The biggest YouTuber in the world (Mr Beast biography part 1)

The story of Mr Beast: Part 1

James "Jimmy" Donaldson is 25 years old, the biggest individual YouTuber in the world with 207 million subscribers as of 2023. Revenue from his YouTube videos, in addition to the 3 other businesses he has founded off the back of his fame, have netted him an estimated net worth of $54M . While he came from humble beginnings as a teenager recording videos from his room, a typical Mr Beast video now costs 1 or 2 million dollars to make. He has hired his mom, stepdad, and a posse of childhood friends amongst hundreds more employees, all working out of a 50K foot facility in North Carolina that’s dedicated to staging and filming his videos, which today has merged into genres of his own making, including “stunt philanthropy.”

So how did he go from nerdy suburban kid, to the face of a generation? There are two components here. Jimmy Donaldson’s pure obsession with his craft, and being in the right place at the right time.

In Part 1, I will cover how Mr Beast was in the right place at the right time. Subscribe to receive Part 2, which chronicles his other business interests, his creative process, and how obsession was the other 'X factor' that led Mr Beast to being the biggest individual YouTuber in the world.