Liczne kontrowersje związane z MrBeastem niepokoją fanów YouTube’a

Jimmy “MrBeast” Donaldson has been the de facto face of YouTube for years — but even so, 2024 was poised to propel his career into a fresh stratosphere of stardom. This year, Donaldson’s channel became the biggest on the popular video platform, an accomplishment earned just months after a video of his broke the record for most views in 24 hours. The 26-year-old influencer besides finalized a massive deal with Amazon to produce the biggest reality tv competition in history, an event called Beast Games that would pit 1,000 contestants against each another for a chance to win $5 million. The YouTuber even partnered with mark to launch a fresh toy line. Now, as we approach the end of 2024, things have taken a massive turn.

Scandals are piling up. Reputations are being torched. Views are tanking. MrBeast’s last couple of uploads are inactive reaching around 100 million eyeballs, yes, but compare that to view counts from 2023 that frequently reached well above 250 million. What seemed like the steady continuation of a planet takeover that could, according to Donaldson himself, culminate in an eventual presidential bid is now shifting to an existential crisis that has left fans of the YouTube titan’s videos doubting their loyalties.

Nowhere is this more apparent than in the comments on Donaldson’s YouTube posts — the part of his channel where he can talk to his fans directly, without posting fresh footage. Unlike the replies to his actual videos, these comments appear to be unmoderated — and they’re not pretty. Many of the top comments voice complaints by fusing multiple words together, like “Jimmyisjustdoingeverythingexceptaddresstheallegations” and “AdressTheAllegationsJimmyWeAreTired.” any fans engage with the content of these posts, 1 of which sees Donaldson celebrating a subscriber milestone 2 months ago — but even these replies are ominous. “What Goes Up Gotta Come Down,” says 1 top-voted comment. “The last milestone mrbeast will reach,” another quips.

The wave of fan dissatisfaction began taking root this summer. First, there was an onslaught of allegations and concerns surrounding Donaldson’s longtime collaborator and friend Ava Tyson, who was accused of sending inappropriate messages to a fan, who was a minor, 8 years ago. Tyson departed from MrBeast’s company with an apology — but the incidental lit a fuse. net sleuths then unearthed more questionable ties to Donaldson and the MrBeast brand — including a sex offender being employed by the company and accusations of sexual assault within the company, brought to light by YouTuber Dogpack404, who utilized to work for Donaldson. Dogpack404 has since been threatened with legal action by Donaldson’s lawyers.

While Donaldson broadcasts a highly PG aura now, his debut on YouTube back in 2012 was marked by a period of edgelord humor characteristic of teen boys who grow up on the internet. As such, fresh accusations that Donaldson maintains a “boys’ club” that could, in theory, make misconduct permissible has become believable to people online. It doesn’t aid that any of Donaldson’s associations are far from public darlings. He seems to be a fan of controversial billionaire Peter Thiel, at 1 point recommending a book written by the tech mogul that has been described by a Thiel biographer to “border on fascism.” Thiel besides reportedly funded a startup that then received millions of dollars as part of a charity run held by Donaldson in 2022.

Donaldson’s more outwardly controversial professional association is Logan Paul, another numbers-driven YouTube personality that is no alien to scandal. Paul’s relationship with Donaldson has been front and center for any time now, as evidenced by the blond boxer’s appearance in MrBeast videos and Donaldson’s participation in Paul’s podcast. Now, the 2 are teaming up to sale Lunchly, a Lunchables competitor that comes packaged with Prime, Paul’s line of energy drinks, and Feastables, Donaldson’s line of chocolate bars. The September announcement has been received poorly by people online, especially as the 2 personalities have repeatedly tried to position Lunchly as a healthier lunch option. But Paul’s energy drink, which is marketed toward children, is contentious adequate that a senator has called for an investigation of its advanced caffeine levels.

In the past, Donaldson has claimed that the videos on his main channel are so costly to produce, he needs side ventures to aid fund them. The videos themselves make money from advertisers and YouTube, but their profit possible is limited compared to items you can acquisition multiple times, like Feastables and Lunchly. Despite being one of the highest-paid personalities on the platform, Donaldson has, up until now, managed to avoid a greedy reputation. Donaldson has made a concerted effort to item his generosity with his earnings, frequently reminding people that he invests nearly everything he makes right back into his videos. 3 years ago, Donaldson revealed he spent $48 million a year on his productions, a number that’s likely gone up as his videos have gotten progressively more ambitious in scope. Donaldson has gone from uploading videos of himself counting to a advanced number to backing productions where he blows up houses and makes trains crash into giant pits. “I made money, I spend money,” Donaldson says in a video breaking down how he invests his profits. The pitch of Lunchly as a healthier alternate to Lunchables — which have come under scrutiny late for containing harmful chemicals — seems right in line with Donaldson’s pitch as a noble do-gooder. If Lunchly is indeed healthier, it could besides see the company land a government contract in the future.

As lawsuits focused on working conditions, dangerous situations, and sexual harassment during the making of his upcoming Amazon game show continue to mount, Donaldson’s ability to present his work as being for a greater good may be weakening. Donaldson’s last 2 uploads have accrued 83 million and 113 million views as of this writing, which may sound awesome until you consider this is little than half of what he was reaching a fewer years ago. Aside from the occasional fluke, Donaldson’s viewership hasn’t stooped this low in 4 years. Moreover, the controversies are prompting fans to reconsider what Donaldson stands for and how those values may have led to this point.

In the past, the YouTuber has spoken at dimension about his incessant drive to make awesome videos, regardless of cost or time. For the most part, his ambition has been received as a affirmative reflection of Donaldson’s edge. The grind becomes virtue. But Donaldson’s drive has started to take on a more ominous air. Did Amazon’s Beast Games turn out the way it did due to its unrealistic ambition? Donaldson’s willingness to do anything for the sake of views seems little admirable erstwhile it becomes apparent that he expects everyone around him to do the same.

