--- description: The man behind YouTube's most subscribed channel discussed the reason for his success at the TIME100 Summit. title: MrBeast Does It Like No Other Creator image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbe5998ca480bb8e8/69e9283b4bdd677d2b5d5d3e/2272613790.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Apr 22, 2026 # MrBeast Does It Like No Other Creator by [Connor Greene](/author/connor-greene/) ## Connor Greene Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Editorial Fellow Jimmy Donaldson––who runs the most subscribed to YouTube channel in the world under the moniker [Mr](https://time.com/collection/100-most-influential-people/2026/mrbeast/ "undefined")[Beast](https://time.com/collections/time100-creators-2025/7299135/mrbeast/ "undefined")––closed out the [TIME100](https://time.com/collection/100-most-influential-people/2026/ "undefined") Summit in New York City on April 22. Donaldson has amassed a YouTube following of nearly half a billion subscribers. His company, Beast Industries, was recently valued at $5 billion. And those aren’t his only business ventures. The reason for his success, he says? No other brand is like MrBeast. “What we do is very different than almost any company out there,” Donaldson said. “It's like in one video spending 100 hours in the pyramids and showing people what it's like inside the pyramids, and the next we're trying to make the world’s little large water balloon and pop it on a slo-mo camera,” he said. “Part of why we are the largest YouTube channel is we really push to do things you can’t find anywhere else.” _Join us on_ [_TIME's YouTube_](https://www.youtube.com/time "undefined") _for the 2026 TIME100 Gala Red Carpet Livestream, starting at 6:00 p.m. EST on April 23, 2026—and available after on demand_ Donaldson said that everything his brand produces is “new, original, different,” which attracts hundreds of millions of viewers who can’t find that content elsewhere. For one [video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7dYTw-jAYkY&vl=en "undefined") in 2023, Donaldson buried himself alive for a week. He said that he kept a coffin in his garage that he would sleep in leading up to the stunt, for practice. He also consulted the world-renowned magician David Blaine, who performed the same act in 1999. For another video, Donaldson needed a Lamborghini made out of cake, but he was told that wasn’t possible––a word he doesn’t fully believe in. “You can do anything,” he said in reference to the cake-Lambo. “It’s just, what’s the cost and how do you do it? Technically, if you really wanted to, you could blow up the moon, it just costs ten-trillion dollars and a million nukes. Until you know the cost and you know how, you can’t really say it's impossible.” Donaldson also believes in using his platform to help people, he said. In one of his videos––"[1,000 Blind People See For The First Time](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJ2ifmkGGus "undefined")"––he paid for cataract surgery for all of his participants. He said that this was one of his favorite videos he has ever produced. And in February, he acquired Step, a fintech banking app for young adults. “Hopefully we can make educational content that gives them the financial literacy I just didn’t have growing up,” he said. Just 27 years old, Donaldson’s future is vast. Will he sell Beast Industries? “If it makes sense in the future,” he said. Will he run for office? “Maybe in the future,” he answered. But for now, Donaldson remains the face behind the world’s biggest YouTube channel and a multi-billion-dollar company. “I founded the company, but I’m also the main character,” he said. When asked what happens to his company if something happens to him, Donaldson responded: “I mean, that’s why we spend a lot on security.” ——— The TIME100 Summit convenes leaders from the global TIME100 community to spotlight solutions and encourage action toward a better world. This year’s Summit features a variety of conversations across business, culture, AI, and more. Speakers for the 2026 TIME100 Summit include António Guterres, Secretary General of the United Nations; former Ford Foundation president Darren Walker; actor Kate Hudson; entrepreneur Lady Victoria Beckham; creator Jimmy Donaldson, also known as MrBeast; and many more, plus a performance by Jonathan Groff. _The 2026 TIME100 Summit was presented by Booking.com, JPMorganChase, PepsiCo, Reliance, and Toyota._ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collection/time100-summit-gala/2026/mr-beast-creator-economy/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collection/time100-summit-gala/2026/mr-beast-creator-economy/"},"headline":"MrBeast Does It Like No Other Creator","datePublished":"2026-04-22T21:34:15.426Z","dateModified":"2026-07-21T07:21:47.255Z","description":"The man behind YouTube's most subscribed channel discussed the reason for his success at the TIME100 Summit.","url":"https://time.com/collection/time100-summit-gala/2026/mr-beast-creator-economy/","keywords":["TIME 100","list","franchise","Accolades","Events"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbe5998ca480bb8e8/69e9283b4bdd677d2b5d5d3e/2272613790.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Connor Greene","jobTitle":"Editorial Fellow","url":"https://time.com/author/connor-greene/"}],"creator":"Connor Greene","articleSection":"TIME100","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbe5998ca480bb8e8/69e9283b4bdd677d2b5d5d3e/2272613790.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/time100/","name":"TIME100"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-100/","name":"TIME 100"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collection/time100-summit-gala/2026/mr-beast-creator-economy/","name":"MrBeast Does It Like No Other Creator"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"MrBeast on the Creator Economy at the 2026 TIME100 Summit","description":"The man behind YouTube's most subscribed channel discussed the reason for his success at the TIME100 Summit.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/CPdRqGHy/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2026-04-22T19:53:25.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/CPdRqGHy.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/collection/time100-summit-gala/2026/mr-beast-creator-economy/","duration":"PT15M8S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/collection/time100-summit-gala/2026/mr-beast-creator-economy/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```