On Monday, Jimmy Donaldson, popularly known as MrBeast on the internet, introduced a new reality competition show in cooperation with Amazon MGM Studios, attempting to blur the barriers between YouTube and traditional TV.
The new series, “Beast Games,” is advertised as “the biggest reality competition series ever” and will include 1,000 contestants vying for a $5 million prize.
Donaldson is the most-followed creator on YouTube, with over 389 million subscribers across all of his channels, and the fourth-most-followed creator on TikTok. His huge-scale YouTube productions are comparable to those of a professional TV operation, with a large crew, well constructed sets, and substantial financial rewards. Donaldson’s previous videos include putting himself in solitary confinement for seven days, attempting to demolish a Lamborghini with a train, and hosting his own version of Squid Game.
Donaldson revealed in an interview with “The Colin and Samir Show” podcast that his YouTube videos can cost between $4 million and $5 million per, and the new show will have an even larger budget. According to news outlet Puck, the contract between Donaldson and Amazon is worth approximately $100 million.
“It’s just like our normal videos, but 20 times better,” Donaldson stated on the podcast. “Money is not a constraint for the performance. And so I can do whatever I want, which is a lot more liberating and mind-blowing than you might expect.”
Donaldson stated that working with a streaming service allowed him to be free of the algorithms and values that perform best on YouTube, such as thumbnails, video length, and title. However, MrBeast videos can receive 300 million to 500 million views each, and Amazon reports that there are only 80 million active Amazon Prime Video households in the United States.
“Beast Games” is not the first time a creator has created material for a streaming service, and the announcement follows a trend of creators expanding their content beyond social media platforms in order to diversify earnings. The YouTube group “Sidemen” launched a Netflix documentary earlier this year, for example, while the family of TikToker Charli D’Amelio recently aired the third season of their reality program On Hulu.
“We’re reinventing everything,” Donaldson stated during the show. “This will most likely be six or more hours of content, as opposed to my usual 20-minute films. The character development and storytelling will be out of this planet compared to our regular videos.”
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