By Todd Russell
Mea culpa: I don’t follow MrBeast. The most attention I’ve given whatever promotion, contest or YouTube challenge he’s running are intrusive ads that appear on a mobile game I’m currently playing. Most of these ads are about casino-oriented games you can play for “free” but offer real cash money … sometimes. To date, I haven’t played any of these games, because besides gambling in real land-based casinos, I don’t play games for money.
It’s also Tuesday and we should be talking the replay game spotlight (in fact, we are, every Humpday Wednesday, as we’re currently actively score chasing Zaccaria Pinball games every day, see PGM Interview scheduled with Jaws + D&D Stern Programmer + More Zaccaria Pinball + Humpday Wednesday 2/26/25), talking some game we want to play from yesterday and are playing, but wanted to break in and address a game show that received a lot of attention recently.
The show part is certainly there, but what about the games?
The games. Are there any worth checking out?
If you missed watching Beast Games on Amazon Prime Video (https://www.primevideo.com/detail/Beast-Games/0TC47K49HUJK01R9FA42BAO22A), it’s still there. Not a recommendation, in fact I didn’t even watch every episode, because I quickly realized the title is misleading. It wasn’t really a game show. It was more about bribing people to leave the show. Every episode, MrBeast was trying to pare down the contestants and usually through some sort of monetary offer or challenge.
Say that again: a show named Beast Games not about games? Not really, no. Yes, they had this $5 million dollar coin flip towards the end. They had this train challenge where a contestant chose which way the train eliminated contestants. There was a pirate ship where they were supposed to be able to fire cannons, but I’m told they never actually fired any cannons (one of several episodes I didn’t watch).
Add to all of this the fact that the show was put out and cost MrBeast money, it didn’t make any money.
“It was not a good financial decision to make Beast Games,” MrBeast said in an interview with The Diary of a CEO on YouTube. “I lost money. I would have more money if I didn’t film it.” ‘I’m an idiot’: MrBeast says he lost ‘tens of millions of dollars’ of his own money on Amazon’s Beast Games | PC Gamer
Is this part of the marketing? To say you made a show that set a bunch of world records, including prize amounts greater than any other and yet it didn’t make any money? Maybe it should have been called Beast Bribes?
Reality TV has been a mixed bag. I’ve watched some of it, realizing it’s the TV equivalent of junk food and candy. You eat it and it provides a short burst of satisfaction but leaves you feeling like it was neither healthy or useful for your body.
Rotten Tomatoes critics are slaying Beast Games (https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/beast_games) with a totally rotten 20% out of 100%, but people are giving it an impressive 88% fresh. Is this the candy/junk food I mentioned in the last paragraph?
There was one positive and SPOILER ALERT it involves the contestant that won Beast Games. I’ll just link up the article on the winner here for those that don’t want to watch but are curious what the winner is doing with what’s left after taxes of the $10 million prize: Beast Games Winner Shares Heartwarming Use for $10 Million Prize (Exclusive)
Somebody, anybody, in the comments please tell me what I’m missing about MrBeast? Is this guy doing something games-oriented that we should be following and playing? I have an open mind to the guy. His popularity on YouTube is unmatched.
370 million people can’t be wrong … or can they? Is anybody reading part of these 370 million subscribers? What is being missed here games-wise? I wish MrBeast and his team all continued success, but I’m questioning with my admittedly limited research, that there are any real games here. Except the games of capturing our attention for the grand spectacle of it all.