MrBeast Networth: Name, Age, Subscribers, Fiancee, and Career
MrBeast turned down a normal life faster than most people are offered one. He enrolled at East Carolina University in 2016, lasted approximately one semester, and dropped out because he had already figured out something most students spend four years trying to understand. He understood how attention works.
He understood what makes people share things. He was willing to sacrifice immediate comfort for eventual dominance, and by 2024, he had become the most-subscribed person in the history of the world’s largest video platform. He is 28 years old. He started his channel at 13. He has been doing this for 14 years and he is still accelerating. Here is the complete story.
MrBeast Quick Profile 2026
| Real Name | Jimmy Donaldson |
| YouTube Name | MrBeast (originally MrBeast6000 from an Xbox random username) |
| Date of Birth | May 7, 1998 |
| Age in 2026 | 28 years old |
| Birthplace | Wichita, Kansas, USA (raised in Greenville, North Carolina) |
| Nationality | American |
| Education | Greenville Christian Academy (graduated 2016); enrolled at East Carolina University; dropped out to pursue YouTube full-time |
| Health Conditions | Crohn’s disease (inflammatory bowel condition; has spoken publicly about its impact on energy and diet); Stargardt disease (progressive macular degeneration affecting central vision in left eye; disclosed publicly) |
| YouTube Channel Start | February 20, 2012 (age 13). First video posted same day. |
| Main Channel Subscribers | ~479 million (April 2026) — most subscribed individual on YouTube ever |
| Total Subscribers (all channels) | 627 million+ across 14+ channels (Beast Gaming, Beast Reacts, MrBeast Philanthropy, international dubbed channels) |
| Net Worth (2026) | $2.6 billion (Celebrity Net Worth; youngest self-made YouTube billionaire) |
| Company | Beast Industries (parent company; over 700 employees; valued at $5 billion) |
| Key Brands | Feastables (chocolate and snacks, $200M+ annual revenue), MrBeast Burger (virtual kitchen chain, wound down 2024), Lunchly (school lunch brand) |
| Amazon Deal | $100 million deal for Beast Games streaming series |
| Fiancee | Thea Booysen (South African content creator and former esports commentator; engaged December 2024) |
| Previous Relationship | Maddy Spidell (2019 to 2022) |
| Philanthropy | Team Trees (20 million trees planted 2019), Team Seas (30 million pounds of ocean trash removed 2021), Team Water (clean water access projects) |
| Home Base | Greenville, North Carolina |
Early Life: Wichita, Greenville, and a Kid Who Would Not Stop Watching YouTube
Jimmy Donaldson was born on May 7, 1998, in Wichita, Kansas. His family moved to Greenville, North Carolina, when he was young, and that is where he grew up. He attended Greenville Christian Academy and graduated in 2016. His mother worked as a nurse and raised him largely as a single parent. He has credited her with supporting his YouTube ambitions even when the financial returns were essentially nothing for years.
He created his YouTube channel on February 20, 2012, when he was 13 years old. His first video was posted the same day. The early content was gaming commentary and criticism of bad YouTube intros, the kind of content that millions of teenagers made during that era. The difference was what happened behind the scenes. He was not just uploading videos. He was obsessively studying why certain videos spread and others did not, reverse-engineering the YouTube recommendation algorithm before the phrase was part of common vocabulary.
The name MrBeast came from an Xbox gaming username assigned randomly: MrBeast6000. When he started YouTube, he kept it, dropping only the 6000. He has said in interviews that he genuinely does not remember why he kept it beyond it feeling right.
He enrolled at East Carolina University after high school but left within a semester. The decision was entirely deliberate. His channel had around 30,000 subscribers at the time, a small number but enough to show him the trajectory was real. He committed fully to YouTube, lived cheaply, and spent the next year posting content every day while studying what worked.
