Being boring is lucrative for MrBeast

 

MrBeast is one of the most popular YouTubers on the video platform with over 154 million subscribers on his main channel alone and I find his videos …. incredibly boring.

I used to watch his videos at the height of the Team Trees project which was a campaign that saw the influencer plant trees for every dollar donated. But quickly I grew bored of his videos. The big production videos MrBeast and his team create are an impressive feat but often when I try to watch a video I end up clicking off because I’m not interested nor invested in the people starring in the videos.

Many of MrBeast’s, real name Jimmy Donaldson, videos feature his subscribers who he regularly gifts substantial amounts of money. The only somewhat constant in the videos are MrBeast himself and his childhood friends who operate as supporters and jovial distractions for those competing in challenges. But still for me these big budget videos lacked personality.  

Despite the tens of videos I’ve watched by the American content creator I felt that I left barely knowing anything substantial about him or his team. It may sound like I’m chastising MrBeast for not building a parasocial relationship with his audience, but your audience feeling a connection to the creator and their content has always played a role in the success of many of the most popular creators on YouTube.

However, I’m clearly in the minority as evidenced by his growing subscriber count. Though the lack of personality in his videos, I believe is part of the reason MrBeast’s videos being dubbed into other languages has been a lucrative decision for the 25-year-old creator. 

His videos are currently being dubbed into roughly 12 languages including Spanish, Indonesian and Arabic. This allows his already popular content to reach even more people and earn more money, that he invests back into his channel.

The lack of individuality in the videos is potentially why channels who blatantly copy MrBeast’s concepts are also able to gain so many viewers. There is no need to match the charm or humour of the original video just the concept.

The Sidemen, a popular YouTube group from the UK, have also tried to launch a channel in Spanish but to little success. The Brits whose Sidemen Sunday videos average roughly six million views, haven’t even got a video with 100k views on their Sidemen en Español channel.

Josh Bradley, one seventh of the Sidemen even shared the same sentiment on his Twitch stream explaining to viewers, why he felt the groups collab video with MrBeast in 2022 wasn’t as successful as their usual work.He pointed out that although the Sidemen are no strangers to high concept videos, in theirs the banter is more important than the concept.

In a Sidemen Sunday from May, which was pegged as a European road trip, the boys spent more time laughing at opposing teams and messing with each other’s cars than actually trying to complete the cross-country road trip. The concept is just a launch pad for their banter and childish antics that fans have long enjoyed.

Although I don't find the videos entertaining I could say that you can’t be mad at some trying to change peoples lives. But as someone who spends too much time on YouTube I’ve witness people become enraged by MrBeast’s recent videos during in which he provides eye surgery and hearing aids to two thousand people.

I personally took issue with Donaldson asking viewers to fix the shop display for his chocolate bar when there are employees in supermarkets that are paid to do that. And the way he talks about programming his future children – but these are different conversation.

Still, despite not being entertaining enough for my taste, MrBeast heads a successful multi-lingual platform that does it’s best to give back.