YouTuber MrBeast is now officially the only billionaire under 30 who didn't inherit his wealth. At 27, the content creator, whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson, is also the eighth youngest billionaire worldwide, with an estimated $1 billion (Rs 8,350 crore) fortune, according to Celebrity Net Worth.
Journey From Scratch
Born on May 7, 1998, in Greenville, North Carolina, MrBeast began his YouTube journey at 12 under the username "MrBeast6000". After graduating from Greenville Christian Academy in 2016, he briefly attended college but dropped out to focus on content creation full-time.
His early videos featured video game commentary, reaction videos, and funny compilations. In 2017, he first gained major attention with a viral video titled "Counting to 100,000", which took him 44 hours and was viewed over 21 million times. Following that, he created other viral stunts like counting to 200,000, reading the entire dictionary, and bizarre challenges such as watching a music video on repeat for 10 hours.
Rise To Fame
By 2018, MrBeast had mastered what is now known as "stunt philanthropy". That is creating videos that combine eye-catching challenges with giving away large sums of money. One popular video featured him handing out $1,000 to strangers, while later videos saw him giving away hundreds of thousands, even millions of dollars.
In December 2019, he challenged participants to keep their hand on a $1 million cash pile and the last to remove their hand won the money.
Business Expansion
MrBeast is more than just a YouTuber; he's a savvy entrepreneur. His YouTube channels, including MrBeast, MrBeast Gaming, Beast Reacts, and MrBeast Philanthropy, together have over 415 million subscribers.
His main channel alone has 270 million subscribers, making it the most-subscribed YouTube channel in the world.
MrBeast is known for reinvesting nearly all his video earnings back into creating new content. In November 2022, reports revealed he was seeking investors for his business, valuing it at $1.5 billion.
By early 2024, documents from a court case about his MrBeast Burgers business showed his empire generated $223 million in revenue in 2023 and was on track to hit $700 million in 2024. These financial details helped confirm that MrBeast officially became a billionaire in June 2024 at age 26.
Among the 16 billionaires worldwide under 30 at that time, MrBeast is the only one who built his fortune without any inheritance.
How MrBeast Makes His Money
MrBeast's $1 billion net worth is built on a mix of ad revenue, sponsorships, and merchandise sales.
- Ad Revenue: Videos often get tens of millions of views, and with an estimated average CPM (cost per thousand views) of $5, MrBeast earns around $1.4 million from ads monthly, as per reports.
- Sponsorships: He reportedly charges $1 million per month for the main sponsor spot on his primary channel, plus at least another $1 million from sponsors on his other channels.
- Merchandise: Merchandise is a major income source, accounting for roughly half of his $54 million revenue in 2023 - about $2 million monthly.
Combined, these revenue streams brought in about $5.4 million in March alone, averaging roughly $174,000 per day.
In 2023, Time magazine named MrBeast one of the 100 most influential people in the world. The following year, he topped Forbes' list as the highest-paid YouTube creator of 2024, with an estimated net worth of $1 billion (around Rs 8,350 crore).