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Career Timeline: From Worst Intros to the Most Subscribed Channel in History
| Year | Milestone |
| 2012 | Creates YouTube channel at age 13. First video: ‘Worst Intros on YouTube.’ |
| 2012 to 2016 | Posts gaming content and commentary. Grows slowly. Obsessively studies the YouTube recommendation algorithm. |
| 2016 | Drops out of East Carolina University after one semester to focus on YouTube full-time. Has approximately 30,000 subscribers. |
| 2017 | Posts ‘Counting to 100,000.’ A 40-hour video that goes viral. First major breakthrough. Subscriber count accelerates. |
| 2018 | First major giveaway videos. Builds philanthropic content model. Collaborates with other YouTubers. Crosses 10 million subscribers. |
| 2019 | Crosses 20 million subscribers. Organizes Team Trees with Mark Rober: raises $20 million to plant 20 million trees in partnership with Arbor Day Foundation. |
| 2020 | Launches MrBeast Burger as virtual cloud kitchen brand. Crosses 50 million subscribers. Posts $250,000 survival challenge videos. |
| 2021 | Team Seas: raises funding to remove 30 million pounds of ocean trash. Crosses 80 million subscribers. |
| 2022 | Launches Feastables chocolate brand. Revenue targets $200M. Surpasses PewDiePie as most-subscribed individual on YouTube. Crosses 100 million subscribers. |
| 2023 | Crosses 200 million subscribers. Squid Game recreation video gets 500M+ views. NBA, NFL, celebrity collaborations. Forbes lists him as highest-paid YouTuber. |
| 2024 | Crosses 300 million, then 400 million subscribers. Breaks T-Series record for most subscribed channel ever. Signs $100M Amazon deal for Beast Games. Engaged to Thea Booysen (December 2024). Crohn’s disease and Stargardt disease disclosed publicly. |
| Jan 2026 | Beast Games Season 2 premieres January 7, 2026 on Amazon Prime Video. ‘Strong vs. Smart’ theme. CBS Survivor Season 50 crossover. |
| Apr 2026 | Lorrayne Mavromatis files federal lawsuit against Beast Industries (April 21, 2026) alleging sexual harassment, discrimination, and wrongful termination. Beast Industries denies all claims. Case ongoing. |
| May 2026 | Main channel at ~479 million subscribers. |
The Counting to 100,000 Video: Where It All Changed
In January 2017, Jimmy posted a video called Counting to 100,000. It took him 40 hours to film. He sat in front of a camera and counted from one to one hundred thousand. It was tedious, absurd, and completely earnest. It went viral not because it was impressive but because it was inexplicable. No one had done it. No one had a reason to do it. The fact that he did it for no reason other than to see if he could was exactly the kind of irrational commitment that YouTube audiences respond to.
That video established the template: do the thing nobody else would do, push it further than seems necessary, film all of it. The challenges got larger, the prizes got bigger, the production got more expensive, and the audience grew with each escalation. By 2019 he was giving away cars and houses to strangers. By 2023 he had recreated the Squid Game set at full scale with real contestants competing for real prize money, generating over 500 million views on a single video.
YouTube Channel Network: 627 Million Subscribers Across 14 Channels
| Channel | Focus | Subscribers | |
| Channel | Focus | Subscribers (2026) | |
| MrBeast (main) | Viral challenges, giveaways, stunts, philanthropy | ~479 million | |
| Beast Gaming | Gaming content | ~40 million+ | |
| Beast Reacts | Reaction videos | ~25 million+ | |
| MrBeast Philanthropy | Charity content: feeding communities, building wells | ~25 million+ | |
| International channels | Spanish, Portuguese, Hindi, Japanese, French, Russian, Arabic dubbed versions | Hundreds of millions combined | |
| TOTAL (all channels) | All formats combined | 627 million+ (January 2026) |
The international channel strategy is worth specific attention because it is largely unreported in English-language coverage. MrBeast has created fully dubbed versions of his main channel content in Spanish, Portuguese, Hindi, Japanese, French, Russian, and Arabic, with local voiceovers replacing his English narration entirely. This approach, treating international audiences as primary rather than secondary, added hundreds of millions of subscribers that English-only channels cannot access.
