Mr Beast reveals insane cost behind most expensive YouTube video ever

Brad Norton
Mr Beast standing in front of $1 million

Jimmy ‘Mr Beast’ Donaldson is known for some of the most generous giveaways and lucrative challenges on the internet, though the YouTube celebrity has revealed the extreme costs that come with some of his biggest projects.

Mr Beast boasts one of the biggest YouTube channels in the world with over 45 million subscribers. However, his success certainly hasn’t come cheap. Despite raking in tens of millions of views across dozens of videos, production costs have only skyrocketed.

Revealing the secrets behind his channel, Mr Beast went into detail on the latest episode of The CouRage and Nadeshot Show. From the most he’s ever made with one video to the most he’s ever spent.

At the beginning of 2019, Mr Beast and his crew ate a steak worth $10,000 to draw in viewers. That figure pales in comparison to how the year came to a close — December 19, 2019, marks the date of their most costly video and there’s a good chance it isn’t topped anytime soon.

“What’s the most money you’ve ever spent on one video?” Nadeshot asked, putting him on the spot. “The most we spent was probably $1.2 million,” Mr Beast responded without hesitation.

“We did ‘Last to Take Hand Off $1,000,000 Keeps It,’ and then the second place got $30,000.” Third place also got a good chunk of change, and it cost “around $40,000 to set up,” he added.

Given the extraordinary cost of his biggest project to date, it took a bigger hit than perhaps even the crew had planned. “Literally at the end of 2019, our cash flow was low… We had to borrow a little money to keep filming.”

While some videos may see “six-figures” in ad revenue along with sponsorship bonuses on the side, Mr Beast confirmed that a majority of income goes straight back into the channel. “We go hard. We dump it all back in.”

“When we first started scaling up my mum and I would fight all the time,” he said. “She thought I was crazy.” Despite the arguments, things have only gotten more out of hand with Mr Beast’s surging popularity.

Just over $1 million is the biggest video to date. Though Nadeshot was curious what the creator would do with 100 times that. “I would buy a private island, put 100 YouTubers on it, and whoever survives the longest, gets it.” 

A real-world battle royale is his dream video. Only time will tell if this crazy project ever gets greenlit, but if anyone’s going to pull it off, it’ll be Mr Beast.

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About The Author

Brad Norton is the Australian Managing Editor at Dexerto. He graduated from Swinburne University with a Bachelor’s degree in journalism and has been working full-time in the field for the past six years at the likes of Gamurs Group and now Dexerto. He loves all things single-player gaming (with Uncharted a personal favorite) but has a history on the competitive side having previously run Oceanic esports org Mindfreak. You can contact Brad at brad.norton@dexerto.com