In a leaked memo verified by Business Insider, Donaldson repeatedly tells staffers that they should never take “no” for an answer erstwhile it comes to filming a video, regardless of the reason. If a individual at a big-box store tells a MrBeast worker they can’t movie there, for example, the paper suggests uncovering individual else who will give the green light instead. Whether or not uncovering a workaround to possible production issues might land individual in problem is immaterial, the paper suggests. In fact, workers themselves should think twice before telling Donaldson that something isn’t possible. Anyone who thinks otherwise, the paper says, may not be cut out to work with Donaldson. Meanwhile, Beast Industries, the larger company that oversees Donaldson’s various business ventures, hired a chief operating officer this summertime who has been cited in a Bloomberg report that claims his erstwhile company held a “culture of recklessness” that was full of “macho belligerence.”

As Donaldson pushes forward with fresh announcements and videos, the allegations have already impacted the YouTuber’s business. A six-figure Feastables sponsorship deal with a Twitch streamer was dropped in light of the scandals. Internally, Donaldson seems to be conducting triage via interior restructuring. In a leaked email verified by AP, Donaldson says that he is hiring a firm to analyse existing allegations, starting workplace training for employees, and creating a means for workers to study their concerns to the company. These are mechanisms and structures adopted by many companies, but they besides mark a departure from Donaldson’s looser approach to moving a business. Up until August, per a study by Time, Donaldson’s parent was considered the full HR department.

But it may be besides late to contain the turmoil within the fandom, which is critical to Donaldson’s full business model. Comments on the videos posted since these scandals became public appear stilted: In 1 fresh upload, despite having nearly 100,000 comments, not a single 1 of these comments appears to have a answer from another commenters. Most of the top replies repeat the same thing, “Ronaldo is coming,” in mention to the football star’s increasing YouTube channel. It goes beyond the videos themselves. On Reddit, MrBeast’s forum, with 1.5 million members, asks people to request approval to post anything. “Why not just private the subreddit if you’re going to keep it locked down,” reads the top answer to a post on a fresh video. “This is what happens erstwhile a company runs their own sub,” declares a comment further down the thread.

The overarching vibe on the subreddit is dissatisfaction, judging from the replies to a thread pegged to the fresh MrBeast video “Men Vs Women last The Wilderness For $500,000.” All the top comments bemoan a shift in Donaldson’s output, which fans position as besides buttoned-up to be entertaining. “Now the videos are so over edited that even if they wanted to include personality in the videos, that editing kind simply does not let for it,” 1 commenter says. “Yeah in an effort to maximize engagement [they are] destroying [their] videos,” another says. “It feels they are so soulless due to the fact that there are never dips in action.”

According to angelfacepeanut, a fan who has been watching since the inception of Donaldson’s channel, the fresh scandals have soured the experience of watching MrBeast videos, especially after watching Dogpack404’s viral videos on the allegations.

“As individual who has personally been screwed over by a popular company in the creator space, [Dogpack’s] video truly made me rethink all the tiny red flags he had set off in my head prior to this (whether that be the Creator League promotion or the original Rosanna Pansino controversy) and, especially as more and more info continues to come out, it truly puts a bad feeling in my head,” angelfacepeanut told Polygon over X. “It would take a miracle of a consequence to save his reputation after everything.”

A downfall of this magnitude was, perhaps, inevitable. In an interview with Polygon, erstwhile Donaldson worker Trey Yates says the average MrBeast viewer is likely a kid — which makes it easier to avoid scrutiny. The decision to Amazon is, in Yates’ view, a play to gain an older and possibly more skeptical audience.

Instead, the public is seeing Donaldson’s silence — and fans aren’t taking it well. “People realized that he hasn’t said anything, and they’re most likely getting fed up,” YouTuber TheAsherShow says in a video recapping Donaldson’s situation.

“For years, Jimmy felt like he was invincible,” Yates told Polygon over Discord. Before being fired in 2021 for not being a cultural fit at the company, Yates recalls a conversation with Donaldson where the YouTuber purportedly said that lacking corporate ownership meant that the company could do whatever it wanted.

“What we’re seeing now is the repercussions of him reasoning that way,” Yates posited. “In his YouTube bubble, he could get distant with that as his mark audience was children… If he wants to proceed to scale up, he can’t just say and do ‘whatever the fuck we want’ anymore,” he adds.

Yates left the company, he tells Polygon, in part due to the fact that he was the uncommon worker that pushed back against Donaldson’s seemingly unreasonable video production requests. For a time, Yates recalls working nonstop to meet Donaldson’s demands, even if it meant missing birthdays and holidays. But after missing the birth of a relative, he says, Yates reached a breaking point. Not long after telling Donaldson he wouldn’t work even longer hours, Yates says that he was fired from his editing position.

Stories like Yates’ are encouraging others to step forward and share their experiences, which is part of why Donaldson seems to abruptly be drowning in allegations. It may be tempting to see it all as a revelation, but the Donaldson described in these stories falls squarely in line with the exacting and ceaseless Donaldson the net has been celebrating all along. “I’m large at lying,” Donaldson told Rolling Stone in 2022.

The myth, as Donaldson has molded it, is the ascent of a plucky everyman who was bold adequate to give distant $10,000 to a homeless man in his first viral video. What is typically left out of this communicative is its provenance: The money was provided by a company peddling what are fundamentally NFTs.

“I utilized to be a immense MrBeast supporter,” angelfacepeanut said, “but after everything that’s come out, it just sucks to see individual with specified an unfathomably large platform neglect to have any moral backbone while boasting himself as a hardcore philanthropist.”