# Is MrBeast the Biggest YouTuber? 500 Million Subscribers, 12 Lists
> MrBeast runs YouTube's biggest channel. Here he is on 12 lists that also cover game-show hosts, creator snack brands, celebrity givers and North Carolina.
*By YPB Team · Published September 30, 2026 · https://youpick.best/articles/mrbeast-ranked-many-ways*
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MrBeast in 2022, two years before his channel became the most-subscribed on YouTube. Photo: Fidias, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
On 12 June 2026 MrBeast's channel reached 500 million subscribers, a figure no other YouTube creator has touched.1 Three months later, on 2 September, Google announced a multi-year partnership with his company, Beast Industries, that takes him into Gemini and Google Health.3
Jimmy Donaldson started the channel at 13. At 28 he also hosts a streaming game show, sells chocolate, lends his name to a burger brand and runs one of the internet's largest fundraising operations. That spread puts him on a dozen lists, and only a few of them are about YouTube.
> On every YouTube list MrBeast is the reference point; on every list outside YouTube he is the new arrival, measured against Alex Trebek, Dolly Parton and Michael Jordan.
## MrBeast vs PewDiePie: the greatest YouTubers of all time
The all-time YouTuber ranking holds 17 creators, and two of them have held the title of the platform's most-subscribed individual.
PewDiePie held it for most of the 2010s. MrBeast overtook him in November 2022 at 112 million subscribers, then passed the music label T-Series on 2 June 2024 to lead every channel on the site.1
Size is only one reading of "greatest". Casey Neistat changed how vloggers shot and cut their lives, Jenna Marbles became one of the first women to break out on the platform, and Marques Brownlee set the standard for tech reviews.
PewDiePie's supporters point to a decade of gaming commentary that shaped the culture MrBeast grew up in.
The two men who have held YouTube's subscriber crown. Play it →
## Kurzgesagt, MrBeast and the best YouTube channels ever
The channel ranking mixes people with productions. T-Series is a record label, Cocomelon is a children's animation studio, and Kurzgesagt is a Munich studio that turns science into short animated films.
MrBeast started posting in February 2012, at 13.1 His early uploads were gaming videos and counting stunts; the budgets that define the channel came years later.
Kurzgesagt, Veritasium, Vsauce and 3Blue1Brown make the case for depth over spectacle. Mark Rober, a former NASA engineer and a regular MrBeast collaborator, falls between the two camps.
A science studio's duck against the biggest channel on the site. Play it →
## Casey Neistat and your favorite YouTube content creator
This ranking asks a personal question: not who is biggest, but who you actually watch. Its 17 names include the Try Guys, Emma Chamberlain, Lilly Singh, Dude Perfect and Markiplier.
A favourite is often the creator someone found first. For many viewers in the mid-2010s that was Casey Neistat, whose daily vlog made a New York filmmaker's routine into appointment viewing.
MrBeast appears here as a logo, the blue panther that also sits on his merchandise and Feastables wrappers.
The spectacle channel against the vlogger who taught a generation to edit. Play it →
## Khaby Lame vs MrBeast: the most influential internet personalities of the 2020s
Influence in the 2020s is spread across platforms. Khaby Lame built TikTok's largest following without saying a word on camera, Charli D'Amelio was the first TikTok creator past 100 million followers, and Kai Cenat set Twitch's subscriber record during his marathon streams.
MrBeast's reach is not limited to YouTube. His TikTok account ranks third in the world by followers, and Time put him on its list of the 100 most influential people in 2023.1
IShowSpeed, Pokimane, Emma Chamberlain and Marques Brownlee complete a list where each name owns a different corner of the internet.
TikTok's silent star against YouTube's loudest budget. Play it →
## Beast Games vs The Traitors: reality competition of the 2020s
Beast Games premiered on Amazon Prime Video on 19 December 2024 with 1,000 contestants and a $5 million prize. By the end of the first season the prize pool had grown to $10,009,244, and the production claimed 44 Guinness World Records.2 A second season followed in January 2026.
The Traitors takes the opposite approach: a Scottish castle, a small cast and a game built on lying to friends. Squid Game: The Challenge sits between them, with 456 players on a Netflix set.
The first season also brought a class action. In September 2024 contestants filed suit in Los Angeles alleging poor conditions during filming.2
Survivor, The Amazing Race and the Bake Off tent remind the list that the genre's best formats are decades old.
A thousand players against a castle full of liars. Play it →
## The Boys and the best Prime Video originals
Prime Video's originals list is mostly scripted drama: The Boys, Fleabag, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Fallout, Reacher and The Rings of Power. Beast Games is one of only three unscripted shows among its 18, next to Clarkson's Farm and The Grand Tour.
Fleabag won the major comedy Emmys in 2019, and The Boys turned superhero satire into the service's signature series. Against them, a competition show is judged on different terms: scale, prize money and how many people watch the finale.
Prime's superhero satire against its biggest unscripted bet. Play it →
## Alex Trebek vs MrBeast: the greatest game show hosts
Game-show hosting rewards time more than anything. Alex Trebek presented Jeopardy! for 36 years and more than 8,000 episodes, Bob Barker hosted The Price Is Right for 35, and Pat Sajak stayed at Wheel of Fortune from 1981 to 2024.
MrBeast has hosted two seasons of Beast Games. He brings something the classic hosts never had, a prize budget measured in millions per episode, and he is still learning a job they spent careers on.
Jeff Probst, Drew Carey, Howie Mandel and Ken Jennings cover the modern era. Bruce Forsyth represents British television.
