MrBeast started posting to YouTube in February 2012. His early videos featured gaming-related content (lots of Minecraft!), as well as speculation on other YouTubers’ financials. Though he steadily grew a following, his breakthrough came when he posted a stunt where he counted to 100,000. He also started doing giveaways and philanthropic contests. In these videos, participants could win massive amounts of money, or extremely valuable prizes.

Speaking with Lex Fridman in 2023, Mr. Beast revealed one of the secrets to his success: “The way to get 100 million views on a video is you need something original, creative, something people really need to see, ideally never been done before…if you want to constantly go viral, you need a constant stream of ideas.”