Writer: Mariana Escobar
Editor: Mariel Soriano
Anyone would press a button to win $1 million, right?
Well, maybe not. Before we get into the article, don’t forget to like and subscribe!
James Stephen “Jimmy” Donaldson, better known as MrBeast, is a 26-year-old American YouTuber famous worldwide for his extravagant, high-production, and costly videos. His content often features a series of days in extraordinary circumstances, comparisons of the same product or service at different price points, and contestants competing in high-stakes challenges for cash prizes. However, MrBeast reached new heights in production with the latter concept, producing Beast Games—a reality competition inspired by Netflix’s Squid Game.
In Beast Games, 1,000 contestants are confronted with intense mental, physical, and social challenges to attempt to win a $5 million grand prize—the largest in entertainment history, as MrBeast proudly reiterates in all ten episodes. Throughout the show, contestants numbered 1 to 1,000 face life-altering decisions, where every choice carries significant consequences. Accepting a bribe or merely choosing with whom to form alliances carries immense pressure and often the consequence of guilt. Naturally, this is a recipe for emotional scenes, with contestants screaming and crying in visible distress. As MrBeast simply witnesses the misery-turned-‘peak content’ with awkward smiles in the background, clearly unsure how to react, viewers wonder if they are intruding on such intimate and uncomfortable scenes.
Beast Games is a playground for behavioral economic analysis. The once-in-a-lifetime choices contestants make often defy the “rational behavior” on which economists base their models of human decision-making. These same critical moments and competition ultimately drive the narrative forward, simultaneously dehumanizing MrBeast’s players—his loyal fans—by exploiting their struggles for pure entertainment and profit.
When Fortunes Feel Like Pocket Change
In the early episodes of Beast Games, mass-eliminating hundreds of players at once was necessary to prevent the games from dragging on indefinitely. The method? Bribes. Massive ones.
For the first round in episode one, MrBeast organized the contestants into ten rows, allowing people to self-eliminate and split $1 million amongst those disqualified. Not many chose to do so; 52 contestants each won about $20,000. MrBeast, aware of the scale of the upcoming challenges, warns, “I have a feeling a lot of contestants still in are gonna regret not taking that money.” This episode set the tone for the entire series, as players began to view anything less than the $5 million prize as, well, nothing.
Graphic By: Cynthia Shi
This human behavior is due to the anchoring effect. The Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis defines this behavioral economic phenomenon as “the tendency for a person to rely heavily on the first piece of information they receive when making decisions.” In this case, the $5 million becomes the players’ frame of reference for every bribe or reward dangled before them throughout the show. MrBeast even gave each eliminated player $2,000 for merely participating, but it was visible in their facial expressions that this ultimately had little significance in the grand scheme of the competition.
The most prominent example of this cognitive bias in Beast Games occurs in episode two when four group leaders are presented with an opportunity no human has had on TV (or likely ever, in general): press a button within arm’s reach and instantly win $1 million. In true MrBeast fashion, of course, there was a catch; if any leader chose to press the button, their entire team—the very players who had trusted them as a leader—would instantly be eliminated. Applying the expected utility model to this situation, where one weighs the outcomes of two different scenarios, not taking the $1 million would mean a 1-in-500 chance of winning the $5 million, effectively $10,000. Meanwhile, the $1,000,000 alternative’s expected value is guaranteed with a 100% chance. A behavioral economist would argue that contestants in a competitive game show, who signed up for the very chance to win a fortune, would surely press the button in a heartbeat. However, all four leaders did not act ‘rationally,’ as they refused to win the unfathomable amount of money without getting eliminated.
Although research published at Erasmus University suggests “economists typically argue that behavior will converge toward the prediction of rational self-interest if the stakes increase,” the anchoring effect took precedence in this case. One might view this disregard for $1 million as a sign of compassion for the teams that chose them, which is understandable. However, if one were to step into the minds of these players, would they be focused on appeasing strangers they met days earlier or the possibility of winning $5 million and the crushing guilt if they chose not to continue? Therefore, the sunk cost fallacy is also at play: having already invested so much in the competition, contestants may feel reluctant to walk away. This behavior was just as shocking to the audience as it was to MrBeast. Whether for dramatic effect or genuine disbelief, he shouts in his third episode, “Are you guys chronically insane? Are you guys numb to money?” and “This is real money! Real!” As if to hammer home the point, he follows up these exclamations with, “The viewers are going to think this is fake.” Ultimately, the life-changing fortune offered could not compete with the tiny glimmer of hope of winning $5 million; that is the true choice worth regretting.
