MrBeast

Donaldson began posting videos to YouTube in 2012 at age 13,[11] under the handle "MrBeast6000"; his early content ranged from Let's Plays to "videos estimating the wealth of other YouTubers".[12] However, his videos remained in relative obscurity — averaging around a thousand views each – until the release of his 2017 "counting to 100,000" video that earned tens of thousands of views in just a few days.[12] As of June 2020, Donaldson has 37 million subscribers on YouTube.[13] He is managed by the Dallas-based talent management company Night Media.[11]

Donaldson's videos typically feature "attention-grabbing stunts". He often makes videos on donating hundreds of thousands of dollars to Twitch streamers, many of these videos being sponsored (although he has donated without a sponsor in the past).[14][15]

In January 2017, Donaldson published an almost day-long video of himself counting to 100,000. The stunt took him 40 hours, with some parts sped up to "keep it under 24 hours".[16] A subsequent video titled "Counting to 200,000 (Road to a Mil)" was uploaded the next month, although, according to Donaldson, it too, had to be sped up because the full fifty-five hours of counting exceeded YouTube's upload limit.[17] Additionally, Donaldson has tried to break glass using a hundred megaphones, watched paint dry for an hour,[14] attempted to stay underwater for 24 hours (but failed because of health issues), and unsuccessfully and successfully attempted to spin a fidget spinner for a day, although the footage is gone.[18] In March 2019, he organized and filmed a real-life battle royale competition in Los Angeles with a prize of $200,000 (2 games were played, making game earnings of $100,000 for each game) in collaboration with Apex Legends.[19] The event and prize pool was sponsored by Apex Legends publisher Electronic Arts.[20]

Several videos involve giving away large sums of money,[21][22] such as giving $100,000 worth of items to homeless shelters in December 2018,[23] donating $32,000 to the Veterans Army Wounded Warrior Program, $70,000 to Saint Jude Children's Research Hospital, and $10,000 to a local animal shelter in Los Angeles.[24] During PewDiePie vs T-Series, a competition to become the most-subscribed channel on YouTube, Donaldson bought billboards and radio advertisements to help PewDiePie gain more subscribers than T-Series;[4] at the Super Bowl LIII, he bought multiple seats with occupants whose shirts spelled out, "Sub 2 PewDiePie".[25][26]

Donaldson has collaborated on many videos with Honey, a browser extension that helps save money on shopping websites.[27]