Do we like MrBeast?
Our score: 6 out of 10. A track record of backing a trans friend and funding real charity, balanced by old offensive clips and contested claims about how his company treats people.
Jimmy Donaldson started posting at 11 and launched his channel at 13 in 2012 as MrBeast6000. He was raised mostly in Greenville, North Carolina, and walked away from university after two weeks to chase YouTube. The break came in 2017 with a near 24-hour video of him counting to 100,000, and by 2024 his channel had passed every other on the platform.
The old stuff first. In 2024, clips from 2017 resurfaced, which AP reported included a reply to a viewer's comment about selling Black people and a homophobic slur. His spokesperson said he acted like many teenagers and used inappropriate language, and that he has repeatedly apologised. That's an apology from a rep, not a long personal reckoning, and worth knowing before you decide.
The nice test is where it gets complicated. In 2024, five anonymous contestants filed a proposed class action over Beast Games, alleging unsafe conditions, underpayment and a toxic, hostile environment. Amazon Studios and a MrBeast spokesperson declined to comment, and the case was pending in the coverage we read. Donaldson himself wasn't named as a defendant in the sources we found.
Now the fresh one. In April 2026 a former social media manager sued Beast Industries in federal court in North Carolina, alleging years of sexual harassment and gender bias, retaliation, and being fired weeks after returning from maternity leave. The company calls it a clout-chasing complaint and says her role was cut in a restructure. Nothing is decided, so treat it as allegation, not fact.
So where does that leave us? He's not someone who has built a career on punching down, and he stood up for a trans mate. The open question is whether his company is as kind to its own staff as his videos are to strangers. We'd keep watching, and the lawsuit's outcome could move the needle either way.