Willing to Die for MrBeast (and $5 Million)

The contestants in the internet star’s “Beast Games” expected outlandish challenges and signed contracts that acknowledged risks of serious injury and death. Still, few were prepared for the conditions on set.

Jimmy Donaldson is the internet’s fairy godmother.

Better known online as MrBeast, Mr. Donaldson, 26, has made a name for himself as a benevolent YouTube star who has racked up hundreds of millions of subscribers for his provocative brand of philanthropy, like the time he paid for 1,000 people to receive cataract surgery. The resulting eight-minute video was hyperbolically titled “1,000 Blind People See for the First Time.”

Extravagant prizes have become his calling card. He’s given away homes, cars, a private island and lots and lots of cash. Usually it comes with a dark twist: Once, he offered a man $10,000 a day for each day he was willing to live in a grocery story without leaving. In his most popular video, “$456,000 Squid Game in Real Life!,” 456 people competed in a game show inspired by the dystopian Netflix drama “Squid Game.” (In the Netflix show, down-and-out contestants play deadly versions of children’s games to win $38 million.)

When in March Mr. Donaldson and Amazon MGM studios announced “Beast Games,” a reality competition show in the mold of MrBeast’s popular videos, thousands of people jumped at the chance, posting on Reddit threads about the application process and waiting hopefully to be accepted.

The prize: $5 million.

Familiar with MrBeast’s content and with the lengths to which those who appear in his videos must go in order to win, many expected outlandish and even potentially risky challenges.