MrBeast — Turning a Single Car Video Into a $260,000 Revenue Experiment on X
How MrBeast republished an existing YouTube car video on X, logged $263,655 in ad revenue over about a week, and kept attention alive with a revenue-guessing poll and a cash giveaway.
In January 2024, Jimmy Donaldson, publicly known as MrBeast, reposted a car video he had made four months earlier on X. About one week later, the ad revenue generated by that video had passed $260,000. A video already published on YouTube had generated substantial additional revenue on a new platform.
The Experiment Began With a Conversation About Production Costs
The starting point was a brief conversation with Elon Musk. On December 30, 2023, when Musk urged him to post videos on X too, MrBeast brought up production costs. His videos cost millions of US dollars, he said, and even 1,000,000,000 views on X would not cover much of that expense. He added that he would run a test himself once monetization had developed enough.
At the time, MrBeast had about 230,000,000 YouTube subscribers. X was actively courting prominent creators, and MrBeast was curious how much his content could earn on a new platform. His first video upload brought together two storylines: a mega-YouTuber’s experiment and X’s push into video.
Brand Collaboration Inside the Car-Experience Video
The video he chose was “$1 vs $100,000,000 Car!”. Released in September 2023, the roughly 16-minute video moves from a $1 car to a car introduced as costing $100,000,000. MrBeast and his friends ride and test the cars themselves, and the spectacle grows as the prices rise. Even the title makes viewers wonder what kind of car will appear at the end.
The video also included a brand collaboration with Samsung. The Galaxy S23 Ultra and Z Flip5 were used as filming equipment and shown demonstrating product features. In an official announcement on September 22, 2023, Samsung presented the car video as the first collaboration between the two sides. Scenes of the products in use fitted naturally into the car experiences.
Turning a Reposted Video Into a Public Experiment
MrBeast uploaded the video directly to X on January 15, 2024. In the post, he explained that he was reposting it because he was curious how much ad revenue a single video could generate on X. He also promised to reveal the actual revenue the following week. By publishing a finished video on another platform, he turned the result into an experiment people could watch.
On January 19, he opened a revenue-guessing poll. Noting that the post’s displayed view count had reached 124,000,000, he asked how much people thought he had earned from that level of attention. More than half of voters guessed $10,000 or less. He again said he would reveal the revenue screenshot three days later, giving people another reason to wait for the result.
$263,655 in Ad Revenue Over One Week
The revenue screenshot made public on January 22 showed $263,655. It also displayed about 156,690,000 post impressions and about 5,180,000 engagements. The figure covered X ad revenue generated over roughly one week by the single car video reposted on January 15.
The revenue involved X’s video ad program, Amplify. Under that system, revenue from pre-roll ads that play before a video is shared with the creator. On January 27, X said MrBeast and his team were testing a new video monetization product for creators.
Advertiser Interest Drove the Higher Revenue
MrBeast himself attributed the high revenue to advertiser interest. In his revenue-reveal post, he interpreted the result by saying that advertisers, seeing the attention around the experiment, bought ads against his video and pushed up revenue per view. His explanation was that the amount he received reflected the special conditions of a famous creator’s first experiment.
From Revenue Reveal to Fan Giveaway
Immediately after revealing the revenue, he announced the next event using that money. He said he would give a total of $250,000 to 10 fans, $25,000 each. Winners would be chosen at random from people who followed him and reposted the post, with selection 72 hours after the announcement. The revenue reveal immediately offered viewers another way to participate.
According to TIME, the giveaway post passed 1,000,000 likes and 3,000,000 reposts in a little over one day. What began as an experiment in reposting a car video had extended into a revenue-guessing poll and a cash giveaway. From the process of earning money with a video to the announcement that he would share that money, MrBeast turned it into a story people kept watching.