Credit: Mr Beast/Jordan Pun
Jimmy Donaldson (MrBeast)
- First ranked
- 2026
- Years ranked
- 01
- Dealbase entries
- 06
TDI Review
MrBeast is the world’s most-followed individual YouTuber for a reason. Jimmy Donaldson, the man behind the name, has spent years pushing the boundaries of what a creator can achieve. This year, he became the first individual creator to reach 500 million YouTube subscribers. Yet perhaps the more important story is what he is now trying to build on top of that audience.
That ambition came into sharpest focus at a private Beast Industries briefing in May. Donaldson laid out plans for a membership programme that executives said they wanted to become the “largest membership service in the world”, alongside new content verticals beginning with food and expanding into entertainment, fitness and gaming. A mobile phone service and further expansion of Feastables were also discussed. David Cohen, chief executive of the Interactive Advertising Bureau, summed up the strategy after attending the event: “The general gist is they’re trying to get out of being a YouTube channel.”
There is already substance behind that ambition. In February, Beast Industries acquired Step, a financial app with more than seven million users, bringing its technology and fintech team into the company and giving Donaldson an immediate foothold in financial services. The company has also launched Vyro, a platform designed to help brands distribute content through a wider network of creators. These moves sit alongside an existing business that already stretches from Feastables to Beast Games.
MrBeast’s enormous reach has also made him an increasingly powerful partner for other businesses. His first Super Bowl advert, created with Salesforce, turned into a wider interactive challenge across his content and the company’s technology. Partnerships with Google and Lowe’s followed, while Tubi has struck a deal to bring MrBeast content to its streaming service. Even Nielsen is working with Donaldson and other leading creators as it explores how creator audiences could eventually be measured alongside television.
Donaldson enters the Elite tier having reached a level of scale that remains largely unmatched in the creator economy, and then chosen to keep pushing. The ambition now is to turn Beast Industries into a company with businesses and audiences of its own, rather than one ultimately dependent on the platform where MrBeast became famous. If anyone has the reach to attempt it, it is a creator with an audience larger than the populations of the United States and Mexico combined.
Representation: Donaldson is represented by United Talent Agency (UTA), and also manages his business and commercial interests in-house through Beast Industries.
Signals
Total VIT
1.3m
Source
Top platform
YouTube
Source
Dealbase appearances
MrBeast x Google
Beast Industries has entered into a multi-year partnership with Google spanning Gemini and Google Health, expanding MrBeast's relationship with the tech giant beyond YouTube. The partnership kicked off with a video in which three teams race to survive the jungle, desert and Arctic, using Gemini to help navigate dangers and changing conditions. MrBeast will also appear in Google's wider Gemini campaign and integrate Fitbit Air into an upcoming challenge.
MrBeast x Old Navy
Old Navy has partnered with YouTuber MrBeast on a multiyear deal as the retailer looks to make creators a bigger part of its marketing strategy following a difficult sales period. The partnership launched with Old Navy’s 2026 back-to-school campaign and used comedy, giveaways and student-focused activations, including giving students cash prizes and Old Navy gift cards by answering meme-themed questions.
MrBeast x Lowe’s
MrBeast teamed up with Lowe’s to launch a series of exclusive toy build kits and in-store workshops through the retailer’s Kids Club programme. The partnership brings MrBeast’s Lab Swarms brand into physical stores, with new collectible kits released each month alongside app-based rewards for children taking part.
MrBeast × Salesforce
Salesforce partnered with MrBeast for his inaugural Super Bowl advert, building the campaign around a $1 million puzzle challenge tied to his broader content ecosystem. The 30-second ad shows Jimmy Donaldson walking through a vault while outlining the rules of the challenge, before directing viewers to a Salesforce-hosted MrBeast page to continue. Participants search for clues across videos and related content released after the ad airs, submitting the final code through Slack, with Slackbot providing optional assistance. Behind-the-scenes footage released alongside the campaign showed Slack already in use within Beast Industries, with the same tools incorporated into the public-facing challenge.
MrBeast x The Rockefeller Foundation
Beast Philanthropy partnered with The Rockefeller Foundation — combining the Foundation’s 112-year history of global development work with Beast Philanthropy’s ability to reach young, global audiences via social media. The partnership aims to engage people, especially younger generations, in caring about the world’s most vulnerable populations and to use storytelling and digital outreach to make philanthropy more accessible.
MrBeast x Jack Link’s
Jack Link’s partnered with MrBeast, YouTube’s most followed creator, for a limited-edition snack collab – launching branded jerky and meat sticks fueled by viral creator content and Sasquatch humor. Multi-channel stunts, mass retail presence, and boss-mode social activations achieved record engagement and brought the MrBeast experience from the screen to the snack aisle.