Mr. Beast

Creator Breakdown

2012-2014

2014-2017

2018-Present

By LowKeyJude & Buzzy

Who is MrBeast?

-Most Subscribed Creator On YouTube

-36,186,653,474+ Views Across his Channels

-A Business Empire evaluated at $1.5 Billion

(if you live under a rock)

But How Did He Achieve This?

-Anyone can have spurts of massive growth, but it takes a YouTube genius to continuously grow over a long period

-This means if we breakdown MrBeast’s video process, we can understand how to go viral

His video process contains 5 key steps (in order):

Creating Viral Ideas

Making a Clickable Thumbnail

Making a Clear Title

Getting People to Watch Longer

Having Strong Branding

And The Final Question…

What did MrBeast learn in the 10 years on the platform to gain his massive success,

And can we learn this “secret” too?

Source

Source

Source

Well, MrBeast’s First Viral Video “I Counted to 100,000” paints a very interesting story

-So let’s break down how this video shaped his entire viral idea criteria

-But first, let's analyze how external factors influenced MrBeast to come up with this idea

Part One: A viral idea machine

-6.6 Million Views in 7 days

-Media Attention

-Led to 258,000 subs in the next two months

Limitations MrBeast Faced

MrBeast faced many limitations in 2017 that forced him to think outside of the box.

For example:

Bad equipment - MrBeast could only record in 480p

Family Pressure - MrBeast’s mother wanted him to go to college

Broke - He had no job and barely any money so couldn’t do YouTube full time

Time was against him - If his mom found out he was skipping all his classes, he’ll be kicked out of his house

Some Early Success on YouTube

MrBeast found success by finding ideas that a lot of people were interested in. He found out that if people clicked the video and enjoyed themselves, his videos got more views.

However, something in 2017 would propel his YouTube channel growth

Back in 2016, YouTube realised a White Paper about the algorithm

A white paper is a report or guide that informs readers concisely about a complex issue

What is important though, is that the document outlined that:“The final determination of the effectiveness of an algorithm or model, we

rely on A/B testing via live experiments. In a live experiment, we can measure subtle changes in click-through rate,

watch time, and many other metrics that measure user engagement”

What We Know About The YT Algorithm

Link to full Document and YouTube Video Explaining it

In Simple Terms, this means*:

Success on YouTube

Catching your audience’s Attention

Keeping that attention for a long time

Or in more technical YouTube Terms

Views

Click Through Rate

Average View Duration / Average Percentage viewed

*Viewer Satisfaction is also a known factor that affects the recommendation

This is why I use this criterion in the breakdown

Idea

Packaging

Retention

Satisfaction

Wanting More

Because Algorithmically these are the known elements of what makes a banger video

An idea that gets people to Click

MrBeast found a viral video idea criteria by studying viral content and his videos.This includes:

Having a remarkable idea

Doubling down on what works

Combining Viral Ideas/Topics

Making it 3% different

Keeping it primal

Let’s zoom into what these mean and use the “Counting to 100,000” video as an example

Remark

Able

Remarkable

Having the power, skill, means, or opportunity to get someone to regard something with their attention

+

=

But, What does remarkable mean?

The Remarkability Test (with MrBeast Videos)

❌

I spoke about cereal!

That’s crazy… anyway

I Counted to 100,000!

What? Why would you do that? You must be lying!

✔️

If you used your idea as an ice breaker with a stranger, would they:

Not care, or

Would they ask a follow-up question?

In terms of YouTube, a follow up question is the same as someone clicking the video, as in both examples, they want to know more about the topic.

Click my Video to see

Click my Video to see

Please stop talking to me

Hmm, ok sure

Remarkability with Sections of Views

To get the most amount of views possible, MrBeast makes the broadest video ideas

MrBeast makes shows that a casual viewer would find his videos remarkable

There are 3 types of YouTube audience:

Superfans: People that click for Beast

Active: People that watch for a trend

Casual: Anyone can watch

“who?”

