--- description: Find out why Jimmy Donaldson is one of the 100 most influential digital voices of 2025. title: Jimmy Donaldson: TIME100 Creators 2025 image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7ecb8e92c9e6f4e0/6998c81425f3ee4c0b644ce7/TIME100-Creators-2025-Mr-Beast-016.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Jul 09, 2025 # Jimmy Donaldson @mrbeast by [Belinda Luscombe](/author/belinda-luscombe/) ## Belinda Luscombe Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Editor at Large  Dimitrios Kambouris—YouTube/Getty Images Jimmy Donaldson chose the social media moniker [MrBeast](https://time.com/collection/time100-leadership-series/6693255/mrbeast-interview/ "undefined") while he was still a teenager and had almost no followers. Perhaps it was a statement of intention: the 27-year-old went on to devour [YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/@MrBeast "undefined"), where he currently has more than 400 million subscribers, plus an additional 193 million across [TikTok](https://www.tiktok.com/@mrbeast?lang=en "undefined") and [Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/mrbeast/ "undefined"). From the jump, Donaldson took a high-risk, high-reward approach to making content, often incorporating elaborate challenges or stunts, as well as philanthropic elements. Famously, he persuaded one early sponsor to give him $10,000, which he then gave to a man who was homeless and asking for help on a median strip. He estimates he has planted 23,000,000 trees, given more than 10,000,000 meals to people in need, and given $3,000,000 to war refugees. His videos feature unexpected ventures like pitting a man against a lion in a game of tug-of-war and burying himself alive for seven days. The creator has also been accused of ignoring standard production safety procedures; last September, several contestants on _Beast Games_, Donaldson’s Amazon MGM Studios reality show,[sued him and the show’s production companies](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/18/style/mrbeast-reality-show-lawsuit.html "undefined") over the “dangerous conditions” on set. (In a November post on X, he described the complaints as [“blown out of proportion.”](https://x.com/MrBeast/status/1861125907563319510 "undefined")) The Greenville, N.C.-based filmmaker acknowledges that his production cycle can be brutal and that he has a special talent for drawing an audience. “At this point we kind of know what does well,” he told TIME in 2024\. “I can make almost anything go viral.” _Data and insights powered by #paid_ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/time100-creators-2025/7299135/mrbeast/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/time100-creators-2025/7299135/mrbeast/"},"headline":"MrBeast: TIME100 Creators 2025","datePublished":"2025-07-09T11:17:31.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-03T00:50:27.585Z","description":"Find out why Jimmy Donaldson is one of the 100 most influential digital voices of 2025.","url":"https://time.com/collections/time100-creators-2025/7299135/mrbeast/","keywords":["Social Media","list","franchise","Magazine","Special Project","sponsorshipblock","Accolades"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7ecb8e92c9e6f4e0/6998c81425f3ee4c0b644ce7/TIME100-Creators-2025-Mr-Beast-016.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Belinda Luscombe","jobTitle":"Editor at Large","url":"https://time.com/author/belinda-luscombe/"}],"creator":"Belinda Luscombe","articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7ecb8e92c9e6f4e0/6998c81425f3ee4c0b644ce7/TIME100-Creators-2025-Mr-Beast-016.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":"https://time.com/collections/time100-creators-2025/7299135/mrbeast/","name":"MrBeast: TIME100 Creators 2025"}}]}] ```