MrBeast

James Stephen Donaldson—better known online as MrBeast—was born on May 7, 1998, in Wichita, Kansas, and grew up in Greenville, North Carolina. His parents, Susan Parisher and Charles Donaldson, worked long hours and served in the military, so he moved often and was frequently looked after by au pairs. They divorced in 2007. He graduated from Greenville Christian Academy, a private evangelical high school, in 2016, where he played baseball as an outfielder for several years. A teenage diagnosis of Crohn’s disease ended his sports career. He briefly attended Pitt Community College in Winterville, North Carolina, before dropping out.

Donaldson started posting videos to YouTube in early 2012 under the handle MrBeast6000, when he was 13. His early uploads included Let’s Play videos of *Minecraft* and *Call of Duty: Black Ops II*, estimates of other YouTubers’ wealth, advice for aspiring creators, and commentary on YouTube drama—often without appearing on camera himself. From 2015 to 2018, his “Worst Intros on YouTube” series gained traction, mocking video introductions. By mid-2016, he had around 30,000 subscribers. He dropped out of college later that year to focus on YouTube full-time, a decision his mother disapproved of so strongly that she made him leave the family home.

After leaving college, Donaldson and his friends tried to reverse-engineer YouTube’s recommendation algorithm to make viral content. He later described that period as “a five-year point in my life where I was just relentlessly, unhealthily obsessed with studying virality, studying the YouTube algorithm.” He would order Uber Eats, then sit at his computer all day analyzing the platform with other creators.

His breakthrough came on January 9, 2017, with a nearly day-long video of himself counting to 100,000—a 40-hour ordeal that he sped up to fit under 24 hours. That video drew tens of thousands of views within days, and his productions quickly became more extravagant. He gained further attention with stunts like trying to break glass with a hundred megaphones, watching paint dry for an hour, attempting to stay underwater for 24 hours (which failed due to health issues), and an unsuccessful day-long fidget-spin. By 2018, he had given away $1 million through his stunts, earning a reputation as “YouTube’s biggest philanthropist.”

His first brand deal came in June 2017, from a digital collectibles app called Quidd. He used the $10,000 sponsor fee to fund his first philanthropic video, giving the entire amount to a homeless person. That set the pattern for his large-scale giveaways and philanthropic stunts. As his audience grew, he brought in childhood friends Ava Kris Tyson, Chandler Hallow, Garrett Ronalds, and Jake Franklin to help run the channel. Franklin left in 2020; Tyson left in 2024.

During the 2018 PewDiePie vs. T-Series rivalry for YouTube’s most-subscribed channel, Donaldson bought billboards, TV and radio ads, and even purchased seats at Super Bowl LIII for himself and his team, whose shirts spelled out “Sub 2 PewDiePie.” In March 2019, he organized a real-life battle royale competition in Los Angeles with $200,000 in prizes across two games.

He now runs Beast Industries, a conglomerate that owns multiple media channels, MrBeast Burger, Feastables, Lunchly, and other ventures. His main YouTube channel, with over 515 million subscribers, is the most subscribed on the platform, and he is the third most-followed account on TikTok. He co-founded Team Trees, a fundraiser for the Arbor Day Foundation that raised more than $24 million, and Team Seas, a fundraiser for Ocean Conservancy and The Ocean Cleanup that raised over $30 million. In 2025, he co-founded Team Water, raising over $40 million for WaterAid. He also created the reality competition series *Beast Games*.

Donaldson won Creator of the Year at the Streamy Awards in 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023, and Favorite Male Creator at the Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Awards in 2022, 2023, 2024, and 2025. *Time* named him one of the world’s 100 most influential people in 2023 and included him in its 2025 Time 100 Creators list. *Forbes* ranked him first among the highest-paid YouTube creators in 2024, and *Fortune* estimated his net worth at roughly $2.6 billion in 2026.