money. In 2019, he organized and filmed a real-life battle royale competition in Los Angeles with prizes that totaled $200,000. One video, titled “I Opened A FREE BANK,” published in November of the same year, prompted viewers to accuse Donaldson of using counterfeit money in his videos. He later explained that the money in the clips is fake, but the checks the winners receive afterward are real.

Donaldson’s content went viral several times after 2019, including the real-life recreation of Squid Game with a $456,000 prize for the winner in 2021. In January 2022, Forbes ranked Donaldson as the highest-earning creator, with an estimated $54 million in 2021.

In July 2022, Donaldson became the second individual YouTuber with a channel surpassing 100 million subscribers, and in November of the same year, he broke the Guinness record for “Most Subscribers for an Individual Male on YouTube” with 112 million subscribers. One year later, in November 2023, his channel surpassed the 200 million mark.

On June 2, 2024, the YouTube channel officially dethroned T-Series, the India-based film production company and music label, as the most-subscribed channel on the platform, with 267 million subscribers. Donaldson uploaded a 300 million subscriber special video on July 13 of the same year, titled “50 YouTubers Fight for $1,000,000,” and it became his channel’s most-viewed video within 24 hours.

Despite being well-loved by his fans for most of his career, their opinions seem to be shifting after a 2017 video of him using homophobic and racist slurs recently resurfaced. This prompted the online personality to issue an apology in August 2024, in which his rep told Variety, “When Jimmy was a teenager he acted like many kids and used inappropriate language while trying to be funny. Over the years he has repeatedly apologized and has learned that increasing influence comes with increased responsibility to be more aware and more sensitive to the power of language.” He also added that, “After making some bad jokes and other mistakes when he was younger, as an adult he has focused on engaging with the MrBeast community to work together on making a positive impact around the world.”

The video and apology comes after Ava Kris Tyson, one of Donaldson’s friends and frequent collaborators, cut ties with the YouTube channel after being accused of grooming a teenager. Donaldson made a statement about the accusations on X (formerly known as Twitter) on July 24, 2024, that said, “Over the last few days, I’ve become aware of the serious allegations of Ava Tyson’s behavior online and I am disgusted and opposed to such unacceptable acts.” In the statement he later explains that he is focused on hiring an independent third party to investigate the accusations. Donaldson also mentions that he has “taken immediate action to remove Ava from the company, my channel, and any association with MrBeast.

Talk surrounding the accusations was reignited on October 27, 2024, after YouTuber Rosanna Pansino shared a video of allegedly inappropriate text conversations between Donaldson and his employees, including Tyson. Pansino later announced that she had reported her findings and concerns to the FBI in hopes that they “will look into these MrBeast Telegram Company Chats Logs and other concerns,” in a post on X.

Donaldson has not made a comment on Pansino’s video and her cooperation with the FBI yet.