MrBeast (Jimmy Donaldson) has emerged as a YouTube superstar, passing over 320 million subscribers during his 12 year tenure with the video sharing site. From counting to 100,000 to donating millions to charity, he has certainly done it all, but some say that it hasn’t all been good. Being too corporate, allegations of him promoting gambling to children, and manipulating his impressionable young fanbase has left a blemish on MrBeast’s record. All in all, MrBeast has undoubtedly left a negative impact and damaged both his career and YouTube.
Let’s dive into one of the biggest reasons as to why people dislike MrBeast. He is fake. MrBeast went from running his own channel–along with his friend at the time, Chris Tyson, now known as Ava Kris Tyson–to now being more of a corporation where his team plans and executes videos. While there isn’t anything inherently wrong with that, there is a clear shift in content and whom it is directed towards. When Donaldson first started making videos, it was clear that he was just having fun and doing content that he clearly enjoyed. He made videos ranging from gaming to reaction videos being intended for any age group to view, to now children—the age group most easily susceptible to exploitation. Now, it has been revealed that the production cost for his new videos have skyrocketed, as Donaldson himself claimed that it cost around $2.5 million per video. The content now goes through his team, and then put out for the public. This means that rather than ideas from Donaldson himself, they to go through his team and be modified in order to get the most views. The main issue with the high production cost and the MrBeast team running the show is that his videos feel too “corporate” and “staged”, and it doesn’t help that he often over-promotes his products in the videos.
“I feel like his videos aren’t really authentic anymore. It’s just him reading off of a script, and he doesn’t try his best to make the videos the best quality. He just pumps them out in hopes of getting views and subscribers. I feel like he used to be genuine, but as he grew in popularity, he and his team realized that there was a formula for success and followed that, leading to the inauthenticity we see,” said sophomore Steven Xie.
Another problem with MrBeast and his crew arose recently, and those are the allegations of MrBeast himself promoting gambling to kids, and running a cash-grab. MrBeast launched his chocolate company Feastables in early 2022, which has been under fire for not only tasting terrible but also for running a gambling scheme. While it has sold enough chocolate to stay on the shelves, people are starting to turn on the once beloved creator’s product.
On top of being a bad chocolate, Feastables is posing as a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Apart from selling chocolates, they are running a lottery scheme and preying on impressionable children. By buying Feastables, you can scan a coupon and win prizes, making it a lottery, because a lottery has three elements: chance, consideration and payout. The chance is the selecting of the winner, the consideration is payment, and the payout is a prize from downloading their app and winning their lottery.
“I think after hitting around 100-150 million subs, his content and persona really degraded and the content shifted towards making money rather than being funny,” said sophomore Carter Huang. “Even before the gambling allegations, the shift to being sort of a cash-grab kind of happened but after the Feastables and Lunchly scandals he has really gone downhill.”
Another product MrBeast has launched along with co-owners KSI and Logan Paul (both YouTubers and influencers) is Lunchly, a “better for you lunch” that is effectively a high calorie Lunchables ripoff. One partner in particular, Logan Paul, was the mastermind behind a CryptoZoo scam that has been stirring controversy for years now. Long story short, his crypto project (a video game) failed, and he has refused to pay his investors back despite knowing full well what happened and not delivering on his promise to create the game. Working with such controversial creators will leave a black mark on MrBeast’s record.
The internet was quick to catch on to the fact that Lunchly is eerily similar to Lunchables, both in the name and also in the products. The only difference is that the snacks and drinks (Hersehy’s chocolate and Capri Sun juice box) have been replaced with MrBeast’s chocolate: Feastables and Prime, a drink started by Logan Paul and KSI. On top of that, for roughly the same amount of food the price is about $1.50 more.
“It’s pretty clear that MrBeast is only concerned about money. I think he’s trying to branch out and be more than a YouTuber by releasing products, but he doesn’t really care about whether or not he is doing good; he just cares about money. However, the real problem is that he talks about “not needing money” and doing this to make a healthier, “better for you” alternative to foods, when he really isn’t. If he really wanted to make an affordable lunch, he wouldn’t be reselling moldy Lunchables for $4.00,” answered sophomore Austin Lam. “I feel like it’s kind of scummy that he is marketing it as a good lunch alternative when it really isn’t, and you’re better off just eating something healthy.”
All these allegations beg the question, will this really affect MrBeast’s YouTube channel? Well, no. These allegations have been out there for months, and Donaldson still averages over 100 million views. He has definitely lost a portion of his fanbase, but the rest are either oblivious to this or they simply do not care.
“I think his channel is so big that no amount of controversy and public outcry can really do anything. You have to remember that he has over 300 million subscribers, and a lot of them are children,” noted sophomore Timothy Coligado. “Those children probably don’t care about all the bad he’s done; they just see a video and they click it. He has built his empire up so much that I don’t think anything can bring him down.”
In conclusion, despite being a YouTube icon, MrBeast has done irreparable damage to not only his fanbase, but to the site and other YouTubers as well. While he has done so much good for YouTube such as drawing in new viewers and making extravagant donations, he has also done so much bad as well. From working with shady partners, to promoting downright bad products, to even exploiting his child fanbase with a “chocolate-lottery” system, MrBeast’s empire has been built on both success, but also controversy. As the saying goes, you either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain, and MrBeast is the epitome of just that.
