"Lost tens of millions of dollars"— Beast Games host MrBeast comments on going "over budget" for the show

MrBeast upped his ante with his show Beast Games when it premiered on Prime Video on December 19, 2024. The show broke records, including showcasing a thousand contestants and introducing the biggest prize money in entertainment history.

Making this magnitude of the show costs a lot of money, as anticipated. MrBeast admitted in the January 29 episode of Colin and Samir podcast, that he went beyond budget.

"I went over budget. I lost tens of millions of dollars," the Beast Games host said.

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Beast Games host MrBeast comments on the marketing of the show and its scale

MrBeast's featured episode on the Colin and Samir podcast was filmed two days before Beast Games premiered on December 19. During the podcast, co-host Samir Chaudry dwelled on the difference in marketing for the show and his YouTube videos.

Samir noted that when it comes to marketing a YouTube video, the creator typically focuses on the title and thumbnail. However, promoting a show is a different ball game, as its advertising strategy is carried out in a distinct way.

Considering that MrBeast has been part of both processes, Samir asked him to elaborate on the difference between the two.

MrBeast responded that they have "lots of marketing" planned between now and the end of the show. However, he noted that any amount of good marketing doesn't matter if the show isn't good.

"We have lots of marketing plan between now and the end of it. But at the end of the day, like doesn't matter how good your parking is if the show su*ks,"he said.

Two episodes of Beast Games were released on the premiere date. After reviewing the results, MrBeast shared during the podcast that releasing three episodes on the premiere day is more beneficial and that he plans to release three episodes for the next season.

"If people watched the first 3 episodes of a show and like really enjoy it, they have like a 70% chance of finishing it. It's like a pretty high completion rate. So it's like that's kind of the golden numbers. First three [episode], enjoy it and then they're hooked and they're gonna they're gonna know what happens," he added.

Building on this, co-host Colin Rosenblum reflected on the ending of episode 2, speculating that it had the potential to hook viewers. MrBeast agreed, even calling it possibly the "greatest cliffhanger of all time."

Reflecting on that episode and the money meter, which kept increasing until it hit the million mark, Colin speculated that the episodes must have been extremely expensive. He added that they knew MrBeast had a substantial budget for the show and had spent a "sh*t ton of money."

The Beast Games host responded that he actually went "over budget" with his Prime Video show.

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MrBeast comments on winning an Emmy

Later in the podcast, MrBeast expressed his desire to win an Emmy Award for his show. Although he mentioned that he personally wasn’t focused on winning awards, he emphasized that it would mean a great deal to his team and would be a huge achievement for them.

"I feel [and] I see their energy and I see that we've now worked on something that could [win an Emmy] and I know how much it would mean to them if we did. So that energy is infectious. So now I really wanna win one just so I can see how happy you make my team," the Beast Games host said.

The Beast Games host further noted his winning an Emmy would also benefit a lot of other creators, as they would be exposed to a lot of opportunities.

"So success is ideally winning an award of some type and then success is, you know, having this crush so that other creators can use it and go 'Look, Jimmy killed it with Beast Games, give me a good deal, believe in me and get more creative freedom, get better terms' and that kind of stuff with the streaming deal," he explained.

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Beast Games episodes premiere every Thursday on Prime Video.