Jimmy “Mr. Beast” Donaldson is a content creator who has amassed more than 360 million subscribers on his Youtube Channel. Mr. Beast not only has the largest channel in the history of Youtube, but has also become a successful entrepreneur with his confectionary brand, Feastables. In fact, Donaldson has become so wildly successful that his net worth as of January, 2025 was estimated to be in the vicinity of one billion dollars.

The first viral video that Donaldson uploaded, a video in which he counted to 100,000, capitulated him to internet fame in 2017. Since then, his most popular Youtube videos have centered around exceedingly large sums of money. Some examples of this trend include his videos: “$456,000 Squid Game in Real Life”, “Last To Leave Circle Wins $500,000”, and “$1 vs $1,000,000,000 Yacht!”. However, in early 2024, Mr. Beast set his eyes on a new stage; he decided to create his own reality show. In his typical fashion, he decided to offer a large sum of money to the victor: five million dollars.

The premise of Beast Games is a groundbreaking reality show with a total of 1,000 contestants. Within the first episode, Mr. Beast claims that his show broke an astounding 40 Guinness World Records during its filming. Aside from the grand prize of five million dollars, Donaldson gave many other contestants the opportunity to win varying amounts of money. In episode ten of Beast Games, he clarifies to the audience, “In case you’re wondering, yes, this show is way over budget.” Although, putting aside the numbers, is Beast Games really worth watching, or is it just a gimmick for Mr. Beast to give away a lot of money?

At the start of Beast Games, Donaldson often mentions the final prize. This is a theme that is quite common within reality game shows. Hearing five million dollars over and over is a bit repetitive, but it does serve to impress the viewers with just how much money one of the lucky contestants will walk away with. “Lucky” is definitely the right adjective to use when describing the contestant who walked away with the final prize.

Across a total of 36 challenges, the players who made it to the last episode each participated in about 20 challenges. Every single contestant participated in at least two or three challenges that were based entirely on luck. Many more of the challenges rested solely on the actions of others. Although the final contestants were undoubtedly tough competitors, many others were eliminated simply because of the decisions of others or simply because they were unlucky.

Beast Games looked to create a spectacle; however, it did not attempt to be fair to all competitors. The show attempted to make the contestants more likable, especially in the later episodes, but the idea of winning or losing money always seemed more important than how the people felt. The primary aspects highlighted were the despair and sadness of the people who lost. Donaldson tried to incorporate aspects of nostalgia and hope into the show, but they were usually brief and lacked depth.

The show is definitely not the masterpiece that Mr. Beast intended it to be, but I will admit that it was enjoyable. There was a sense of thrill and nervousness that people would be eliminated from the competition. In some regards, he even carried through and he did establish a fairly good plot within the later episodes of the show. I think that the number of contestants early on made it hard to connect with any of them, since so many were highlighted. The irony of the thousand contestants is that the show only became truly interesting after most of them were gone.

If Donaldson decides to pursue more seasons, some necessary changes for the show might include adding more individual motivations and showcasing less contestants. While one thousand contestants is definitely good for advertising, it did not make for very entertaining television. Additionally, the contestants had little to no control over whether or not they stayed in the games, which made it feel a lot colder and more like a social experiment; that aspect definitely needs to change for a possible season two. Mr. Beast needs to give his contestants more control within his show, rather than relying so heavily on chance and other people.

After watching all the episodes of the show, I have produced a rating that I think best fits the show as it stands now. I thought about how it was enjoyable to sit down every week and discover how the cliffhanger from the past episode was resolved. Yet, for the first few weeks, I was not sure if I would be interested to continue watching the show.

If I separately rated the first and second halves of the show, the numbers would be in stark contrast. However, considering each episode, how enticing it was, how much I connected with it, and key takeaways I left with, I decided to rate the show two stars out of five. Beast Games has a lot to improve, but I would still recommend giving it a watch if you have some spare time.