Mr Beast dethrones T‑Series to become top YouTube channel

Jimmy Donaldson, known as "Mr Beast," has become the most subscribed creator on YouTube. He took the first place from the company T-Series, which in 2019 dethroned YouTuber Felix Kjellberg, known as "PewDiePie".

We often refer to Jimmy Donaldson, or "Mr Beast," as the "most popular YouTuber." Until June 2, this phrase was somewhat of a mental shortcut - Mr Beast is the largest individual creator on YouTube. In fact, since 2019, the Indian company T-Series had the highest number of subscribers on the platform until today.

As reported by, among others, the popular X profile Dexerto, on June 2, Mr Beast surpassed T-Series in the number of followers for the first time. He currently has 267 million subscribers, 10 thousand more than the T-Series channel. Dexerto added the comment: "After T-Series took the subscriber crown from PewDiePie in 2019, Mr Beast has been relentlessly pursuing it. The 26-year-old promised to avenge the Swedish YouTuber".

T-Series is the largest Indian music label and production company, which has been around since 1983. It is known for soundtracks for Bollywood blockbusters and Indian indie-pop music. In the comments reacting to Mr Beast's success, there were quite a few overtly racist voices celebrating "America's" victory. However, some commentators emphasized the aspect of an individual creator surpassing a large corporation. They argued: "YouTube belongs to creators and a big company should not be its face".

Nostalgia also appeared in the comments. One user wrote, "I remember watching this guy posting videos mocking kids from his dorm. Oh, how times have changed." Jimmy Donaldson, who recently turned 26, started posting on YouTube in 2012 as a thirteen-year-old.

The recent surge in followers on Donaldson's channel may be related to the YouTuber's announcement of applications for "Beast Games". This is the "largest game show in the world" organized with Amazon Prime. The main prize in the contest is $6.7 million CAD, and the competition itself is set to begin filming this summer.