24-Year-Old YouTube Star MrBeast Is Already Out-Earning Kim Kardashian

YouTube star MrBeast’s net worth was already impressive before 2021, but his earnings last year put the 24-year-old — born Jimmy Donaldson — into the stratosphere for video creators.

According to Forbes, MrBeast earned $54 million in 2021, more than any other YouTube star — Jake Paul, Markiplier, and Ryan Kaji included — and more than Hollywood celebs like Kim Kardashian, Billie Eilish, and Angelina Jolie.

The New York Times asserted in May 2021 that MrBeast is “out to become the Elon Musk of online creators,” and coincidentally or not, Musk jokingly vowed on Sunday, May 8, to leave Twitter to MrBeast in his will.

Here’s more information about MrBeast’s rise to the top.

MrBeast’s flagship YouTube channel shows that 95.3 million subscribers have been lured by his pranks, stunts, and cash giveaways. (Some of his recent videos are “$10,000 Every Day You Survive Prison,” “Extreme $1,000,000 Hide and Seek,” and “Hit the Target, Win $300,000.”) Because of MrBeast’s online fame, he has a reported net worth of $25 million, according to Celebrity Net Worth.

The YouTube star, born in Kansas and raised in North Carolina, is also an entrepreneur and philanthropist. Rolling Stone reported last month that MrBeast Burger, MrBeast’s chain of ghost kitchens, has 1,600 franchises around the United States. Earlier this year, he launched a line of chocolate bars called Feastables. And his merchandise rakes in an estimated $500,000 each month, the magazine reports.

His MrBeast Philanthropy channel, meanwhile, had reportedly delivered more than a million meals in eastern North Carolina by the end of 2021, and he’s also trying to plant 20 million trees through his #TeamTrees campaign and to remove 30 million pounds of ocean trash with his #TeamSeas campaign.

“Jimmy said to me the first night I met him, his life ambition is to improve the world. I have no shadow of a doubt that’s sincere,” MrBeast Philanthropy CEO Darren Margolias told Rolling Stone. “Also to the people that say ‘He does it for the views,’ we have done some stunningly generous things Jimmy pays for 100 percent out of pocket that nobody knows about.”

The same New York Times article that discussed MrBeast’s quest for Musk-like domination also mentioned the controversy around him. Early videos of his contained homophobic slurs, for instance. (“When Jimmy was a teenager and was first starting out, he carelessly used, on more than one occasion, a gay slur,” a representative told the Times. “ Jimmy knows there is no excuse for homophobic rhetoric.”)

Moreover, multiple ex-employees alleged that the workplace culture at MrBeast’s companies was beset by bullying and favoritism. A former editor told the Times that MrBeast berated him almost every day, his recollection joining those from 10 other former employees who described a difficult workplace culture.

Speaking to Rolling Stone, MrBeast brushed off those allegations. “I’ve literally worked with over a thousand people. Two people thought I was pretty demanding, which was perfectly fine,” he said. “We have high standards, but it’s not a toxic work environment.”