How Jimmy Donaldson became the king of "YouTube"

From Loser to Content King

This is the story of a guy who spent several years in his room studying algorithms while those around him thought very little of him. Jimmy Donaldson, better known as MrBeast, proved one simple thing: if you’re truly passionate about something, nothing can stop you from achieving your goals.

The future content genius was born in 1998 in Kansas, into a military family. His childhood was a typical American wandering — constant moves, parents’ divorce, moving to North Carolina with his mother and older brother. In Greenville, Jimmy attended a small private religious school. Neighbors and acquaintances described him with one word: “obsessed.” But not in the sense of a boring nerd — he simply immersed himself completely in his chosen activity, seeing nothing around him.

Five Years in Computer Captivity

When vlogging was just beginning as an industry, in 2012, Donaldson created the channel MrBeast6000. It started as a typical teenage hobby: Minecraft and Call of Duty gameplay. At the same time, PewDiePie Felix Kjellberg was gaining popularity, but Jimmy didn’t just watch his videos — he analyzed them, dissected their structure, studied patterns.

“About five years I was completely obsessed with the YouTube algorithm,” — MrBeast later admitted in an interview with Rolling Stone. These weren’t just dreams before sleep. Every day looked the same: woke up, ordered delivery, and then — all day at the computer in the company of other YouTubers, analyzing what works and what doesn’t. Classmates considered him autistic. Maybe they were partly right — the guy really did fall out of reality, but for the sake of his goal.

Content evolved: gameplay was replaced by analytics. In 2015, a video was released where Donaldson talked to viewers about YouTubers’ earnings. His mother was not thrilled. She found out about her son’s hobby by chance — from the school yearbook. After her requests, the guy enrolled in college, but that was a short story: one attempt to attend a lecture, and that was it. Jimmy chose YouTube. His mother simply responded — she kicked him out of the house.

The Moment of Truth: 100,000 and Going Viral

The first truly explosive success came in 2017. Five years of waiting, five years of working. The idea seemed funny: just count to 100,000. An eighteen-year-old spent over 40 hours in front of the camera, methodically counting aloud. In the end, realizing the absurdity of the situation, he added: “What am I doing with my life?”

The video titled “I Counted to 100,000” didn’t just do well — it became a phenomenon. Since its release, the clip has amassed over 27 million views. And in 2015, Donaldson himself said on camera: “I hope at least 100,000 people subscribe to me.” By May 2017, the subscribers had already exceeded one million.

The Formula: Madness + Huge Budget = Viral

MrBeast’s channel gained a recognizable feature: videos with completely pointless but hypnotic challenges. At first, these were walls of cups and long English words. Then the scale skyrocketed: expensive fireworks, giant Lego towers built with construction equipment, expeditions to uninhabited islands.

Ad revenue covers even the craziest experiments. Now, Donaldson releases one or two videos a month, each gathering at least 10 million views. Over the past five years, this has become the standard.

MrBeast proved that YouTube is not a place for half-hearted passion. It’s a place for those willing to spend five years studying algorithms, lose their home comfort, and invest millions in ideas that might seem crazy. And ultimately, change the entire platform.