Amazon has revealed that MrBeast, the well-known video creator known for outrageous antics and large-scale charitable giving, is moving from YouTube to Amazon Prime with a new reality competition show.
The concept, called Beast Games, is based on his YouTube series. There will be 1,000 competitors vying for a $5m (£3.9m) cash prize. The award is billed as the biggest in streaming and television history.
Prior to this, the $4.56m (£3.6m) prize from the first season of Netflix's Squid Games: The Challenge set a record for the largest reality TV payment.
The show, which will be broadcast on Prime Video, will have MrBeast as both the host and executive producer. He'll keep producing his YouTube series as well.
MrBeast, also known as Jimmy Donaldson, has amassed a staggering 245 million subscribers to his channel since starting to produce material on YouTube in 2016. Almost 800 of his videos are high-end productions; one of his real-life Squid Game contests, for instance, received 588 million views.
Living and working in Greenville, North Carolina, MrBeast earned an estimated $82m (£64m) in gross earnings between June 2022 and June 2023, as reported by Forbes. This amount is more than twice the earnings of any other digital artist.
His child-friendly videos usually include antics and charitable deeds, such as funding cataract operations to restore vision to 1,000 blind individuals, and funding millions of food and supplies to those in need.
According to sources, Amazon beat out at least one significant opponent in the streaming market to acquire MrBeast, the most well-known YouTuber.
Additionally, Donaldson negotiated to have creative control over the project.
The YouTuber announced in a statement: “My goal is to make the greatest show possible, and prove YouTubers and creators can succeed on other platforms.
“Amazon gave me the creative control I need to try and make it happen. I hope to make the YouTube community proud.”
