MrBeast’s YouTube dominance takes a dip

MrBeast’s YouTube growth has hit a rough patch.

On Saturday, MrBeast uploaded a new video. “7 Days Exploring An Underground City” amassed 56.5 million views within four days. For any other YouTuber, those numbers would be seismic. But, for YouTube’s most subscribed-to creator, the numbers are dramatically lower than his averages—and could be a sign of broader decline.

“7 Days Exploring An Underground City” had all the trappings of a successful MrBeast video: A clickable premise, excited scream-speaking, and a gaggle of other YouTubers (Logan Paul, Kai Cenat) to help promote it. But the four-day view count of 56.5 million views is dramatically low for the channel. A MrBeast video hasn’t had that slow of viewer growth since May 2023.

It’s been a slow backslide for MrBeast’s views in the past few months. Consider his last five videos: The earliest, published August 3, got 119 million views in four days. The following two videos earned 78 million views each in the same time frame. After that, his upload earned 67 million views. And now, the channel has hit a yearlong low of 56.5 million.

MrBeast’s subscriber growth has also been down recently. In September, the YouTuber added five million subscribers to his channel. That’s the lowest it’s been in the past year, and far from the June peak of 27 million monthly added. It’s hard to imagine anyone overtaking MrBeast on this front; he remains 44 million ahead of the second-most subscribed-to channel, T-Series.

MrBeast has the advantage of being a legacy channel, having grown his subscriber base since 2012. But his competitors are catching up. This past week, which includes the first two days of the new video’s release, MrBeast was only 7th in terms of views. T-Series, Toys and Colors, Sierra & Rhia FAM, and more were far ahead of him.

MrBeast, whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson, has been mired in scandal. In July, Ava Tyson left the company following accusations that she shared inappropriate sexual messages with minors. In a memo obtained by the Associated Press, Donaldson revealed that he had hired a law firm to investigate Tyson. The backlash has lingered: On his X post announcing the new video, two top comments accuse him of “covering up for pedophiles” and befriending “a groomer.”

Meanwhile, the YouTuber’s ambitious “Beast Games” reality competition, which touted a $5 million grand prize, had its own complications. Contestants went online to claim injuries sustained during the games, as well as inadequate access to food, water, and medication. For a separate video, “We Schooled Hundreds of Teachers,” MrBeast listed Stand Together as a key contributor. That nonprofit happens to be founded by right-wing billionaire Charles Koch.

MrBeast’s brand of dramatic, expensive videos now has dozens of copycats, proof of his ingenuity. But, with waning growth and growing claims of wrongdoing, MrBeast’s reign of YouTube dominance could be under threat.