YouTube star Jimmy "MrBeast" spoke about how he ended up losing tens of millions of dollars during the production of Beast Games season 1, which was released on Prime Video in December 2024. The game show included a whopping $10 million prize for the winner. In total, the show gave away over $20 million worth of prizes to the participants.
Jimmy had earlier revealed that it had cost $15 million to build the collapsible towers featured in the first episode of Beast Games. In a recent X post, he said that he may have gone a little overboard with the project:
"Yeah, went a little crazy with it haha."
"I lost a ton of money filming the show" - MrBeast speaks on incurring a financial loss while filming Beast Games
YouTube's biggest star, MrBeast, was recently invited to Steven Bartlett's The Diary of a CEO podcast, during which the YouTuber delved deeper into the financial operation of Beast Games season 1.
MrBeast is well known for his extravagant spending on his videos. His most ambitious project to date was Beast Games, with an investment exceeding $100 million. Most of the funding came from Amazon, which purchased the rights to the show. Despite the massive financial backing, Jimmy revealed that he still lost a ton of money:
"That didn't affect them (Amazon). I lost a lot of money filming the show. That came out of my pocket. We spent way too much money on it. I lost tens of millions of dollars on that show. I'm an idiot."
MrBeast also provided a breakdown of the finances after Steven Bartlett attempted to calculate the budget allocated by Amazon. While Amazon invested $100 million, $20 million of that went directly to prize money for the winners. Shedding more light on the production, Jimmy added:
"Episode 1, we spent $15 million on those towers, building them all. That was the most towers we built, most hydraulic press used."
He also explained that in Episode 2, the show featured Beast City, a massive set that cost an additional $14 million to build:
"Episode 2, we have the city, that was a $14 million set. That was a real city that they were living in. Just between the $22 (million) we gave away plus those two sets (episode 1 and 2), already right there you're over $50 million."
For those wondering, Beast Games Season 1 was won by Jeffrey Randall Allen, aka Player 831. Randall walked away with $10 million, which he stated he would use to raise awareness about Creatine Transporter Deficiency (CTD), a rare genetic disorder that his son suffers from.