MrBeast, the hugely popular YouTube maestro of big-money giveaways and offbeat stunts, has hit a new milestone.
On Thursday, July 28, MrBeast’s main YouTube channel surpassed 100 million subscribers (watch his livestreamed reaction here).
In a statement, MrBeast (aka Jimmy Donaldson), said, “100 million means so much. I’ve been making videos since I was 11 years old. This number in a way represents everything I’ve ever done in my life and I’m so grateful to everyone who’s ever watched a video. I hope to do YouTube until the day I die.”
To celebrate the feat, MrBeast plans to release new merchandise via an exclusive shoppable livestream on YouTube. And, according to YouTube, he’ll upload one of his most expensive videos ever on Aug. 4.
The 24-year-old is estimated to be 2021’s highest-earning YouTuber, raking in $54 million last year. Donaldson remains No. 5 on the list of most-subscribed YouTube channels, after T-Series (221 million), Moonbug’s Cocomelon (139 million), SET India (138 million) and PewDiePie (111 million).
MrBeast began uploading videos to YouTube in 2012, gaining mainstream popularity in 2018, when he started regularly posting videos in which he gave away large sums of money — often to total strangers. In 2019 he had the most-liked creator video (titled, naturally, “Make This Video The Most Liked Video On Youtube”). In 2020 he finished the year as the No. 1 most-subscribed creator in the U.S.
Central to Donaldson’s appeal: He has taken the traditional YouTube challenge format and pushed it to new and ridiculous heights, while also regularly launches big charity fundraisers (like the recent the #TeamSeas cleanup fundraiser with YouTuber Mark Rober).
MrBeast’s YouTube empire spans 18 channels including, the main MrBeast, MrBeast Shorts, MrBeast Gaming, Beast Reacts and Beast Philanthropy. All told, he has more than 215 million subscribers and has notched more than 30 billion views to date (with more than 8 billion of these coming in 2022 alone).
Some of MrBeast’s most memorable videos:
From Variety US