Can you count to 100,000?
Most would probably lose steam before they even got to 100. But for Jimmy Donaldson, better known as MrBeast, that was the whole point. The seemingly impossible stunt was the subject of one the then-18-year-old’s first-ever YouTube videos.
Little did he know the domino effect such videos would set off. Now 27, Donaldson sits atop an online content empire: With 435 million YouTube subscribers and over 95 billion lifetime views, he’s among the internet’s biggest stars worldwide. His accomplishments reach far beyond viral videos: They include a nine-figure Amazon TV deal, a multimillion-dollar snack company, and even a forthcoming novel co-authored with James Patterson.
Donaldson’s meteoric ascent has given him ambitions of building a diversified entertainment empire, one he hopes one day rivals Disney. But it hasn’t all been driven by daily vlogs or video game livestreams like other content creators. Much of MrBeast’s content reflects a simple but profound focus: showing the impact of generosity.
That mission has defined not only his content, but some of his business ventures. His most-watched videos include posts that feature him cleaning up the world’s dirtiest beaches, building wells in Africa, and giving away homes. Beyond YouTube, through his nonprofit Beast Philanthropy, Donaldson has given away over $300 million worth of food (about 42 million meals), donated $5 million in aid to Ukrainian refugees, and provided $500,000 in school supplies and technology. He’s also funded 2,000 prosthetics, 100 cleft palate repairs, and 600 e-bikes for people in need.
Most recently, Donaldson teamed with up fellow creator Mark Rober for #TeamWater, a campaign providing clean drinking water across Africa and southeast Asia. The effort raised over $41 million—drawing support from more than 100,000 individuals donors. While the average individual contribution was under $4, major companies like Google, TikTok, and Accenture stepped in with multimillion-dollar gifts.
This commitment to large-scale giving has become a defining feature of both Donaldson’s content and his corporate strategy, led by Beast Industries CEO Jeff Housenbold, a veteran of Silicon Valley who came onboard to run the company last year.
While the donations are inherently worthwhile, Donaldson and his team are confident that they also drive audience growth—attracting watchers who might not otherwise be drawn to the content, and helping the whole enterprise generate more revenue. Such efforts to embrace social responsibility have helped Beast Industries earn a spot on Fortune’s 2025 Change the World list.
“We’re really leaning into how we use the MrBeast platform to create positive impact. We’re a for-profit company, but we’re also altruistic,” Housenbold told Fortune. “The question we ask ourselves is, ‘Can we combine capitalism and altruism in a way that’s a win-win?’ We believe the answer is yes.”
Building an over $5 billion empire—one video at a time
Scaling generosity at MrBeast’s level has been neither easy nor cheap—but his sharp business instincts as a teenager laid the foundation.
In August 2017, just seven months after his viral counting video, he partnered with Quidd, a now-defunct digital collectibles app, to launch a series of generosity-driven videos—handing huge bundles of cash to Twitch streamers, pizza delivery guys, Uber drivers. At just 19 years old, Donaldson had recently dropped out of East Carolina University after only two weeks, choosing to focus full-time on editing videos.
Years later, profitability remains a challenge. Beast Industries has operated at a net loss for the last three years in a row, according to Bloomberg. Some of the biggest recent expenses came from producing his Amazon Prime reality show Beast Games. The show, which was filmed across three countries, featured stunts and contests that broke 44 Guinness World Records, including the largest prize fund awarded on a competitive reality TV show ($10 million). But total production costs reportedly exceeded $100 million for the 10 episode-season.
“It was not a good financial decision to make Beast Games,” Donaldson admitted on The Diary of a CEO podcast earlier this year. “I lost money. I would have more money if I didn’t film it.”
While it didn’t help the show’s bottom line for Donaldson to up the grand prize from $5 million to $10 million, he and his investors continue to believe thatkind of generosity will all be worth the risk. “Money isn’t everything—building and managing it is infinitely harder,” Donaldson added on the podcast.
The MrBeast media arm, including his YouTube channels and TV show, earned an estimated $250 million in revenue in 2024 but posted a net loss of nearly $80 million, according to Bloomberg. The red ink was partially offset by Feastables. Launched in 2022, the chocolate products are found in Walmart, Target, and 7/11 stores in the U.S. and more than a dozen other countries. Feastables earned revenue comparable to MrBeast’s media portfolio, but it produced a profit of more than $20 million.
And while the snack market is crowded, Donaldson has found a lane that screams fun—with bright packaging and bubbly fonts—as well as impact. The chocolate is 100% fair-trade certified, and Donaldson’s has publicly declared his challenge to the “status quo of the big chocolate sector” which has allowed child labor to thrive. “I know we can create chocolate that people can afford and that also pays farmers fairly, so kids don’t have to work,” Donaldson said in a press release.
MrBeast has noted that “on paper” he could be considered a billionaire, largely due to the valuation of his various brands and income streams from additional ventures like Lunchly snack kits, analytics platform Viewstats, and MrBeast Burger. In reality, however, he has said he keeps “very little money” on hand and even borrowed from his mother to help cover his wedding expenses. Forbes estimated his annual earnings between April 2024 and April 2025 at $85 million.
Last year, Beast Industries raised money at a roughly $5 billion valuation, according to Bloomberg, signaling immense investor confidence in Donaldson’s blend of viral business and social impact.
MrBeast’s operations under a microscope
Donaldson has not been immune to controversy. One group of contestants on his Amazon series, Beast Games, have filed a lawsuit claiming there to be dangerous conditions on the set; that case is still ongoing, but Donaldson and Amazon have asked the court to dismiss it. Separately, one longtime channel collaborator was accused of sexual misconduct; no legal action was filed in that instance, and a law firm commissioned by Donaldson found those misconduct accusations to be baseless.
Despite the scrutiny, Donaldson’s popularity has hardly wavered; he’s gained more than 100 million YouTuber subscribers in the last year.
But that acceleration may not last forever, according to Bill Zimmerman, a professor at Penn State University studying the creator economy. At some point, there will likely be a ceiling, he said, noting to Fortune that some of Donaldson’s extreme, challenge-based videos can be divisive.
“I think some of these viral videos outside of the philanthropy space can be off-putting to a lot of people because of the focus on putting people through physical challenges to win prizes,” Zimmerman said, pointing to a recent video that challenged a pilot to live on a private jet for 100 days, where he faced challenges like no shower, no bed, and limited food.
“Those things are highly watchable, but I think these big videos that just rack up the views, also present this voyeuristic situation where you’re watching somebody push their physical limits,” Zimmerman added. And when it comes to philanthropic videos, Zimmerman said it can be difficult to separate questions about underlying motives when Donaldson has profited from being generous.
Donaldson’s CEO Housenbold challenges that generosity and profitability can, and do, exist together.
“We want to make kindness viral through the voices of the global community of influencers and their fans,” Housenbold said “We also want to welcome other companies, non-profits, and governmental agencies to join us on the journey of making lasting change.”
Or, as Donaldson himself summarized on The Diary of a CEO podcast earlier this year: “A world where I help people is just more fun than a world where I don’t.”
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com
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