MrBeast overtakes T-Series for most YouTube subscribers
MrBeast has overtaken T-Series as the biggest YouTube channel in a long-running battle for the most subscribers.
Indian music label T-Series, which uploads trailers and music videos, held the record for the largest YouTube channel for five years, before it was toppled on Sunday.
MrBeast, real name Jimmy Donaldson, was already the individual with the largest following.
But the 26-year-old has now made history on the platform with a seemingly unassailable 269 million subscribers, dethroning T-Series and putting him head and shoulders above everything else.
Across nearly 800 videos MrBeast has made a name for himself with massive stunts – including giving away private islands, being buried alive, and staging a real-life version of the Netflix hit Squid Game.
In a post on X, MrBeast said he had finally “avenged” YouTube star Felix Kjellberg, known as PewDiePie, in surpassing T-Series’ 266m subscriber count.
In a follow-up post, MrBeast said his channel took the record with its largest ever daily spike in subscribers, which rose by more than 2 million on Saturday.
T-Series originally set the record in 2019 by overtaking PewDiePie – to which the Swedish YouTuber said “all it took was a massive corporate entity with every song in Bollywood” in a music video explaining his defeat.
MrBeast becoming the most subscribed-to individual and channel on YouTube means he has extended his grip, and wealth, on the platform even further.
He has several other channels dedicated to his gaming, philanthropy and reactions to other content – accounting for tens of millions of subscribers each.
“Do not email me asking for money, I give away money because it makes me happy,” his channel’s description tells viewers, referring to the sheer amount of cash – measured in the millions – he has distributed during his YouTube career.
A video he posted in April saw one person win $250,000 (£196,000).
In 2022, Forbes estimated his net worth to be around $500m and ranked him first on its list of the 50 top creators in 2023.
Elon Musk, who has encouraged MrBeast and other video creators to post on his platform X (formerly Twitter), was among those congratulating him.
Making X a more appealing platform for creators has formed a key part of Mr Musk’s strategy for making the platform profitable, and the YouTuber revealed in January he earned $250,000 from his first video posted on X.
And MrBeast taking the record will come as welcome news for Amazon – which has signed him to a TV deal reportedly worth as much as $100m.
How He Made His Money
Jimmy Donaldson, the person the online world knows as MrBeast, is the biggest YouTuber on the planet – and with that popularity comes large sums of money.
The 25-year-old has branched out from video-making and now has his own fast-food chain, MrBeast Burger. It hit headlines this week when he sued the company behind the chain, claiming fans thought the food was “revolting”.
But it’s still YouTube that he is best known for. In November 2022, Forbes estimated he earned $54m (£42.5m) in a year from the platform, combining advertising revenue from videos and sponsorship deals. Since then, he has gained 60 million more subscribers on his main channel, taking his total 172 million.
And he has several other channels with tens of millions of subscribers, including one for philanthropy and one for video games.
It’s unclear exactly how much money he actually pockets though. Donaldson has become known for putting the money he makes back into his ultra-expensive videos, some of which take millions to produce. He told a podcast in June that he reinvests “every penny I make”.
