Jimmy Donaldson, better known as MrBeast, started posting gaming videos from North Carolina at age 13.
Today, his main YouTube channel has more than 500 million subscribers, making it the most-subscribed channel on the platform.
Major brands such as Google, Salesforce, and Starbucks have partnered with him to reach one of the biggest audiences amassed by a content creator.
Forbes also ranks him first among creators for the fifth consecutive year, with estimated earnings of $300 million.
Investors now value his company, Beast Industries, at around $5 billion.
Our Brand Builder profile looks at how he built his own business model and what marketers can learn from his approach.
MrBeast Counted to 100,000 and Went Viral
Donaldson uploaded his first YouTube video in 2012 at age 13, under the name MrBeast6000.
His early channel covered gaming and commentary before he dropped out of college in late 2016 to make videos full-time.
He went viral in January 2017 with a video of himself counting to 100,000, which allegedly took about 40 hours to film.
As his audience and budget got bigger, his videos became much more extravagant, featuring cash giveaways and large-scale challenges.
He became YouTube's most-subscribed individual creator in November 2022 and passed India's T-Series to lead all channels in June 2024.
On June 12, 2026, he became the first individual creator to pass 500 million subscribers.
This reach makes his videos an efficient vehicle for influencer marketing, putting a product in front of millions of viewers in a single campaign.
Feastables Started on Walmart Shelves
After building a huge YouTube audience, Donaldson began turning his reach into a consumer brand with the launch of Feastables in January 2022.
He developed the chocolate brand with Jim Murray, a former president of protein bar company RXBAR.
The launch borrowed the same concepts from his videos, with prizes hidden in bars and winners invited to compete for $500,000.
Feastables debuted online through its own site and Walmart.com, and Walmart remained its only store partner until 2023.
It has since expanded to other retailers, including Target, Costco, Dollar Tree, and 7-Eleven.
On Lex Fridman's podcast in January 2023, Donaldson said his fame in Walmart aisles helped explain how fast the bars sold.
"We get a hundred million views per video, so a lot of people know us. If I go stand in Walmart, those people would recognize me and ask for photos," MrBeast shared in the interview.
"If I stood there long enough, I could take 150 photos today in Walmart, 200, whatever it is. So obviously, it makes sense those people would go buy Feastables.
But then you multiply that by every Walmart in America, and it just gets so crazy. I didn't think we'd be doing the kind of revenue we are."
Feastables generated about $250 million in sales and more than $20 million in profit in 2024.
Donaldson has said that about 70% of his viewers live outside the U.S., giving the brand a large potential international market.
To meet this demand, the brand also expanded into the U.K. and Australia in 2023.
In August 2026, he expanded the product range through a collaboration with drink brand Liquid Death.
Feastables' sellouts showed how a creator's online fame can drive retail growth when the product launch borrows from games that fans actually watch.
Videos Became His Marketing Budget
In December 2024, MrBeast took his YouTube challenge format to Amazon Prime Video with his reality TV series "Beast Games."
The series featured 1,000 contestants competing for a $5 million prize.
Amazon paid about $100 million for the first season, which became Prime Video's most-viewed unscripted series.
A second season then followed in January 2026.
Despite the show's success, Donaldson said he lost tens of millions of dollars producing its first season.
His main-channel videos averaged $3 million to $4 million each as of March 2025, according to people familiar with the company's financials.
His production team includes about 200 staff who build elaborate sets and travel to locations around the world.
In 2024, his media business, which includes YouTube and "Beast Games," reported roughly $250 million in sales but lost almost $80 million.
Beast Industries CEO Jeff Housenbold describes content and media as "a marketing investment in everything else we do."
The company projected that media would account for only one-fifth of its sales by 2026.
These figures show the videos work as ad spend, and a brand strategy that funds content this way needs products big enough to absorb the losses.
Beast Land Moved His Challenges Offline
In November 2025, MrBeast expanded his challenge-based brand into live entertainment with Beast Land, a pop-up theme park in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
The park ran from November 13 to December 27, 2025, as part of the government-backed Riyadh Season festival.
Saudi officials reported that the park covered more than 188,000 square meters.
Donaldson said he designed the park around games he would want to play, extending the format that helped build his online audience into a physical attraction.
Recognizable concepts can also give brand partners a foundation for connecting with audiences through experiential marketing.
Brands Paid for Access to His Audience
As MrBeast's audience grew, major brands began incorporating his content into their marketing campaigns.
Starbucks sponsored season two of "Beast Games" and added a Cannon Ball Drink, created on set, to its U.S. menu in January 2026.
Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff publicly invited Donaldson to create a Super Bowl ad, and MrBeast later starred in the February 2026 spot.
In September 2026, Google signed him to a multiyear deal to promote Gemini and Google Health.
The partnership's first video sent MrBeast's crew through extreme climates, with Gemini guiding them.
The full episode was posted on YouTube on September 5, and it has since accumulated nearly 130 million views and 1.5 million likes.
