MrBeast Makes $700 Million A Year But Does Not Keep Any Of It; Here's Why

Jimmy Donaldson, popularly known as MrBeast, is arguably the most popular YouTuber in the world right now. The 25-year-old boasts of having 239 million subscribers on this main YouTube channel. In recent years, he has shot to viral fame thanks to his grand philanthropic acts and high-budget videos. He has gained substantial praise for sponsoring 1,000 cataract surgeries, digging up 100 wells in Africa, helping 2000 amputees walk again, running dog adoption events, and giving away millions in charities. All of this has earned him plenty of good karma and interestingly a profitable business model. As per Forbes, in 2021 MrBeast made history as he raked in $54 million in revenue from YouTube which was the most any YouTuber has ever made in a year.

Now, three years later, his YouTube empire makes $600 to $700 million a year. Recently, in an interview with Time, Jimmy revealed that despite making millions of dollars, he does not consider himself rich. He added that whatever profit he makes, most of it is reinvested back into his videos. Responding to whether he considers himself rich, BrBeast said, “I mean, not right now. I’m not naive; maybe one day. But right now, whatever we make, we reinvest. Each video does a couple million in ad revenue and a couple million in brand deals. I’ve reinvested everything to the point of—you could claim—stupidity, just believing that we would succeed. And it’s worked out.”

This is not the first time that Jimmy has emphasised this unconventional business model. Back in September 2022, Jimmy appeared on the Full Send Podcast and reiterated this. He explained that his first sponsorship was $10,000 (approximately Rs 8 lakh), and after getting this brand deal money, he gave it all away while making a video. Since then, he has reinvested all brand deals and revenue back into his new projects.

Jimmy recalled, “So the first time I got a brand deal is 10 grand, well it’s five grand, and I was like double it and I’ll go give it away. So I literally just gave away all my brand deals every single time I got one so I did that and the next time. I just literally, I would just do a brand deal and give it away and then the next brand deal was bigger and I just did that for like two years straight.”

This appears to be a risky strategy but so far it appears to be working. It will be interesting to see how the brand ‘MrBeast’ continues to grow in the coming years.