The $2.6 Billion Business Empire
| Business | Launch | Revenue / Value | Notes |
| Business | Launch Year | Revenue / Value (2026) | Notes |
| Feastables | 2022 | $200M+ annual revenue | Chocolate bars and snacks. Distributed in Walmart, Target, 7-Eleven, and globally. Targets $520M revenue. Beat larger brands in taste tests. |
| Beast Industries (parent) | Ongoing | $5 billion valuation | Over 700 employees. Covers all content, brand, and production operations. MrBeast owns 50%+ equity. |
| Amazon Beast Games deal | 2024 | $100 million | Exclusive streaming series on Amazon Prime Video. Season 1 broke records. Season 2 premiered Jan 7, 2026. |
| MrBeast Burger | 2020 | Wound down 2024 | Virtual delivery-only chain. Operated through cloud kitchen partnerships. Ended 2024 amid operational disputes. |
| Lunchly | 2023 | Growing | School lunch brand. Marketed as healthier alternative to Lunchables. Partnership with Logan Paul and KSI. |
| YouTube AdSense | 2012 to present | $100M+ per year estimated | Main channel plus 14 subsidiary channels. Ad revenue is the original income source but now a minority of total. |
| Brand sponsorships | Ongoing | $50M to $100M+ per year | Historic partners: Honey, Quidd, Current, Shopify, and others. Integrated natively into video content. |
Feastables: How a Chocolate Bar Built a $200 Million Business
Feastables launched in January 2022 as MrBeast’s chocolate and snack brand. The launch strategy was built into a YouTube video that gave viewers a chance to win $1 million by purchasing the chocolate. First-day sales exceeded projections significantly. The product was placed in Walmart, Target, 7-Eleven, and eventually international retailers. By 2024, annual revenue exceeded $200 million. The 2026 target is $520 million. Feastables beat Hershey’s in blind taste tests organized by market research firms, a result that received significant media coverage and reinforced the brand’s credibility beyond its YouTube origin.
Beast Games Season 2: January 7, 2026
Beast Games Season 1 on Amazon Prime Video broke records for most-watched reality competition premiere in streaming history. Season 2 premiered on January 7, 2026, introducing a strong versus smart theme that pitted physical competitors against intellectual ones for a massive cash prize. The season incorporated a crossover with CBS Survivor Season 50, featuring iconic Survivor contestants competing alongside civilian participants. New episodes dropped weekly through the season finale on February 25, 2026. The success of the two-season run with Amazon confirmed that MrBeast’s content format translates from YouTube to premium streaming without audience loss.
Health: Crohn’s Disease and Stargardt Disease
Jimmy Donaldson has publicly disclosed two significant health conditions. He has Crohn’s disease, a chronic inflammatory bowel condition that affects energy, diet, and requires ongoing management. He has spoken about how it shapes his daily routines, particularly around food and scheduling.
He also has Stargardt disease, a rare progressive macular degeneration condition that affects the central vision in his left eye. He disclosed this publicly in 2024. Stargardt disease typically progresses over time and cannot currently be reversed. He has addressed both conditions matter-of-factly in interviews and video content without framing them as extraordinary burdens. The Mavromatis lawsuit filing made reference to both conditions, which Beast Industries described as disgusting exploitation of medical information he had voluntarily shared.
Philanthropy: Team Trees, Team Seas, Team Water
Jimmy Donaldson’s philanthropy is not separate from his content business. It is built into it. His MrBeast Philanthropy YouTube channel, with over 25 million subscribers, specifically documents charitable projects: building wells in African villages, paying for hundreds of cataract surgeries to restore blind people’s sight, planting forests, cleaning beaches, and providing food to hundreds of thousands of people. These videos consistently generate tens of millions of views, which means the philanthropic content also funds itself through ad revenue that gets reinvested.
Team Trees, organized in 2019 with science communicator Mark Rober, raised over $20 million in donations to plant 20 million trees in partnership with the Arbor Day Foundation. Team Seas, organized in 2021, raised funds to remove 30 million pounds of trash from oceans and rivers. Team Water focuses on clean drinking water access in communities without reliable infrastructure. The total charitable impact across these campaigns is measured in tens of millions of dollars and is independently verified through the partner organizations.
