Jimmy Donaldson, better known as Mr. Beast, said in a post Monday that his first full-length video posted to X, formerly known as Twitter, netted him $263,655 (AUD$400k)—a substantial figure that likely represents one of the largest payouts seen on the Elon Musk-owned platform, which introduced revenue share payments for creators last year.
Donaldson’s YouTube videos regularly generate millions of views. (Photo by Michael Tran / AFP) (Photo by MICHAEL TRAN/AFP via Getty Images)
AFP via Getty Images
Key Takeaways
- Donaldson posted his first video on X last week to test how much ad revenue it would make on the platform, and said Monday that he generated $263,655 from the post, noting the revenue could be “a bit of a facade” because several advertisers bought ads on the video.
- The video, which showed him and his friends crashing and driving cars ranging in price from $1 to $100 million, is a reupload from a video he posted to YouTube four months ago.
- The video posted to X racked up more than 150 million views—around 60 million fewer than it did on YouTube—though it’s worth noting that a view on X doesn’t mean users watched the entire video, which generates a view every time a user merely sees it on profiles, through search or on their homepage.
- Donaldson followed up his findings with a separate post saying he would give $10,000 from the video’s earnings to 10 random people who follow him and retweet the post.
- X didn’t immediately respond to Forbes’ request for comment.
Forbes Valuation
We estimated Donaldson generated $82 million in gross earnings in the year leading up to June 2023, securing the No. 1 spot on our top creators list.
Big Number
232 million. That’s the number of YouTube users subscribed to Donaldson—the second-most subscribed to creator on the platform, according to Social Blade.
Contra
Not all creators have posted payouts as astounding as Donaldson’s, considering revenue share payments are dependent on audience and impressions. Roberto Blake, a YouTuber with 608,000 subscribers specializing in brand development for creators, reported a $307 payout from X in August and said spending $8 on X Premium to make $307 was “a fantastic ROI for something I do anyway.” He noted X’s revenue share program could use improvements around analytics and what ads are shown under his content.
Key Background
X introduced revenue share payments to creators in July, when commentators, meme pages, influencers and more reported receiving payouts worth tens of thousands of dollars, though notably, the first round of payments included back pay from when revenue share payments were first announced last February. X CEO Linda Yaccarino said in a post in September that the platform had paid out nearly $20 million to creators. Creators are eligible to get paid up to 97% of the revenue X has earned from the content they create—that is until they reach $50,000 in lifetime earnings, when the revenue share reduces to 90%, according to X’s creator policies.
This article was first published on forbes.com and all figures are in USD.
