MrBeast

Donaldson's videos typically feature "attention-grabbing stunts". He often makes videos where he donates large amounts of money to individuals, with many of these videos being sponsored by various companies. He also sometimes hosts competitions in games, such as Minecraft, for big money prizes which includes donating a house in one of his gaming videos.[18][19]

On January 2017, Donaldson published an almost day-long video of himself counting to 100,000. The stunt took him 40 hours, with some parts sped up to "keep it under 24 hours".[20] A subsequent video titled "Counting to 200,000 (Road to a Mil)" was uploaded the next month, although, according to Donaldson, it too, had to be sped up because the full fifty-five hours of counting exceeded YouTube's upload limit.[21] Additionally, Donaldson has tried to break glass using a hundred megaphones, watched paint dry for an hour,[18] attempted to stay underwater for 24 hours (but failed because of health issues), and unsuccessfully attempted to spin a fidget spinner for a day.[22] In March 2019, he organized and filmed a real-life battle royale competition in Los Angeles with a prize of $200,000 (2 games were played, making game earnings of $100,000 for each game) in collaboration with Apex Legends.[23] The event and prize pool was sponsored by Apex Legends publisher Electronic Arts.[24]

A typical video involves Donaldson giving away large sums of money,[25][26] such as giving $100,000 worth of items to homeless shelters in December 2018,[27] donating $32,000 to the Veterans Army Wounded Warrior Program, $70,000 to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, and $10,000 to a local animal shelter in Los Angeles.[28] His expensive YouTube videos are mostly funded and sponsored by the coupon company Honey.[29] During PewDiePie vs T-Series, a competition to become the most-subscribed channel on YouTube, Donaldson bought billboards, numerous ads and radio advertisements to help PewDiePie gain more subscribers than T-Series;[4] at the Super Bowl LIII, he bought multiple seats for him and his team whose shirts spelled out, "Sub 2 PewDiePie".[30][31] Donaldson has stated that he runs the main channel at a loss.[32]

In May 2018, Donaldson was criticized by Taylor Lorenz of The Atlantic for tweets that contained homophobic slurs like "fag" and "gay".[25] He responded by stating that "I'm not offensive in the slightest bit in anything I do."[25]

On January 1, 2021, Donaldson released the video "Youtube [sic] Rewind 2020, Thank God It's Over". He previously announced in November 2020 that he would be making a Rewind days after YouTube announced they wouldn't be making one. In Donaldson's video, he explains that he had always believed that YouTubers "should get more say in Rewind", and with this in mind, he decided to call "hundreds of YouTubers". At the end of the video, Donaldson gives a shoutout to PewDiePie, citing him and his 2018 Rewind as the inspiration for Donaldson's Rewind (both Rewinds featuring the editors FlyingKitty, Dolan Dark and Grandayy, and a song by Party In Backyard).[33]

On October 25, 2019 at 19:00 UTC, Donaldson and former NASA engineer and YouTuber Mark Rober organized a collaborative fundraising challenge event on YouTube called #TeamTrees. The goal of this project was to raise $20 million for the Arbor Day Foundation by January 1, 2020 and plant trees "no later than December 2022". In exchange, the organization would plant one tree for each dollar raised. Every donation goes to the Arbor Day Foundation which pledges to plant one tree for every dollar. Notable YouTubers such as Rhett & Link, Marshmello, iJustine, Marques Brownlee, The Slow Mo Guys, Ninja, Simone Giertz, Jacksepticeye, and Smarter Every Day brought attention to this idea. Trees began to be planted in October 2019 in national parks of the United States.[34][35] On December 19 of that year, the $20,000,000 goal was surpassed,[36] and as of May 27, 2020, the project reached over 22 million dollars. The project has also received large donations from corporate executives Jack Dorsey, Susan Wojcicki, Elon Musk,[37] and Tobias Lütke.[38] As well as companies such as Discovery,[39] Verizon,[39] Plants vs. Zombies,[39] and the nation of Ukraine[39]

Will Hyde, a producer for the MrBeast channel, announced in a November 2020 article with The Wake Weekly that Donaldson would launch a virtual restaurant called MrBeast Burger in December 2020. Hyde said his team worked with Virtual Dining Concepts during the development of the restaurant concept. MrBeast Burger will sell franchise rights to serve the burgers to restaurants across the US and customers will be able to order the burgers via online delivery services.[40][41]