Thirty-six years of Jeopardy! against two seasons of Beast Games. Play it →
## Dolly Parton and the most generous celebrities
MrBeast's fundraising runs through collaborations with other creators. Team Trees raised more than $24.8 million for the Arbor Day Foundation in 2019, Team Seas more than $34 million in 2021, and Team Water more than $41.6 million for WaterAid in 2025.1
Dolly Parton's Imagination Library has mailed free books to children for decades. Paul Newman gave away all the profits of his food company, and LeBron James opened a public school in Akron.
The difference is visibility. Most celebrities on this list give quietly or through foundations; MrBeast films much of his giving, and his critics argue the videos are part of the business model.
Free books by mail against giveaways filmed for millions. Play it →
## Feastables vs Prime: the best brands founded by internet creators
Feastables launched in January 2022 as MrBeast's chocolate brand. In 2024 he added Lunchly, a lunch-kit line started with KSI and Logan Paul, and in January 2026 Beast Industries was valued at $5 billion.1
Prime Hydration, launched by Paul and KSI in 2022, is the obvious rival: another creator product that reached supermarket shelves on the strength of its founders' audiences.
Kylie Cosmetics and Huda Beauty show the same path in beauty. Chamberlain Coffee and Mark Rober's CrunchLabs show how narrow a creator brand can be and still work.
MrBeast's chocolate against his Lunchly partners' sports drink. Play it →
## MrBeast Burger and the celebrity-owned restaurant chains
MrBeast Burger began in December 2020 as a delivery-only brand cooked in partner kitchens, and opened its first physical restaurant in September 2022.1 The model let it appear in hundreds of cities at once, and the food depended on whichever kitchen cooked it.
Planet Hollywood is the 1990s version of the same idea, a chain sold on the fame of Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone and Bruce Willis. Shaquille O'Neal's Big Chicken and Guy Fieri's Chicken Guy! are the current competition.
Among the older names, Kenny Rogers Roasters and Toby Keith's bar-and-grill chain show how quickly a celebrity restaurant can fade once the novelty wears off.
A 1990s movie-star chain against a burger built for delivery apps. Play it →
## MrBeast vs Michael Jordan: famous people from North Carolina
Jimmy Donaldson was born in Wichita, Kansas, on 7 May 1998 and grew up in Greenville, North Carolina, where his studio still operates.1
Michael Jordan grew up in Wilmington and won a national title at the University of North Carolina before his six NBA championships. The state's list also includes Andy Griffith of Mount Airy, Nina Simone of Tryon, John Coltrane, who grew up in High Point, and J. Cole, raised in Fayetteville.
NASCAR gives North Carolina two more giants: Dale Earnhardt and Richard Petty, seven championships each.
Greenville's YouTuber against Wilmington's six-time champion. Play it →
## Logan Paul, MrBeast and the most overrated YouTubers
An overrated list is built from the most successful names, so the biggest channel was always going to appear on it. The criticism of MrBeast is about formula: bigger numbers in the title, faster cuts, and challenges engineered for retention.
Reports from former employees about working conditions have added to it.1
Logan Paul and Jake Paul are here for a different reason, careers that left vlogging for boxing and wrestling. PewDiePie, KSI, Casey Neistat and Emma Chamberlain show that almost every famous YouTuber has a camp that thinks they are overrated.
Lunchly's co-founders, on the other side of the hype. Play it →
## The biggest YouTuber, off YouTube
Inside YouTube the question about MrBeast is how far ahead he is. Outside it he competes with people who spent whole careers on one thing: Trebek on one show, Parton on one library, Jordan on one sport.
Every ranking in this article is decided one pair of options after another, and the guide to [how a head-to-head vote works](/articles/how-head-to-head-voting-works) explains the method. If your own list of creators or game-show hosts looks different, build it and see where he goes.
## More rankings, more angles
- [YouTube: Best Streaming Service or Best Social Network? 16 Lists](/articles/where-does-youtube-rank) — the platform itself, from Netflix to the comment section
- [TikTok vs Instagram: Which Is Better? For You Page vs the Grid](/articles/tiktok-vs-instagram-ranked) — the two apps where Khaby Lame and Charli D'Amelio grew
- [How to Create a Head-to-Head Ranking](/articles/how-to-create-a-head-to-head-ranking) — build your own list of creators
Sources
Wikipedia — MrBeast: born 7 May 1998 in Wichita, Kansas, raised in Greenville, North Carolina; channel started February 2012; passed PewDiePie in November 2022 (112 million) and T-Series on 2 June 2024; first to 500 million subscribers on 12 June 2026; third most-followed TikTok account; Time 100 in 2023; Team Trees ($24.8M+), Team Seas ($34M+), Team Water ($41.6M+); Feastables January 2022; MrBeast Burger December 2020, first physical location September 2022; Lunchly 2024; Beast Industries valued at $5 billion in January 2026; former employees' accounts of working conditions: en.wikipedia.org (checked 2026-09-30)
Wikipedia — Beast Games: premiered on Prime Video on 19 December 2024; 1,000 contestants; $5 million prize grown to $10,009,244; 44 Guinness World Records; season 2 from 7 January 2026; class action filed in Los Angeles Superior Court on 16 September 2024: en.wikipedia.org (checked 2026-09-30)
Google — MrBeast partners with Gemini, 2 September 2026: multi-year partnership with Beast Industries covering Gemini and Google Health: blog.google (checked 2026-09-30)
