Mr Beast has said that he made more than $250,000 from posting a single video on X last week.
The video posted by Mr Beast – the world’s most popular YouTuber – has been viewed more than 155 million times.
Mr Beast’s post signalled a U-turn from him, having previously said that even one billion views wouldn’t make it worth posting on the site as creators only received a small percentage of the advertising revenue generated. But he confessed to being “super curious” about how much a video could make him if he posted on X, formerly known as Twitter.
MY FIRST X VIDEO MADE OVER $250,000! 😲
— MrBeast (@MrBeast) January 22, 2024
But it’s a bit of a facade. Advertisers saw the attention it was getting and bought ads on my video (I think) and thus my revenue per view is prob higher than what you’d experience pic.twitter.com/nViVpZbWBb
How the video has been watched closely as traffic to X has declined since it was bought by Elon Musk in October 2022. Since then, Musk has tried various things to boost engagement including sharing more of the advertising revenue generated by creators, something YouTube already does.
While the amount generated is impressive, Mr Beast – real name is Jimmy Donaldson – has played down the significance of it. Posting on X, he thought that advertisers had seen how much attention the stunt had generated and bought adverts on his video as a result, boosting the revenue per view.
Mr Beast said he will give the money raised in the post to 10 “random people”.
Mr Beast was recently estimated to have a net worth of $500 million. His huge – and costly – stunts, which often include huge giveaways as well as philanthropy, rack up millions of views on YouTube and a single video can earn more than $1 million over time. He employs a large team to help produce his videos, and has a large merchandise operation, including his own brand of chocolate. He is reportedly working on a deal to make a show for a streaming platform.
