Jimmy Donaldson uploaded “I Counted To 100,000 !” on January 9, 2017. As of 2026, he is a billionaire. His main MrBeast YouTube channel has over 500 million subscribers, representing 6% of the world population. This account is the most subscribed-to YouTube channel in the world, and this is not counting MrBeast Gaming, Beast Philanthropy, Beast Reacts, MrBeast 2, and Beast Animations. His reality TV show, Beast Games, is Amazon’s most viewed unscripted show—Beast Games had the most contestants in reality television history (1,000) and the biggest cash prize ($5,000,000). He’s a philanthropist who has dug wells, healed the blind, and planted trees ; he has spent seven days buried alive in a coffin, seven days in solitary confinement, and seven days in a cave. He’ll do anything for content, damnit.
After counting to 100,000, MrBeast received a brand deal for $10,000 from a now-defunct NFT marketplace. He was 19 years old ; he could have bought nice clothes, or invested the money, or thrown a big party—which is probably what I would have done. He could have bought better camera equipment—which is what any other self-serious YouTube grinder-entrepreneur probably would have done. Instead, MrBeast did something truly savvy. He stuffed all $10,000 in an envelope, gave it to a panhandler, and filmed it the whole time—that’s late-capitalist Jesus Christ right there ! The shifty freak has a supernatural ability to sniff out content. He’ll do something absurd and attention-grabbing, and then, once he has the attention of millions, advertisers will flock to pay him ; finally, with the money from advertising, he’ll fund another striking exploit. By constantly trapping the viewer in an incessant, hyperactive, compulsive cycle, the MrBeast machine—get attention, get investments, pump that into the next scheme, and constantly refine, reinvest, and compete—hurtles forward.
Watching a MrBeast video, though, you, too, start to get hungry ; you want to compete. Though his challenges require no skill, or capital, or even intelligence—only determination and a willingness to humiliate oneself—you are compelled to ask yourself, What would I do for this money, this fame, this salvation ? Could I stand in a circle for hours, or spend months of my life without leaving a grocery store, or count to 100,000 nonstop ?
