Elon Musk finally got the most popular YouTuber to bring attention to X, even just as an experiment. After commenting that monetization wasn’t really “cranking” on X, MrBeast, YouTube’s No.1 creator with more than 225 million subscribers, decided to post his video on X to test how much advertising revenue he could generate on the platform.
At the end of last year (Dec. 30) MrBeast, whose name is Jimmy Donaldson, responded to a follower and Musk’s comments on X asking him why he wouldn’t post his videos on the platform. The YouTuber explained creator payouts on X weren’t enough to justify the high production costs of his videos, which often show extreme stunts that he tries out for viewers.
“My videos cost millions to make and even if they got a billion views on X it wouldn’t fund a fraction of it :/” Donaldson said at the time.
MY FIRST X VIDEO MADE OVER $250,000! 😲
But it’s a bit of a facade. Advertisers saw the attention it was getting and bought ads on my video (I think) and thus my revenue per view is prob higher than what you’d experience pic.twitter.com/nViVpZbWBb
— MrBeast (@MrBeast) January 22, 2024
Donaldson seemed to have had a change of heart since then. Last week (Jan. 15), he uploaded a video to X and promised followers he would share how much ad revenue he ended up making. He revealed yesterday (Jan. 22) via screenshot that he made $263,655 off of the video, which gained 156,685,975 impressions and 5,176,335 engagement sessions. But, he was skeptical that the results were skewed by his popularity attracting advertisers who bought ads knowing the video would be a viral success.
“MY FIRST X VIDEO MADE OVER $250,000! But it’s a bit of a facade,” he said in a post. “Advertisers saw the attention it was getting and bought ads on my video (I think) and thus my revenue per view is prob higher than what you’d experience.”
Donaldson’s suspicion was supported by other popular creators who have previously tested X’s creator payout program. The YouTuber KSI, who has 24 million subscribers, said during an interview on Logan Paul’s podcast last August that he made $1,590 that month even though his content overall had “hundreds of millions” of impressions.” Donaldson’s poll asking followers to guess how much he earned from his video showed that more than half of voters believed he would get around $10,000 or less, a fraction of what he actually made.
Donaldson said he will give away the $250,000 to 10 followers, which is typical of his content where he often gives away money and gifts randomly.
How much revenue do you think my post on here with 124,000,000 views made?
Will share screenshot of rev in 3 days
— MrBeast (@MrBeast) January 19, 2024