Is a 50/50 Coin Flip Too Risky?
Another defining feature of human behavior is our varying degrees of risk aversion. While some are drawn to the thrill of a gamble, others seek the security of a higher chance of winning. In episode six of Beast Games, the players selected their next challenge, choosing between a test of strength, intelligence, or sheer luck.
Risk-averse contestants preferred to take control of their fate by opting for a strength or intelligence challenge, while others chose to leave it up to chance. Meanwhile, those who chose a randomness-based challenge, such as tossing a coin, showed risk-loving behavior. Guilt also plays a role, as not choosing the random challenge could lead to regret, with players facing the burden of personal responsibility for their loss rather than being able to attribute it to mere chance or poor luck.
The Beast’s Hunger
As promised, Beast Games did have a winner: Jeff Allen. However, 45-year-old Allen, who competed to raise money and awareness for his son’s Creatine Transporter Deficiency, did not win $5 million after all… He won $10 million. It became the largest prize in entertainment history. MrBeast beat his own record.
Known for his unexpected twists, one of MrBeast’s final challenges was a coin flip, where if the coin landed on the flipper’s choice, he would double the prize money. The coin flipper had the usual 50/50 chance of winning, but when the coin landed on tails, the excitement was unimaginable. This act in itself, in seconds, completely overshadowed the $5 million the contestants had been fixated on for weeks. It all came to around $10 million, and at that moment, the show felt unnervingly dystopian—almost off.
Beast Games was a display of human behavior unknown to television. The anchoring effect, risk aversion, and glorification of emotional stress and pain were fuel for MrBeast’s unextinguishable fire of a brand. These players, with real lives and traumas, told the camera in tears what they were competing for when the games began. In a matter of seconds, they transformed into characters with stories that solely existed on a screen, each referred to only by a number. One might expect the viewers, or at least other players, to learn contestants’ names as the episodes progressed. Instead, they were dehumanized throughout the entire process, reduced to mere numbers in MrBeast’s engagement analytics and 40 world records from Beast Games.
The evident devaluing of money was not only present in this show but throughout the MrBeast trademark as a whole. Old videos in which he would tip pizza drivers a few thousand dollars now seem insignificant compared to his current feats: regularly curing the blind, burying himself alive for months, building wells in Africa, or giving away private islands. With nothing holding him back, his branding became characterized by an urge to continually upscale and outdo his previous projects. After all, he truly can, with his loyal consumer fanbase fueling his image as a self-perpetuating marketing machine. It ultimately leaves us questioning when enough is “enough” for Jimmy.
In a documentary-style YouTube video by Jon Youshaei, Youshaei asked MrBeast about Beast Games, “How will you top this?” MrBeast scoffed in response, saying, “Oh, don’t you worry. There are plenty of ways to top this. Way better. I mean, this is great, but…yeah.” Youshaei, speechless, could only shake his head and repeat his statement sarcastically.
For MrBeast, this is just the beginning, and there’s still so much he wants to accomplish. Beyond his truly unique ambition, it should be noted that MrBeast’s philanthropic work cannot be denied. While on a YouTube podcast for The Diary of a CEO, he mentioned that the more he helps people, the more hate he gets. It is a complex situation. There is so much good he can provide the world with in the future, as long as he channels all of his drive in the right direction.
He has called himself “crazy,” opening up about his struggle with work-life balance and how he is usually more unhappy than happy. On the same podcast, he stated, “There’s a reason no one makes videos like me…They would be miserable. If my mental health were a priority, I wouldn’t be as successful as I am.” Now, in every interview with MrBeast, there is always a comment in the comment section about his eyes—they don’t seem to have the same light in them anymore. But, of course, I only know this because I watch all these interviews willingly.
According to Variety, players have sued MrBeast since the release of Beast Games, claiming some were denied medical treatment, given minimal food and breaks, subjected to sexual harassment, and forced to endure dangerous conditions and emotional distress. However, MrBeast’s legal team has yet to take further action. The only update we have on the aftermath of the competition series is to stay tuned. Season two is in the works.
Featured Image by Giorgio Trovato on Unsplash
