MrBeast’s viral Squid Game video slammed for “plagiarism” of hit Netflix show

On November 24, YouTube star ‘MrBeast’ released his own version of Netflix’s hit show, ‘Squid Game’ — and while it’s garnered over 110 million views in under a week, not everyone is pleased by the creator’s latest project.

Jimmy ‘MrBeast’ Donaldson is one of YouTube’s most prominent content creators. The YouTuber is known for orchestrating massive videos with outrageous challenges … and a generous cash prize for those who participate.

This generosity is also what’s raised MrBeast to internet stardom; alongside his ambitious “challenge-style” videos, the influencer has given away millions of dollars to people in need throughout his career, and even founded his own charity food bank funded by his YouTube channels.

That being said, his past successes are being widely overshadowed by his latest undertaking — a $3.5 million recreation of Netflix’s hit Korean thriller ‘Squid Game.’ The highly-anticipated video instantly became a viral hit, earning millions of views mere hours after being uploaded.

MrBeast’s Squid Game video comes under fire

Despite the video’s major success (as well as a high demand for the video from fans), MrBeast’s Squid Game is coming under fire on social media for what some critics are claiming is cheap “plagiarism” from Hwang Dong-hyuk’s international hit.

• Read More: PewDiePie blown away by MrBeast’s “crazy” Squid Game video

Several commenters have hit out at the recreation, with some pointing out the ‘creator economy’ is making cheap imitations of someone’s hard work and profiting exponentially from it.

“So the promise of the creator economy is that you can spend 10 years of your life making something so that someone else can quickly parody it and get more views?” one commenter wrote.

https://twitter.com/sarahcpr/status/1465356306542432267?s=20

“In other news, plagiarism is way faster than original writing, and much easier,” another said.

“The Mona Lisa took years to paint, but as a creator, I can photograph it in mere seconds,” one user wrote — prompting another to reply: “Now now, you’re being unfair, you also have to take the time to strip all cultural meaning and significance from it, as well.”

This isn’t the first time MrBeast’s Squid Game project has caught backlash; before the video was even released, screenshots of the sets used in his rendition sparked outrage from Squid Game fans, who felt that MrBeast “missed the point” of the show and was profiting off a message about people’s struggle under capitalism.

• Read More: Player #067 from MrBeast’s viral Squid Game video has internet losing its mind

MrBeast has not responded to this latest criticism of his video.