MrBeast Takes Home $250,000 From One Video Posted on X

MrBeast, the internet sensation whose YouTube channel has racked up over 41.8 billion views since he started in 2012 at the age of 13 years old, made over $250,000 from a single video posted to X. This is an indication of the potential influencers have through platform’s new ad revenue sharing program, reports CNN.

The influencer, whose actual name is Jimmy Donaldson wrote on X, “MY FIRST X VIDEO MADE OVER $250,000!” Along with the post, he also shared what looked like a screenshot of X’s creator payment screen, showing that he made $263,655 from his post.

A revenue share program was launched by X owner, Elon Musk, with the aim that content creators would take home a portion of high-performing content, provided they subscribe to the premium service available on the platform.

This program took effect in July to drive more creators to post high-quality content to the platform that would interest advertisers, as the company had challenges with reviving its core ad business. The goal was also to compete with rivals such as TikTok, Meta, and YouTube, which all have functions in place to pay content creators for the traffic they bring in and, in turn, the ad revenue they drive.

Last month, MrBeast said he didn’t have plans to post his work frequently on X.

In response to a request from Musk asking him to post his content on the platform, he said on X, “My videos cost millions to make and even if they got a billion views on X it wouldn’t fund a fraction of it.”

However, last week, MrBeast decided to trial the X ads revenue sharing program by posting one of the videos he had already created — about testing out a variety of pricey cars — on the platform. According to X, as recorded on Tuesday, the video brought in over 160 million views.

After receiving his payment from X, MrBeast said in a post on the platform that he was looking to give away the amount he earned to “10 random people that repost this and follow me” on X. However, he did not imply whether he plans to share videos on the platform.

The payout to MrBeast indicates that creators can earn meaningful cash on X’s nascent program, even though the company’s ad business is markedly smaller than its rivals. But even MrBeast himself cautioned that other creators might not have the same experience.

Referring to the amount he made in a post, MrBeast, who has almost 28 million followers on the platform, said, “But it’s a bit of a facade. Advertisers saw the attention it was getting and bought ads on my video (I think) and thus my revenue per view is prob higher than what you’d experience.”

Not everyone is happy with X’s new creator program.

On Tuesday, Dan Bongino, former law enforcement officer-turned-conservative political commentator, who was banned from YouTube after posting false information about COVID-19 back in 2022, posted a screenshot to X showing that he’d received a payment from the platform of just $379 and called MrBeast’s payment “shady.”