MrBeast, an influencer who posts stunt videos and began a restaurant concept to monetise his success, has the most subscribers of any YouTuber through the first half of 2024 after he surpassed a popular Indian music channel in June.
Key Takeaways
- MrBeast, whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson, took the title of YouTuber with the most subscribers in early June, surpassing T-Series, an Indian music channel with 268 million subscribers that had held the title since at least 2019.
- MrBeast has 290 million subscribers as of June 27, topping a list by data analytics site SocialBlade.
- When he took the title, 26-year-old Donaldson posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, saying he had “finally avenged Pewdiepie,” referring to YouTuber Felix “PewDiePie” Kjellberg who had a months-long, messy battle with T-Series to have the most subscribers before conceding in March 2019.
- Last year, Forbes named Donaldson—who has 57.5 million followers on Instagram and another 96.5 million on TikTok—its Top Creator and estimated he had about $82 million in earnings from June 2022 to June 2023.
- Behind Donaldson and T-Series, the most followed accounts are YouTube Movies, Cocomelon – Nursery Rhymes and SET India, all with more than 173 million subscribers.
Top 10 Youtube Accounts By Subscriber Count (as Of June 30)
- MrBeast, 293,000,000 subscribers
- T-Series, 268,000,000 subscribers
- YouTube Movies, 181,000,000 subscribers
- Cocomelon – Nursery Rhymes, 177,000,000 subscribers
- SET India, 174,000,000 subscribers
- ✿ Kids Diana Show, 123,000,000 subscribers
- Music, 121,000,000 subscribers
- Vlad and Niki, 120,000,000 subscribers
- Like Nastya, 117,000,000 subscribers
- PewDiePie, 111,000,000 subscribers
Related
Key Background
Donaldson first began posting to YouTube in 2012, oftentimes sharing videos of himself playing video games and discussing other YouTubers. His first viral video came in 2017 when he posted a video in which he counted to 100,000 over the course of 40 hours. He is now known for videos with elaborate challenges, like burying himself alive or counting to 100,000, and large giveaways, like offering people large sums of money to do things like survive in the wilderness.
Donaldson has moved beyond just making money from his YouTube work and opened MrBeast Burgers in late 2020. The company has a unique model that allows fans to order MrBeast-branded meals from about 1,600 restaurants or ghost kitchens, and the YouTuber does the marketing and splits profits with the restaurants.
The restaurant was immediately successful and became the country’s fastest-growing restaurant brand—though Donaldson and Virtual Dining Concepts, which worked on the chain, got tied up in a legal battle last year. Donaldson sued VDC, alleging it damaged his reputation by delivering “low-quality products,” and the dining company countersued him for $100 million over an alleged breach of contract. In 2022, Donaldson launched another food endeavor: a chocolate and snack brand, Feastables.
Big Number
52,568,040,869. That’s how many views Donaldson had on his videos as of June 21, according to SocialBlade. That puts him at No. 19 in terms of ranking by views worldwide, while T-Series ranks No. 1 for most views with more than 258 billion views, according to SocialBlade.
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