• MrBeast said his Amazon show “Beast Games” broke 40 world records.
• It comes amid allegations of poor conditions and a class-action lawsuit filed by some contestants.
• MrBeast finally addressed a lot of the accusations this week, but questions remain.

MrBeast said his upcoming $100 million Amazon reality show “Beast Games” broke 40 Guinness World Records.

“Guinness just dropped off some of the world records we broke while filming Beast Games lol,” MrBeast, whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson, wrote on X on Wednesday. “IM SO EXCITED TO DROP THIS SHOW IN 22 DAYS 🥰”

While he didn’t reveal the full details of the records, he hinted at a few, including the largest cash prize in a game show, the most cables for a show, and the “largest island given away in a show.”

It’s not been smooth sailing

Donaldson, 26, is YouTube’s biggest creator, with 332 million subscribers. He rose to fame with his ambitious stunts, including recreating Netflix’s “Squid Game.”

“Beast Games” is along the same vein, featuring at least 1,000 contestants.

Amazon has promoted it as “the world’s largest live gameshow” with the “biggest single prize in the history of television and streaming” of $5 million.

Amazon announced the reality competition in March. It was supposed to kick-start Amazon’s video ad sales efforts, attracting a wide audience and appealing to advertisers.

However, coverage of the show has not been entirely smooth sailing.

As well as complaints from contestants about inadequate living conditions, some have also said they were injured, not given access to hygiene products and medical care, and subjected to sexism in a New York Times report, and a class-action lawsuit five of them filed in September.

Amazon declined to comment on the lawsuit to BI. A spokesperson for Donaldson previously told BI that Amazon was not involved in the Las Vegas round of the show, where many of the allegations surfaced, which was “a promotional video shoot.”

The spokesperson also said that this shoot was “unfortunately complicated by the CrowdStrike incident, extreme weather, and other unexpected logistical and communications issues.”

Much of the rumors and allegations directed at Donaldson and the show went unanswered for months until Donaldson appeared on YouTube Oompaville’s channel to address everything at once on November 23.

Donaldson said he could not address some of the allegations due to legal proceedings, but he described some of the claims about injuries on set as “disinformation.”

Since then, Donaldson has also been more outspoken on his social media.

“We have tons of behind-the-scenes dropping when the show does to show how blown out of proportion these claims were,” he wrote on X in response to a user who enquired about the “terrible conditions” on the show. “Just can’t release it now because it would spoil the games.”

None of the above has tempered production of “Beast Games,” with Donaldson releasing a teaser on November 25, saying he had “poured everything I have into this show.”

“I’ll see you December 19th,” he said, confirming the show’s release date.

Future projects could be more difficult

Donaldson previously revealed he’d “spent way more than $100 million” on “Beast Games.” He didn’t clarify if this was the budget for one season, but the show has only been commissioned for one so far.

The move lines up with Amazon’s strategy of increasing spending on entertainment and sports content, which “Beast Games” was supposed to be a benchmark for.

Donaldson has largely shrugged off bad press over the years, but partnering with a giant like Amazon has put more eyes on him than ever.

Creator economy experts previously told BI that “Beast Games” would not be going anywhere despite the negative headlines. But they warned that the top YouTuber may find it harder to fund his next big project because of the headache it caused Amazon.

“They’ll still do partnerships with him,” Diana D’Angelo, the CEO of Breaking Creatives Agency, told BI. “But maybe they’ll put a bigger check on what he’s actually doing and how it’s being done.”