Why does MrBeast give his money away? 24-year-old Donaldson from Greenville, North Carolina, better known as MrBeast, was the top earner on YouTube in 2021, according to Statista. He earned approximately 54 million U.S. dollars.
Unlike other famous and rich YouTubers though, Mrbeast gives away money he makes on YouTube and even helps out many organizations on his platform.
How does he make his millions, and why does he give his wealth away?
Discover why this modern-day Mansa Musa is so generous with his wealth.
YouTube’s biggest philanthropist: Giving Away His Money
MrBeast is known as YouTube’s biggest philanthropist. In multiple videos on all his channels, MrBeast explains why he gives his money away: it’s simple, the more he gives away, the more views his videos get, which helps him to make more videos.
Each video featuring a giveaway generates millions of views, enabling him to continue doing what he does.
MrBeast is invested in viral giveaways to boost brand sponsorships and create more viral videos.
His videos show him giving away thousands of dollars that are growing his brand and fuelling his income.
Why does Mr. Beast give his money away?
Donaldson started making videos of him giving money away when Quidd, a digital collectibles app, offered him $10,000 to put an ad on his channel. He made a video of himself giving the $10,000 to a homeless person, after which Quidd repeatedly paid him to make similar videos, and that’s how it all started.
In a YouTube documentary about his life, Donaldson describes how it made him feel that first time when he did the $10,000 brand deal with Quid and gave all the money away to a homeless person in his town. “Giving people money makes me happy,” he realized.
Soon after that experience, he had an epiphany: if he takes this branded money and gives it away in the video, the video will do well, and if he takes the money for next the video and gives that away, that video will do well, and so forth.
He realized that he had cracked the YouTube code, so to speak. He decided then that he wanted to use brands to help him to help people.
One of those was his mother, whom he gave $100,000 to pay off her house.
This is one of his most famous giveaways, with the video going viral. While she initially refuses the cash, he explains to her that only if he gets views will he get paid, and for that to happen, she must accept the money.
So, why does Mrbeast give instead spend on himself? Why does he give away his earnings?
In the video, he explains why Mrbeast gives money away to her: “If I don’t give it to you, I don’t have a viral video,” he explains in the video.
Donaldson has given money to family, friends, Twitch streamers, the homeless, and random followers.
In this video documenting donations adding up to $500,000 to random people, Donaldson says he hopes the money makes a difference in people’s lives.
MrBeast is interested in something other than making money to have money or buy things. He realized early on that owning a sports car is cool, but it doesn’t take Crohn’s away.
Donations to Twitch streamers
In 2018, MrBeast donated $100,000 to Twitch streamers without views on their channels. He has done that on several occasions. If you are wondering why he gives so much money away to Twitch streamers, just watch this video, and you will see that MrBeast has a lot of fun giving away money.
MrBeast has literally given away hundreds of thousands of dollars to Twitch streamers.
His video of donating $40,000 to a random Twitch Fortnite streamer received more than 23 million views. His video of donating $100,000 to Twitch streamers in 2021 received 45 million views.
Another major giveaway happened when MrBeast invited 32 of the world’s biggest influencers to a game of rock, paper, and scissors. The prize money was $250,000, which went to a charity of the winner’s choice. The tournament was streamed live. And has garnered 44 million views.
What is MrBeast’s most successful video?
So far, MrBeast’s most successful video is his own version of Netflix’s Squid Game which garnered more than 275 million views by the end of July 2022. The video features 456 contestants participating in real-life “Squid Game” challenges for $456,000 prize money.
The video is one of the most-watched non-music YouTube videos of all time.
Donaldson spent $3.5 million to create the video, which Supercell, a mobile game company, sponsored.
Is MrBeast solvent?
It’s a fair question. One can’t help wondering if Donaldson has any money left after paying $1 million to make a video and then giving away all the money he makes from sponsorships.
Well, according to Forbes, the answer is that he is a pretty wealthy guy with a total net worth of around $56 Million. In fact, Donaldson was included in the list of the top 10 Richest YouTubers in Media for 2022.
Final thoughts
Mr. Beast does some really insane things in his videos. Some of the videos seem utterly pointless. Yet, they draw viewers in, fascinate them, and bring out the best in the YouTube community, creators, and fans. The huge sums MrBeast earns through sponsorships make it possible for him to be YouTube’s biggest philanthropist, changing the world for the better.
