Beast Games

Beast Games is a 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 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 first full season consisting of ten episodes released 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, season 1 became one of Amazon Prime Video's most viewed shows. In May 2025, Beast Games was renewed for two more seasons, with filming for season 2 running from June until August. The second season premiered on January 7, 2026.