YouTuber MrBeast Makes More Money From This ‘Sweet’ Side Hustle Than From His Videos
The 26-year-old creator has racked up hundreds of millions of views and subscribers on YouTube, but it isn’t his main moneymaker.
Key Takeaways
- Jimmy Donaldson, who goes by MrBeast on YouTube, earned more money from a side business last year than he did from his YouTube channel and Amazon show.
- Donaldson’s chocolate brand is on track to surpass his media business again in 2025.
MrBeast is YouTube’s most-followed creator with subscribers at the time of writing — but he actually makes more money from a side business.
The 26-year-old, whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson, owns the chocolate brand Feastables, which generated $251 million in sales and more than $20 million in profit last year, per documents sent to potential investors that were earlier this week.
Feastables was more profitable than Donaldson’s main media business, including his YouTube channel and his Amazon Prime reality show “Beast Games,” for the first time last year. With $246 million in sales, Donaldson’s media business had slightly lower numbers than Feastables and also ended up losing close to $80 million last year.
Related: MrBeast Says He Lost ‘Tens of Millions of Dollars’ on His Hit Amazon Reality TV Show ‘Beast Games’
The loss could be due to “Beast Games,” Donaldson’s Amazon Prime show, which aired the final episode of its first season last month. Although it became Amazon’s biggest unscripted show ever, with in 25 days, it cost Donaldson tens of millions of dollars of his own money to create because he went over the $100 million budget.
Feastables sells prepackaged bars of chocolate in flavors like milk chocolate, peanut butter, and dark chocolate. The bars cost for a king-size pack of ten. The brand differentiates itself with its commitment to and a “better for you” simple ingredients list consisting of ingredients like organic cacao and grass-fed milk. The chocolate is sold at like Walmart, 7-Eleven, and Target in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, and .
In 2025, Donaldson expects sales from Feastables to continue to surpass those from his YouTube channel and media business, per the investor documents, with $288 million from YouTube, $520 million from Feastables, and $105 million from other businesses, including his snack brand and software firm , which sells tools to creators to help them grow on YouTube.
Donaldson in January 2022, in the same month for the company at a $50 million valuation. Feastables has been a steadily growing business since, with $33 million in sales in 2022 and $96 million in 2023. Donaldson’s company Beast Industries is now looking to raise a couple hundred million dollars to grow and move into new areas, like video games and wellness, the documents show.
The company saw its valuation leap from $1.5 billion to about $5 billion last year following a $300 million Series C investment round led by investment firm Alpha Wave, per Bloomberg. Sources told the outlet that Beast Industries has raised more than $450 million over the past four years to invest in its businesses.
Related: MrBeast’s Holding Company Could Be Worth $5 Billion After Its Latest Fundraising Round
Donaldson told earlier this year that he earns “a couple million” in ad revenue and another “couple million” in brand deals from each of his YouTube videos, which views.
He told the publication that he brings in $600 million to $700 million in revenue overall each year, but reinvests “everything to the point of —you could claim—stupidity, just believing that we would succeed.”
Key Takeaways
- Jimmy Donaldson, who goes by MrBeast on YouTube, earned more money from a side business last year than he did from his YouTube channel and Amazon show.
- Donaldson’s chocolate brand is on track to surpass his media business again in 2025.
MrBeast is YouTube’s most-followed creator with subscribers at the time of writing — but he actually makes more money from a side business.
The 26-year-old, whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson, owns the chocolate brand Feastables, which generated $251 million in sales and more than $20 million in profit last year, per documents sent to potential investors that were earlier this week.
Feastables was more profitable than Donaldson’s main media business, including his YouTube channel and his Amazon Prime reality show “Beast Games,” for the first time last year. With $246 million in sales, Donaldson’s media business had slightly lower numbers than Feastables and also ended up losing close to $80 million last year.