Superfans

Active

Casual

Double Down on What Works

MrBeast had a Viral video of counting to 10,000 before 100,000. He doubled down on what made this video viral in his next few uploads as shown above

What is Doubling Down and why is it Important

Doubling down is when you remake an idea that was previously viral/popular either:-On your YouTube channel

-On another person’s YouTube channel

-Outside of YouTube

And add a unique twist to the idea

This means you can take the viral element of the video and apply it to your videos

First Viral idea

Doubled Down

☝️ The unique twist was to escalate the challenge

Mistake #1: Milking it dry

Mistake #2: Doubling down on the wrong thing

Mistake #3: Not innovating the idea

The Common Mistakes of Doubling Down

1st Time

2nd Time

3rd Time

Doubling Down too much can make the remarkability of an idea decrease

If your audience gets too familiar with an idea, it can lead to:

-The audience becoming bored

-Trapping yourself in one format -Result in a plateau or dip in views

This is when you double down without a good understanding of what made your video go viral

Make a theory of why it was viral based on your gut and what the data shows

Every time you remake an idea, you try and one up the last video.

The way I view it, the more you double down on an idea, the more polished it should become, like a diamond.

You can improve:-Packaging

-Retention-Viewer Satisfaction

Double down

Double down

There are Two Types of Innovation

Sustaining innovation is improving an already existing format

Whereas Disruptive innovation is trying out something completely new

Disruptive innovation is more likely to fail, but if it succeeds, it yields better results

Think of Sustaining as jumping on an already existing trend, and disruptive as creating the trend

Finding Viral Elements

There are two viral elements in this video idea:

A hard challenge

-Challenges on YouTube have always been a viral topic.

-The Ice bucket challenge; Ghost Pepper challenge; as well as Cinnamon Challenge are all examples of old viral challenges

24 Hour videos

-10 and 24 hour videos are also a viral topic, and algorithmically longer videos perform better on average

-Also 24 hour long videos were very rare to see on your homepage, increasing the remarkability of it

Making Your Videos 3% Different

Humans are creatures of habit, and we don’t like straying too far from the norm

However, humans are good at spotting patterns and can become bored with overused themes

That's why you should think of a YouTuber as being like a magician

All magic tricks are innovations of the old and tried rules of magic like misdirection.

Learn from the old magic tricks, but don’t copy them… otherwise, the trick would be boring because it has been seen many times before

☝️ Google Searches for Ice Bucket Challenge

Magic Trick Discovered

People Start to understand the pattern

People fully understand the pattern

Making Videos 3% Different for Branding

Being known as an innovator by your audience creates longevity in the space

For example, Morgz copied a lot of MrBeast’s thumbnails and topics and got branded as a copier

In the short term, copying benefits the creator however, this is at cost for your long term reputation

This degrades the trust between a YouTuber and their audience

Views

Time

Innovator VS Copier

Keeping it Primal

Primal videos are relatable, so anyone can watch them

But what does “keeping it primal” mean?

It means if you boil down your idea, could you explain it to a caveman or does it appeal to our fundamental Psychology?

For example, cavemen have primal fears such as:

-Being Trapped

-Being in a life-or-death situation

-Being rejected

If you told a caveman you counted to 100,000, he would also think you’re insane

Examples of Keeping it Primal

Being Buried alive combines two very common primal fears, Claustrophobia and Thanatophobia (fear of death) 👉

Being in solitary confinement combines; Claustrophobia, the fear of isolation from a tribe, and the fear of being trapped 👉

Being surrounded by snakes is a fear that affects 1/10 American adults because of the primal feeling of potential death 👉

MrBeast Continued to use the Criteria

This very simple viral idea criterion continued to be used and expanded on

This meant that MrBeast could consistently produce remarkable ideas that grabbed the attention of the market

In addition, it made it possible for him to focus on his video quality as he knew his ideas would gather interest.

Think of focusing on quality like shooting a sniper rifle at a target, you spend more time on the shot so that you are more accurate.

Whereas, most YouTubers focus on quantity without regard for aiming, just like a minigun

Quality

Quantity

👆 (A bullet = one upload in this example)

Quality

Quantity

Mistakes Creators Make When Choosing Quality

MrBeast has drilled home to create quality videos, but many creators make mistakes when using this content strategy

Back to the example on the left, a sniper shoots left often, which means every bullet you fire is important

Whereas, you can afford to miss more often with a quantity approach

Another factor to consider is newer creators are new to firing a gun so need more practice

This means I would advise creating quality videos consistently, EG: posting a video every week and improving on it for the next upload

So What Can You Learn From Section One?

-Viral Ideas are the backbone of a viral video as it gets the audience’s attention

-To get their attention you need to be remarkable

-Once you get a successful video idea, study why it went