Beast Games

''Beast Games'' is a 2024 reality competition television series created by YouTuber Jimmy "MrBeast" Donaldson, Tyler Conklin, Sean Klitzner, and Mack Hopkins. Hosted by Donaldson, ''Beast Games'' follows 1,000 contestants—the largest cast for a reality show—as they compete for $5 million, advertised as the largest single cash prize in reality television history.

Inspired by the viral Netflix show ''Squid Game'' and Donaldson's viral video " $456,000 ''Squid Game'' in Real Life!", the first two episodes of ''Beast Games'' were released on Amazon Prime Video on December 19, 2024, with the full series consisting of ten episodes releasing weekly on Thursdays. On the same day, Donaldson also released a video of tryouts for the game show on his YouTube channel titled "2,000 People Fight for $5,000,000", where he cut the number of people participating from 2,000 to 1,000 in a series of challenges. On January 25, 2025, Donaldson uploaded a video titled "Each Minute One Person is Eliminated", following 20 people previously eliminated from the Beast Games show to participate and compete again for $500,000, later reduced to $431,000.

Several contestants alleged they were mistreated during production, resulting in a lawsuit against Donaldson's company and several others. While the show was received poorly by critics, it became one of Amazon Prime Video's most viewed shows.

Episodes

Production

Development

On March 18, 2024, Jimmy Donaldson, also known as MrBeast, announced that he had secured a $100 million deal with Amazon MGM Studios to produce a reality television series titled ''Beast Games'' for Prime Video. The series was created by Donaldson, Tyler Conklin, Sean Klitzner, and Mack Hopkins. Applications for the show opened on May 5, 2024. Donaldson serves as the host and executive producer. The budget is reported to be over $100 million. On May 12, 2025, the series was renewed for two additional seasons.

Filming

Filming began with the first round, which was shot through July 18–22, 2024, inside of Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, with a total of 2,000 contestants attending. This round is released on YouTube. The Beast City part of the competition that was featured in the first four, sixth, eighth and ninth episode of the TV series as well as a second YouTube video promoting the series featuring 20 eliminated contestants competing for $500,000, was filmed with the remaining 1,000 contestants at Downsview Park Studios in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, in August of that year. The "Beast Island" part of the competition featured in the fourth to sixth episodes of the show was filmed at the uninhabited La Vivienda Island, which is located in the Pearl Islands, Panama.

The filming broke 44 Guinness World Records, including the largest physical cash prize on set ($5,000,000), the most prize money turned down on a competitive reality TV show ($1,000,000), the largest prize fund awarded for a competitive reality TV show ($10,000,000), and the most money won in a single episode of a competitive reality TV show ($2,020,000).

Criticisms and legal issues

Contestants complained that they were denied food, water, medication, and beds during the production of the show. Additionally, dozens reported that various injuries took place during the first filming sessions, as well as mistreatment, sexual harassment, and not being paid for overtime. On September 16, 2024, a class action lawsuit was filed in the Los Angeles Superior Court.

According to a December 2024 ''Rolling Stone'' report on the working conditions for Beast Games published earlier that month, a portion of a tower exterior fell on a crew member on September 9, 2024. Later that month, the Ontario Ministry of Labour confirmed that it had opened an investigation into an on-set industrial incident on September 11, 2024. It stated that two of the employers, Blink 49 Studios and Manhattan Beach Studios, were each issued a "requirement". The Toronto Police Service also released a statement saying that they had been called to set for the incident but were not investigating as there was not a criminal element.

Cast

Adapted from the Amazon MGM Studios press release. Presenters and producers are as follows:

Presenters

Producers

Guest

Contestants

See list of Beast Games contestants.

* Jeffrey Randall Allen, winner

Release

The qualifier video "2,000 People Fight for $5,000,000" was released on YouTube on December 19, 2024.

''Beast Games'' debuted on Amazon Prime Video on December 19, 2024, and consisted of ten episodes, released weekly.

Reception

The series became Prime Video's most watched unscripted series ever and its second largest series debut of 2024 behind ''Fallout'', getting 50 million viewers over the course of 25 days. Amazon noted that half of the show's audience came from outside the United States.

The show was received poorly by critics, but positively by audiences. On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the series has an approval rating of 20% based on 10 critic reviews, with an average rating of 5/10. However, it was received positively by audiences, reaching a peak audience score of 90% on Rotten Tomatoes. Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned a score of 38 out of 100 based on five critics, indicating "generally unfavorable" reviews. Several reviewers critiqued Donaldson's performance as loud and shallow and the show's lack of focus on its contestants. Naomi Fry of ''The New Yorker'' wrote that the use of contestants' numbers instead of their names made it difficult to empathize with them, unlike other reality shows. ''IGN'', ''The Guardian'', '' Vox'', and ''PC Gamer'' criticized the show for closely following the premise of ''Squid Game'' while stripping away its dystopian tone.

The financial aspects of the show have also come under scrutiny. Katie Notopoulos of ''Business Insider'' enjoyed the show, but she worried that it could communicate to children the lack of value in money. Lauren Saunders of the National Consumer Law Center and Andrew Kushner of the Center for Responsible Lending criticized sponsor MoneyLion, a financial tech and cash advance company, for advertising to a young audience, which Kushner said were more susceptible to "the slick marketing" of the finance industry. Jeff Yang similarly argued that the sponsorship would allow MoneyLion's owner, Gen Digital, to target groups in MrBeast's audience facing "dire economic precarity".

Some critics have analyzed the political implications of the show. According to Yang, while ''Squid Game'' was creating contextual critiques of oligarchs and exploiting disadvantaged people, Beast Games is unwittingly glorifying these concepts. Patrick Freyne of ''The Irish Times'' compared the giving away of islands to contestants in the fifth episode to colonialism.

In response to ''IGN'''s 2/10 rating, Donaldson wrote "Yeah, sad one person who doesn't like me can just label something a thousand people poured their lives into a 2/10 when it's clearly not." Donaldson similarly questioned the gap between audience and critic scores on Rotten Tomatoes.

Notes

References

External links

*

{{Squid Game

American English-language television shows
2020s American game shows
2020s American reality television series
2024 American television series debuts
Amazon Prime Video original programming

Works based on Squid Game
Television series by Amazon MGM Studios
Television shows filmed in Panama
Television shows shot in the Las Vegas Valley
Television shows filmed in Toronto
Reality competition television series