MrBeast – YouTube’s viral philanthropist

How does MrBeast make money online?

Jimmy Donaldson, popularly known online as MrBeast, is an American YouTuber famous for his extraordinary stunts, philanthropist activities, and comedy-centric videos.

As of this writing, this is his most popular video on YouTube:

He is popular for doing outrageous acts in his videos such as:

• tipping pizza
  delivery guys $10,000
• donating money
  to attractive Twitch streamers
• counting to 100,000 in one video
• stopping a bullet
  with 10,000 pieces of paper, and many others.

MrBeast has several YouTube channels:

1. MrBeast (50+ million subscribers)
2. MrBeast Gaming (13+ million subscribers)
3. Beast Reacts (3.8+ million subscribers)
4. MrBeast Shorts (3+ million subscribers)
5. MrBro (2.9+ million subscribers)
6. MrBeast 2 (1.5+ million subscribers)
7. Beast Philanthropy (450,000+ subscribers)

So how does MrBeast have so much money?

MrBeast makes money in the following ways:

• YouTube ad revenue
• Video sponsors (Quidd, TikTok, CSGO Lotto, etc)
• Selling merchandise (T-shirts, sweatshirts, bags, pants, etc)
• MrBeast Burger, a national “ghost kitchen” brand.

Here’s a video explaining how MrBeast’s burger business works:

MrBeast is also the co-creator of Team Trees, a fundraiser for the Arbor Day Foundation. 

How much money does MrBeast make?

MrBeast makes between $126K to $2 million per month via YouTube ad revenue from his main channel, according to a 2021 estimation from Social Blade.

If we take the midpoint of those figures and assume he makes about $1.06 million per month, that would work out to about $12.7 million per year from YouTube ads on his main channel.

(Again, that’s only the ad revenue from MrBeast’s main YouTube channel. He’s surely earning even more money via ads on his other channels.)

MrBeast also makes money online from other income streams (sponsors, merch, etc.) but the exact amount is unclear.

• Related: 40+ ways to make money playing video games 🎮

How did MrBeast get started?

A 2019 Business Insider article sums up how MrBeast went from zero to hero on YouTube. 

The key insights from that article:

• Jimmy (MrBeast) started his YouTube channel in 2012 when he was only 13 years old under the name ‘MrBeast6000’. 

• His early videos were based around playing Minecraft and Call of Duty, estimating other YouTubers’ net worth, offering tips to creators, and comedy-centric commentary. Here’s his first video on YouTube, from February 2012…

• MrBeast started to gain a following in 2016 with his Worst Intros video series. As of this writing, those videos are no longer on his channel, but it was basically him making fun of bad intros to other YouTube videos.

• In 2016, he enrolled in college but dropped out after two weeks.

• In 2017, one of MrBeast’s videos went viral for the first time. Here it is…

• Since then, MrBeast has been creating videos showcasing attention-grabbing stunts and massive donations.

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What type of online business does MrBeast have?

Jimmy runs a multifaceted online business. 

According to our framework it can be broken down like this:

• Authority (Level 4)
  MrBeast primarily runs an authority business, as evidenced by his massive following on YouTube, as well as other social media platforms.
• Physical Products (Level 4)
  MrBeast sells branded merch online. His “ghost kitchen” burger brand would also fit here.

Follow the links above for more info and examples for each type of business.