Has MrBeast, the world’s most subscribed YouTuber, finally bitten off more than he can chew?
The content creator - real name Jimmy Donaldson - has recreated Squid Game and played Battleships with real ships in the name of content.
But Donaldson has admitted he may have miscalculated when he dreamt up a comparatively simpler pitch for a video.
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He says he fears he may ‘go broke’ after agreeing to the stunt, which is really saying something when his net worth is estimated to be $54 million, according to Forbes.
Considering MrBeast’s real-life Squid Game apparently cost him over $4 million, you’d have to assume he pulled out all the stops for his latest video, but it’s actually something much more lowkey.
Rather than curing 1,000 people of their deafness or having 100 people aged one to 100 battle it out for a $1 million prize, Donaldson has instead let a guy live in a shop.
He promised him $10,000 for every day he can stick it out, and apparently the dude has quite a bit of staying power.
MrBeast wrote on Twitter: “I messed up.. I bought a random grocery store and told a random person I’d give him $10,000 every day he lives in it and it’s been weeks and he shows no signs of ever leaving. I’m gonna go broke.”
When fans started trying to calculate how much MrBeast owes the guy, he said: “It’s been over a month so far.”
So at least $300,000, then. Wish he’d asked me to live in the grocery store.
Donaldson added that the shop wasn’t actually functioning as a shop with its new tenant, and he’d ‘blacked out the windows and locked it’.
When another X user pointed out that fellow YouTuber MatPat had made a video concluding that someone could survive up to 60 years locked in a grocery store, MrBeast simply responded: “Oh boy.”
So, if this guy really did want to take things to the extreme, MrBeast would owe him $219m.
But he would have to spend six decades locked in a grocery store, so I’m not sure you could really call that a win.
Bizarrely, it’s not just YouTubers who are fascinated with how long someone could stay in a grocery store for. Scientists have also put time and effort into answering the question.
Back in 2016, UK academic Dr Lewis Dartnell concluded one adult could survive for 55 years in a grocery store, in the event of an apocalypse or really negligent shop owners.
So in short, MrBeast’s guinea pig could make an awful lot of money if he was willing to bid farewell to the outside world and commit to the grocery store life.
Simon Fearn