He’s the biggest YouTuber in the world and has millions of dollars at his fingertips, but he also says that he spends most of his days sleeping in the same studio where he films his videos.
MrBeast, whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson, has become known for his high-production challenge-style videos where contestants compete for huge prizes. His most viewed video of all time involved 456 people taking part in a real-life version of the Netflix series “Squid Game.”
Though he is one of the highest-paid creators on YouTube, he lives in a modest home in his hometown of Greenville, North Carolina, where he also bought up the surrounding area for his staff members to live, according to the New York Post.
Donaldson’s team works together out of a mega filming studio in the area, which Donaldson allowed tech YouTuber, Arun Maini, known by the online moniker Mrwhosetheboss, to film an extensive tour of in July 2022.
Maini followed Donaldson through the giant building with a camera, valuing the total cost of the building and amenities at over $14 million. Here’s a look inside what Maini described as Donaldson’s “top secret” content haven.
Donaldson’s main filming studio is perfect for “blowing stuff up” in.
Donaldson showed Maini the room where most of his main channel videos are filmed, which is called “Studio C.”
Donaldson said the room was around 50,000 square feet and was used for building and placing various sets required for his shoots.
Inside the room were stacks of silver briefcases, which the YouTuber is known for handing out to winning contestants in his videos.
The studio also had a sound-proofed ceiling lined with hundreds of sprinklers.
Maini asked if the sprinklers were in place because the YouTuber keeps “blowing stuff up” in his videos, and Donaldson responded by saying he could blow up a car in the studio and not have to worry about the building burning down.
The building is fully stocked with cameras and screens for video shoots.
Dondaldson’s “control room” is lined with screens so his crew mates can monitor contestants taking part in his videos.
For one of his videos, titled, “100 Boys Vs 100 Girls for $500,000,” Donaldson said the team used 40 cameras to monitor the participants, who were asked to remain standing or sitting inside a large circle for 100 hours.
Maini’s tour of the control room led immediately to a look at the “camera room,” where Donaldson stores all the camera equipment for his videos. The YouTuber said some of his videos require 100 cameras to film, while others only need 10.
The camera room was stocked with a vast array of lenses and cables and contained 26 now discontinued FS5 cameras, which cost around $6,000 each when they were first launched, as Maini pointed out.
Editing and brainstorming is a group effort, and the studio contains multiple offices to accommodate Donaldson’s team.
Donaldson’s team uses whiteboard paint-covered walls to brainstorm, and Donaldson’s editors worked in a separate office, which Maini said was equipped with $19,000 Windows PCs and $21,000 Mac Pros.
The studio also had a large kitchen space for staff to use, which was stocked with Donaldson’s Feastibles chocolate line.
Donaldson lives in a humble apartment tucked away inside the studio.
“This is where I live for the most part,” Donaldson said as he let Maini take a look inside his apartment.
The room was sealed with an electronic lock that the YouTuber said recognizes the Bluetooth from his phone so that only he can access it.
Inside the apartment, there was a double bed and matching sofa, a small home gym, a fridge stocked mainly with water and yogurt, and two television screens, one of which the YouTuber said was largely obscured by the fridge because he was “running out of room” to put his belongings.
Maini also had a peek inside Donaldson’s closet, and his bathroom, where there was a toilet with a heated seat.
Donaldson said he is able to sleep comfortably in the apartment and be close to his job, describing his morning routine as waking up, working out, showering, eating, and then walking out the door to start work for the day.
In an interview from last year on “The Iced Coffee Hour” podcast, Donaldson said that living in the studio helps him save money, and he sometimes spends up to 20 days straight inside the building without feeling a need to leave.
Donaldson runs multiple secondary channels which he also films in the studio.
In one room in Donaldson’s mega-studio, there is a PC setup with cameras where the YouTuber watches content to react to live, for his channel Beast Reacts.
In another room, there are multiple gaming PC setups for Donaldson and his team to play on together while filming content for the MrBeast gaming channel.
According to Maini, who tested out the gaming setups, the PCs were configured to open up all the software required to film a gaming video with just the press of a button.
“The entire setup here is just geared around efficiency,’ Maini said.
Donaldson also has a separate studio, where a bevy of strange props have found their home.
According to Maini, most of Donaldson’s earlier YouTube videos were filmed in a separate location, known as “Studio A,” which Donaldson said was a church that they renovated and turned into a filming space.
The studio’s storage warehouse houses a litter of props from previous videos stored away in case they come of use in future projects.
The list of props includes 40-inch giant touchscreen iPhones, rubber chickens, and in Maini’s words, “shockingly realistic babies.”
There’s a locked cage in the warehouse where Donaldson stores valuable prizes, such as iPhones and portable speakers, to be given away in future videos.
The total estimated value of the studios is more than $14 million.
Throughout his tour, Maini asked Donaldson and his team members to estimate the total cost of the tech equipment and renovations, arriving at a total figure of $14,196,000.
Donaldson said in the video that the renovation of the old church building to make “Studio A” cost around $1.3 million, while his larger studio cost him just over $10 million.
Other costs mentioned in the video were the $375,000 the team used to soundproof the ceiling, $1.3 million as an estimated cost of the equipment in the camera room, and $2,000 for Donaldson’s personal heated toilet seat.
