MrBeast is changing his YouTube content, getting more views

March 5, 2024 inspirechat.net Entrepreneurship 0 Comments


This article originally appeared on Business Insider.

MrBeast seems to be ushering in a new, more mature era of YouTube.

In his latest post on X, the YouTube megastar said he wants to leave behind frenetic and energetic characters in his videos.

“This past year I've slowed down our videos, focused on the story, let the scenes breathe, less yelling, more personality, longer videos, etc. And our views have skyrocketed!” YouTube's biggest star said in a post on X on March 3.

He urged his fellow YouTubers to “get rid of the hyper-fast-paced” and over-stimulating era of content. “It doesn't even work,” he said.

It's a smart move, experts say, and one that could help him rapidly grow his empire of about $700 million a year.

Formula for YouTube success

MrBeast, whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson, has 242 million subscribers on YouTube and his numbers are still growing rapidly.

In 2024 alone, he has gained 17 million subscribers – significantly more than most creators will ever achieve in their career.

In his videos, Donaldson shreds Lamborghinis, donates massive sums of money and pulls off ambitious, incredible stunts like recreating the Netflix phenomenon “Squid gameHe has also become famous for his charity work, planting millions of trees, building wells and paying for people to have cataract surgery.

But while Donaldson built much of his brand by riding the wave of colorful videos full of lively, dynamic characters that served YouTubers so well in the early days, he's experimented with being a little more composed in recent videos. .

In September 2023, for example, he tried to fix his thumbnails where he had a happy expression and mouth open in a smiley and said “watch time increased with each video”.

Whatever Donaldson is doing is clearly working, having amassed 13 billion views on his channel since then. However, some viewers have criticized it for going back on what made it popular.

One critic said Donaldson has realized he is “YouTube's Oppenheimer and is trying to undo the damage he caused.”

Others, however, said they enjoyed Donaldson's newer content. “I'm interested in this kind of content,” said one viewer. “It's the age of quality over quantity again.”

MrBeast has grown, and so has its content

In his latest stunt, “I Survived 7 Days in an Abandoned City,” Donaldson and his crew flew to Kupari southeast of Dubrovnik, Croatia. After being heavily shelled during the Balkan War in the 1990s, the buildings in the area have been abandoned for decades.

In 17 minutes, the group explored abandoned buildings, set up camp, and documented some fun and scary moments, like spotting stray cats, a construction fire, and hearing glass break as they tried to sleep at night.

The video is still packed with multiple angles and jump cuts, but aside from the intro, it has none of the excessive noise that many associate with early YouTube.

Katya Varbanova, a viral marketing expert, told Business Insider that this pivot makes sense because Donaldson is no longer the 13-year-old he was when he started on YouTube.

“Now he's about to turn 26 and he's a grown-up businessman,” she said. “So of course he's evolved as a person, and of course, his content will evolve as well.”

She said she thinks it's Donaldson who wants this shift towards more storytelling and a slower pace, rather than necessarily what most of his audience wants.

“I guess we have to wonder if the younger Jimmy, who was bursting with rapid content, was reading that tweet, would he agree with it and change his strategy at this point in time? I'm not sure,” said Varbanova.

“In fact, I'm willing to bet he'll say 'Who cares about the rules, I'm carving my own way'.”

Donaldson's decision to slow down his videos appears to be a choice for him and his viewers rather than trying to game YouTube's indeterminate and unpredictable algorithm.

In October 2020, Donaldson said he doesn't stress about the length of his videos just to try to appease a metric he can't see. He showed thumbnails of videos of various lengths, demonstrating that they were all working fine, and asked creators to upload the “best video” they could. “Whatever length this is, load it up,” he said.

“If a video is a buzz, the algorithm will find an audience for it,” he said, adding that YouTube wouldn't suddenly pull a video because it was “a minute shorter than what you normally post.”

The right content at the right time

Ben Steele, a social media marketer at The Big Phone Store, who runs the company's TikTok account, told BI that when Donaldson was first starting out, this “softened content would have worked against him”.

But now, Donaldson has the benefit of having a strong pre-social relationship with his followers, and a track record of driving clicks and engagement. This means that whatever he chooses to do, his followers will probably respond positively.

Donaldson's new content makes him seem more authentic, which will help him increase his influence even further, Steele said. It has already dominated the younger demographic, and its more mature content is likely to be more interesting to millennials and older generations.

“In order for it to grow further, it needs to appeal to a wider audience, which includes older viewers who would be put off by the loud, obnoxious type of video that easily goes viral,” Steele said.

Varbanova said the best way to thrive as a creator is to be a good storyteller, educator or entertainer and find what works, rather than trying to imitate what made someone else successful. This is a “recipe for failure,” she said.

“The easiest way to struggle as a creator is to try what everyone else is doing without questioning whether it's right for you or not,” she said. “I would caution any content creator not to blindly listen to advice from someone who is 1,000 steps ahead of them.”

The best creators think long-term, Varbanova said, and make content that is “sustainable, not trendy.”

Or be a trendsetter,” she said. “Then you can do whatever you want.”

BI has reached out to Donaldson's representatives for comment.





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