In 2025, Lowe's teamed up with MrBeast to build BeastCity for the second season of "Beast Games" and launch a dedicated online storefront.
That same year, Jack Link's announced a co-branded meat snack line and later sponsored the show's second season.
These deals are substantial, with court documents reported by Business Insider showing that Beast Industries had contracted $91 million in brand deals heading into 2025.
These included a reported $15 million deal with T-Mobile for four video promotions and $12.5 million from Amazon for five main-channel ads.
MrBeast’s earning potential also extends across social media.
A new PlayersTime report estimates that he could command $4.6 million per sponsored Instagram post.
The report places him second among the top 10 American celebrity accounts ranked by estimated sponsored-post earnings, behind Zendaya and ahead of Taylor Swift.
It also estimates a 5.18% engagement rate across 89.3 million followers, offering another measure of his audience's engagement.
The Lowe's and Jack Link's deals stand out because each put a product on shelves, giving co-branding a sales record that brands can measure.
Charity and Apologies Built His Audience's Trust
Donaldson has also made charity a central part of his public image through campaigns and nonprofit work.
His campaigns, including TeamTrees and TeamSeas, raised funds for tree planting and ocean cleanup.
His nonprofit, Beast Philanthropy, also supports food banks and disaster relief.
Housenbold calls audience trust a business asset, describing Beast Industries' goal as "monetizing that viewership, that fandom, and that trust we built."
In June 2025, he pulled an AI thumbnail tool from his analytics company, Viewstats, after creators said it mimicked their work.
He further admitted that he had "missed the mark."
Owning the mistake in public is part of why his audience keeps giving him the benefit of the doubt.
His channel added about 100 million subscribers in the year that followed.
In April 2026, a former employee sued Beast Industries over alleged sexual harassment and pregnancy discrimination, which the company denies.
Brands buy into the trust that MrBeast monetizes, but their crisis management plans should also cover controversies that a quick apology can't close.
A CEO and Investors Strengthened the Model
MrBeast hired Housenbold, a venture capitalist, as CEO in 2024 to build a more structured business.
Housenbold expanded the executive team and said he planned to cut about $100 million in costs in 2025.
Alpha Wave had led a $300 million round in 2024 that valued Beast Industries at around $5 billion, up from roughly $1.5 billion months earlier.
Beast Industries lost money three years in a row through 2024, including almost $60 million that year.
In January 2026, crypto investment firm Bitmine invested another $200 million.
Beast Industries has also moved into financial services, acquiring fintech app Step in February 2026 and gaining around 7 million users, mostly Gen Z.
The company has also announced a creator marketplace that will match creators with Fortune 1,000 marketers.
It projected a profit of around $300 million in 2026, based on investor documents.
In April 2026, TIME named Beast Industries to its list of the world's most influential companies.
Bloomberg has also placed it among the most valuable creator-founded businesses, alongside Selena Gomez's Rare Beauty and Kim Kardashian's SKIMS.
Investors are pricing Beast Industries on its products, which shows businesses how to build a brand that outgrows what made the founder famous.
His Success Left Brands Three Lessons
MrBeast studied which video formats attracted viewers on YouTube before making content creation his full-time career.
His straightforward titles tell viewers exactly what to expect.
He studied Feastables the same way, testing hundreds of formulas before relaunching its chocolate in 2024.
In March 2026, he pitted its Peanut Butter Cups against Reese's in a taste test with Brad Reese, the grandson of the candy's inventor.
Fans may buy the first bar for MrBeast, but effective product design decides whether they come back for the second.
Creator deals can now involve products, media, and advertising, and brand teams can use these tips to ensure contracts cover more ground:
- Audit audience fit before signing: Compare the creator's viewer demographics with the brand's target buyers before committing budget.
- Request first-party performance data: Ask for view, click, and sales data from the creator's company to measure results.
- Write approval rights into the contract: Set review windows for scripts and product claims before anything goes live.
A partnership with a creator works as both a media buy and a product launch, so the contract should set the terms and measurement for each.
Our Take: Can MrBeast's Brand Power Last?
Every business inside Beast Industries still runs on Donaldson's name, from the chocolate bars to the fintech app.
We'd say the strategy will last, because he develops products the way he makes videos, testing ideas on his audience and keeping what performs.
Moose Toys said MrBeast Lab sales grew every week that Donaldson featured the toys in his posts, and its Lab Swarms hit Amazon's bestseller list by 2025.
In contrast, quality complaints pushed him to sue MrBeast Burger's operator, and his Lunchly venture drew reports of moldy cheese.
So sure, his record has its share of misses, but we think that his habit of learning from them is where his brand power comes from.
Donaldson dropped out of college in 2016 and learned business the way he learned YouTube, one public test at a time.
This street-smart education is what makes him a true brand builder, and any company can copy it by testing products where customers can watch.
Sydney Sweeney learned her lessons in public too, building two startups on controversy, as our previous Brand Builder profile of her rise shows.
Brand leaders planning a creator partnership need agencies that can negotiate and measure it.
Explore these top social media marketing companies in our directory.
