MrBeast became YouTube’s top star by making videos featuring stunts like burying himself alive or lavish cash giveaways. But could that format be reaching its limit?
MrBeast, whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson, recently posted that he wasn’t satisfied with the quality of his videos and promised to go into “ultra grind mode and make the greatest content of my life in 2026.”
Elaborating in an interview this month, he said he’s focusing on stories that are impactful or get people to “feel things.”
“We spent millions of dollars a video and we do these big spectacles,” he said, speaking at The New York Times’ DealBook Summit. “After a while, you do get a little numb to money being given away or numb to spectacles, but hearing a great story is something that you never get numb to.”
His comments came as MrBeast has been trying to bring costs under control at his company’s media arm, which lost money on its extravagant videos in 2024. Under Jeffrey Housenbold, who became CEO of the holding company Beast Industries in 2024, MrBeast is looking for sponsors to offset the cost of those elaborate videos. Donaldson has spoken about losing millions of dollars on season one of his Amazon show, “Beast Games,” and said at DealBook that seasons two and three would be “more efficient.”
Beyond videos, MrBeast is also trying to branch out to new areas like a mobile phone business and financial services as he tries to grow the company into a wide-ranging conglomerate.
In the interview, Donaldson touched on other ways he’s shifting his video strategy besides a focus on story. He’s looking to longer videos, encouraged by their surging popularity on YouTube, which people are increasingly watching on TV screens. Donaldson said MrBeast videos have doubled in length and now run close to 25 minutes.
Other formats are in the works. MrBeast just started producing animation and has mulled micro dramas, the made-for-mobile scripted format that was popularized in China and has grown rapidly in the US.
Like many creators, MrBeast is aware of the limitations of being too dependent on his own image. Donaldson said he’s working to change the mix so his videos don’t rely too much on him being in them. He also wants to use his videos to showcase his mission-driven interests, like sourcing ethical ingredients for his chocolate bars.
“Whether it’s me in the videos or not, I hope people like me, but it’s not fundamentally why we get 200 million views for every video,” he said. “A lot of times it’s because we do these crazy concepts and all these other things that are more replicable. So that’s why we’re working on building out other channels and other IP.”
When asked about the harms of social media, he swiped at TikTok, calling its videos “crack cocaine” and “brain rot” while saying YouTube has more educational content. Donaldson, who is one of TikTok’s top creators, said he couldn’t afford to ignore the platform because of its importance in reaching certain groups of users.
“We try very hard on TikTok, we try very hard on Instagram, because, obviously, Instagram, a lot of women use that that might not use TikTok or, use YouTube,” he said. “In their world, if you’re not on that platform, you just don’t exist. So they’re all important.”
