American YouTube personality MrBeast (James Stephen “Jimmy” Donaldson), known for his channel where he hosts philanthropic challenges, now makes more revenue from his chocolate business (Feastables) than he does from his YouTube channel. Even though his channel has more subscribers than any other YouTube channel worldwide, MrBeast’s largest source of income today isn’t content but chocolate.
The Growth of His Feastables
26-year-old content creator MrBeast saw $251 million in sales and over $20 million in profit last year from Feastables, which says it is “on a mission to change the way you snack” by creating delicious snacks with trusted ingredients.
Meanwhile, MrBeast’s media division–his YouTube channel and his reality television program, Beast Games, running on Amazon Prime–brought in similar revenue last year but showed a loss of nearly $80 million, likely due to the high production costs. (The numbers are from documents that investors shared with Bloomberg.)
There’s nothing simple or cheap about MrBeast’s streamed philanthropy challenges, which share feats with titles like I Helped 2,000 People Walk Again and I Spent 100 Hours Inside the Pyramids! to invite MrBeast’s 372 million subscribers to donate to charitable causes.
Spending a hundred days inside the Giza necropolis carries a formidable expense, and the average video for MrBeast’s YouTube channel now costs between $3-4 million. Given the difficulty of recovering those costs through a YouTube channel alone, MrBeast has been developing side businesses that can be marketed to his extensive and engaged YouTube audience.
And he isn’t just investing in chocolate; Beast Industries also shares in a snack brand called Lunchly. In addition to food and snacks, MrBeast owns Viewstats, a software development firm that sells digital tools to other content creators.
An Expanding Footprint
Bloomberg found that Beast Industries has received over $450 million in funding over four years, providing the capital for launching its chocolate, lunch snacks, and software. In the opening months of 2025, MrBeast has been courting additional investors to raise another $200 million. If successful in securing these investments, the young YouTube star’s company’s valuation would exceed $5 billion.
There is undoubtedly cause for MrBeast’s ambitious moves to expand his company’s commerce division. Bloomberg projects that Feastables will triple in size by the end of 2026 and that even as MrBeast’s chocolate business expands, his media revenue will account for no more than 20% of Beast Industries’ revenue at the end of 2026.
Beast Industries’ investors see the company’s future growth driven by consumer products, not viral videos. MrBeast offers them various new initiatives to fund, from beverages to additional snack brands and even a cereal line. He is also expected to launch a mobile gaming division in 2026, stepping into one of the fastest-growing industries in online commerce.
Are Other Content Creators Following Suit?
Other content creators have made similar moves to cash in on their audiences. They use content to build audiences but rely on product sales rather than viral content as their primary monetization.
YouTuber and podcaster Emma Chamberlain opened a café in Los Angeles, selling her branded coffee (Chamberlain Coffee). Podcaster Alex Cooper launched a drink brand (Unwell) last year. Social media personality and reality TV star Kylie Jenner’s brand, Kylie Cosmetics, has grown into a billion-dollar company. YouTubers Logan Paul and KSI co-founded a hydration beverage company (Prime Hydration), which also saw over a billion in sales.
From chocolate to coffee to software, it would be a surprise if even more YouTube stars and social media personalities launched their products this year.
