MrBeast Surpasses PewDiePie As Most-Subscribed YouTuber

The title now goes to 24-year-old MrBeast, who flew past the controversial gaming YouTuber’s 111 million subscribers with a close 112 million. That means that aside from YouTube channels run by companies like T-Series, Cocomelon - Nursery Rhymes and SET India, there is no other channel out there run by an individual that can boast a following as large as MrBeast.

MrBeast actually got his start in a very similar way to PewDiePie, and that was through the gaming world. He started off in 2012 uploading videos of him playing video games like Minecraft and Call of Duty: Black Ops 2.

Related | Trisha Paytas Pretends You're Their Baby in New POV ASMR Video

Eventually, he moved his content away from the cookie-cutter gaming videos that had been reigning king on the platform and instead tried out something new: stunts.

In 2017, he uploaded a 23-hour-long video of himself counting to 100,000, and even though its almost day-long length should’ve spelled disaster for it, it actually became his most successful video at the time, going viral and amassing 26 million views to date. The new format worked, making him a true cultural powerhouse on a level that PewDiePie never achieved during his reign.

His videos became even more elaborate over the coming years, and that meant that they also came with a bigger price tag.

In 2020, as the world closed down and delivery food became the next hot ticket item, MrBeast took note and decided to open up his own delivery-only restaurant, MrBeast Burger. On opening day, he gave away up to $10,000 to customers who made their way through the insanely long drive-through line, playing off of his image as “YouTube's biggest philanthropist.” He chronicled the whole ordeal in his viral video “I Opened A Restaurant That Pays You To Eat At It,” which has received over 123 million views to date.

MrBeast even transitioned the restaurant out of the delivery-only world earlier this year, opening up his first physical restaurant in East Rutherford, New Jersey and expanding his empire even further. He’s now transcended anything that would’ve been possible with the gaming format he used in his early days.

MrBeast seems to have tapped into a gold mine of a format and an audience. It’s a wonder it took him this long to get here, but now that it’s happened, it seems he’s safely secure at the top.

Photo courtesy of Dave Kotinsky/Getty Images for MrBeast Burger