The Beast Industries Lawsuit
On April 21, 2026, Lorrayne Mavromatis filed a civil complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina against MrBeastYouTube LLC and GameChanger 24/7 LLC, two production companies under the Beast Industries umbrella. Mavromatis worked at the company from 2022 to 2025, rising from head of Instagram to head of creative to COO of the Verticals division, earning $250,000 per year at her peak.
The complaint alleged a hostile work environment for women, sexual harassment by former CEO James Warren (Jimmy Donaldson’s cousin), demotion after she filed HR complaints, and wrongful termination after her return from maternity leave. The filing described being asked to join a conference call while in active labor, working a merchandise booth three weeks after giving birth, and being sent to Brazil for a work event a month after returning from leave.
| BEAST INDUSTRIES RESPONSE Beast Industries denied all claims within 24 hours of the filing. Their statement: ‘This clout-chasing complaint is built on deliberate misrepresentations and categorically false statements, and we have the receipts to prove it.’ They provided a screenshot of Mavromatis’s signed employee handbook from March 2025, countering her claim of not knowing about parental leave policies. They stated her termination was due to underperformance, unrelated to her gender or leave. Former CEO James Warren, the primary accused party, had already left the company following a 2024 internal culture review. As of May 2026, the case is ongoing in federal court with no ruling. |
Engagement with Thea Booysen
MrBeast got engaged to Thea Booysen in December 2024. Booysen is a South African content creator, former esports commentator, and gaming personality. She has her own significant following on YouTube and Twitch, built through gaming commentary and lifestyle content rather than through her connection to Jimmy. She is known in gaming communities independently of the relationship.
Jimmy’s previous relationship was with Maddy Spidell, who he dated from 2019 to 2022. He and Maddy were public about their relationship on social media. The transition to his current engagement to Booysen happened in the years following that split. Booysen has appeared in MrBeast content and attended the Beast Games Season 2 premiere in Los Angeles in January 2026.
FAQs
What is MrBeast’s real name?
MrBeast’s real name is Jimmy Donaldson. Born May 7, 1998, in Wichita, Kansas, raised in Greenville, North Carolina.
How many YouTube subscribers does MrBeast have in 2026?
Approximately 479 million on his main channel as of April 2026. Across all 14+ channels, total subscribers exceed 627 million. He is the most subscribed individual creator in YouTube history, surpassing T-Series and SET India in 2024.
What is MrBeast’s net worth in 2026?
$2.6 billion per Celebrity Net Worth. This makes him the youngest self-made billionaire in YouTube history. Beast Industries, his parent company, is valued at $5 billion and he owns 50%+ equity.
Who is MrBeast’s fiancee?
Thea Booysen, a South African content creator and former esports commentator. They got engaged in December 2024.
What is Beast Games?
Beast Games is MrBeast’s Amazon Prime Video competition series. Season 1 broke streaming records. Season 2 premiered January 7, 2026, with a strong vs. smart theme and a Survivor Season 50 crossover. The Amazon deal is worth $100 million.
Conclusion
The more accurate version is that Jimmy Donaldson spent four years studying a platform obsessively before anyone outside a small internet subculture knew his name, dropped out of university when most people would have hedged their bets, and then proceeded to reinvest every dollar he made into making the next thing bigger, more expensive, and more spectacular than the last. He did not build a YouTube channel. He built a media and consumer goods company that uses YouTube as its distribution engine. The chocolate brand generates $200 million per year. The Amazon deal is worth $100 million. The parent company is valued at $5 billion.
He is 28 years old. He has Crohn’s disease and a progressive eye condition. He has a lawsuit in federal court and a fiancee who is also a content creator. He has planted 20 million trees, fed tens of thousands of people, and restored sight to hundreds of blind individuals. And his channel added tens of millions of subscribers in the first four months of 2026 alone.
