YouTube star MrBeast says his forthcoming ‘Beast Games’ Amazon show will blow viewers’ minds in spite of the ongoing backlash against him, revealing the series had an eye-watering $100M budget.
Jimmy ‘MrBeast’ Donaldson is YouTube’s most-subscribed content creator, but the hype around his viral videos is steadily dwindling as netizens sound off with criticism toward the influencer’s company and collaborators.
Controversy surrounding his upcoming game show, ‘Beast Games,’ is currently taking center stage, with crew members getting hospitalized due to falling set pieces and contestants suing the YouTuber over “inhumane” working conditions.
Despite these criticisms, MrBeast continues to hype up the production, appearing on an October 2 episode of Logan Paul’s IMPAULSIVE podcast to share his excitement about the series and the multiple records it has supposedly broken.
“We broke over 40 world records while filming Beast Games,” the YouTuber claimed. “…most contestants of any game show in history, largest cash prize of any game show in history, most cameras recording simultaneously in any production in history. I could go on and on.”
“If there’s a world record for game shows, we broke it,” he continued. “I really need Amazon to tell me what I can or can’t say. …it is literally going to blow your mind. It is ten episodes, and every episode makes my YouTube videos look like child’s play.”
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That’s not all; Donaldson also revealed that he’d spent over $100 million on the show, which makes sense, given they built a literal “walled-in city” for contestants to live in throughout filming that cost $15 million.
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On top of that, MrBeast claimed he gave away over $20 million to participants, including the $5 million grand prize.
During the episode, neither MrBeast nor his fellow YouTubers, Logan Paul and KSI, addressed the controversy surrounding their collaborative product, Lunchly, nor the ongoing backlash against MrBeast and his team.
Commenters came out in droves, remarking that they “can’t wait” for reactions from other creators toward the episode due to the trio’s collective silence on the aforementioned subjects.
It’s worth noting that the podcast episode was filmed the day Lunchly was officially launched, and since then, all three YouTubers have hit back at the ensuing criticism toward the lunch kit.
“Obviously eating fresh chicken and broccoli is healthier, but if someone is going to eat a premade meal like this (which millions of people do through Lunchables), then I think giving them a higher quality version at roughly the same price is a net good in my opinion, and why we launched Lunchly,” he said of the situation in a tweet.
Despite his explanation, MrBeast has continued to come under fire for his involvement in the product. He has yet to publicly comment on the backlash surrounding Beast Games, as well as the criticism toward his company after he publicly distanced himself from former collaborator Ava Kris Tyson.