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- MrBeast spent $14 million building a “city” for his “Beast Games” show.
- The show, premiering on December 19, features 1,000 contestants and a $5 million prize.
- Controversy has surrounded the show with complaints about conditions and a potential lawsuit.
MrBeast has shared some photos of the “city” he built as part of his upcoming game show, “Beast Games,” which he says cost $14 million.
“We spent $14,000,000 building a city in a field for the contestants in Beast Games to live and compete in,” MrBeast, whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson, wrote on X, alongside four photos of the set. “December 19th is almost here 🥰”
Donaldson, YouTube’s biggest star with 335 million subscribers, has already shared some details about the scale of production on “Beast Games.”
In an interview with fellow YouTubers KSI and Logan Paul, Donaldson revealed he’d “spent way more than $100 million” on the show and recently shared that the production had broken 40 world records.
Amazon has also promoted “Beast Games” as “the world’s largest live gameshow” with the “biggest single prize in the history of television and streaming” of $5 million.
It premiers on Prime Video on December 19 and is supposed to kick-start Amazon’s video ad sales efforts by attracting a wide audience and appealing to advertisers.
In one X post, Donaldson was asked how he planned to make up the money he spent on “Beast Games.”
“The goal is to make the best content possible not make money,” he replied.
In the trailer, which dropped on December 6, Donaldson promised that “Beast Games” would be “the most insane competition show you’ve ever seen” with 1,000 contestants. Clips included footage of the $5 million grand prize, a massive pirate ship, monster trucks, Navy seals, and stunts.
One of the photos Donaldson shared was “a render of the city,” which had a moat running around the outside.
“We ran out of time and didn’t get around to building the moat,” he said in response to one query on X. “But everything else is accurate.”
The set of the specially built “city” is in Toronto, CBC reported in September.
Toronto City Hall’s film and entertainment department confirmed to the outlet that it was the site but declined to comment further for “confidentiality reasons.”
Donaldson’s rep confirmed the city’s site as Toronto and told BI that Donaldson donated many of the goods used in the shoot, including mattresses, sleeping bags, and clothing, to local organizations afterward.
Paramedics and firefighters confirmed to CBC that they were aware of the production, and police told the outlet that its department’s explosive disposal unit was consulted.
CBC drone footage showed a large cement tower and two rows of single-story houses surrounded by a red wall.
“Beast Games” aligns with Amazon’s strategy of increasing spending on entertainment and sports content.
The show’s coverage has not been entirely smooth sailing, though. Both Donaldson and conditions on set have faced bad press.
Some contestants have complained about inadequate living conditions, injuries, insufficient hygiene on set, and being subjected to sexism in a New York Times report. Five contestants are seeking to file a class-action lawsuit, though a rep for Donaldson told BI nobody has been served yet.
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.”
