MrBeast On Beast Games Season 2: Bigger, Better, And Breaking Free From Squid Game Comparisons

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MrBeast is launching season 2 of his show, Beast Games, giving a new set of contestants the opportunity to win a large sum of money. He promises this season will be unique and won’t feel like other similar competition shows. Created by MrBeast, along with Tyler Conklin, Sean Klitzner, and Mack Hopkins, the Prime Video series began in late 2024 and featured 1,000 players competing for a $5 million prize through a series of challenges.

Even though Beast Games faced criticism and a lawsuit regarding its working conditions, the first season was a huge success for Prime Video. It became the platform’s most popular unscripted series and the second-biggest series launch of 2024, following Fallout season one. Due to this success, the show has been renewed for two more seasons. Season two will begin filming in June 2025 with 200 contestants, and will focus on a “Strong vs. Smart” theme, dividing the players evenly.

To celebrate the launch of the show, Ash Crossan from ScreenRant spoke with Jimmy Donaldson, better known as MrBeast, about the second season of Beast Games. When asked about comparisons to Netflix’s Squid Game, MrBeast acknowledged them, but pointed out key differences. He emphasized that, unlike the K-drama, “we didn’t kill people” on his show.

MrBeast explained that Beast Games isn’t just about winning the prize money; he wants contestants to have an unforgettable experience. He shared that people who competed in season one told him they made lasting friendships and were pushed to try new things. Because of this feedback, the show’s creators worked hard to make season two even better.

MrBeast (Jimmy Donaldson) describes creating an ideal environment for people where all their needs are met – unlimited food, service, and anything else they could want. He believes this experience is incredibly positive because it challenges the typical post-college path of getting stuck in a routine job, encouraging them to rethink their priorities. He feels comparing this situation to anything else doesn’t really make sense.

MrBeast Has Ideas For Many More Seasons To Come Of Beast Games

ScreenRant commented that the show clearly had a huge budget and a lot of effort went into its production. They wondered if viewers would be surprised to learn just how much work went into even the smallest details of season 2.

MrBeast, Jimmy Donaldson, explained that they’re planning to share more behind-the-scenes footage this year because people didn’t fully grasp the scale of building the city for their competition show. He emphasized that constructing something like that is incredibly difficult – it’s not as simple as it looks on screen. He wants to show viewers the actual process. His goal is to create the best competition show possible, and what sets his show apart is its authenticity. Unlike many reality shows that claim to be unscripted but are heavily produced, with story producers directing contestants’ lines and actions, MrBeast’s team simply films everything as it happens. They let contestants be themselves and show the world who they truly are without any direction or manipulation.

Most reality shows don’t film as much as we do because it creates huge logistical and financial challenges. Instead of a few hours of footage, we end up with an entire day’s worth – meaning we need a massive number of cameras, enough to earn us multiple world records. This also results in enormous amounts of data – we’re talking petabytes instead of gigabytes. That translates to millions of extra dollars spent on cameras, staff to operate them, storage, and editors to review everything. However, we choose to invest in this extensive setup because it allows us to simply capture what happens naturally. We don’t need producers directing contestants or scripting moments; we just film everything and then craft the story from the footage. That’s the goal with Beast Games – to authentically show how people behave in these situations, and that’s what I believe sets it apart.

ScreenRant: I’m curious what you think the biggest misconception about you is.

MrBeast, also known as Jimmy Donaldson, says the biggest misunderstanding about his videos is that they seem easier to make than they actually are. He explains that while his content appears simple, creating things like the elaborate sets and challenges in “Beast Games” is incredibly difficult. He wants to show more behind-the-scenes footage to give people a better understanding of the massive effort involved. He often has over a thousand people working on set – not even counting the contestants – making the projects far larger in scale than any other competition show, potentially five times bigger.

ScreenRant: I was going to say, you must have more crew than contestants.

MrBeast (Jimmy Donaldson) often deals with massive productions. Even back in the first season, they had up to 2,500 people on set at once – 1,000 contestants and 1,500 crew. It was chaotic, and going over schedule became incredibly expensive. With so many people involved, staying on time is a huge priority.

ScreenRant asked: Looking back at the first season, can you share an example of something that didn’t work well and you decided to avoid repeating? And on the flip side, what was something that went really well that you wanted to build on for the next season?

I’ve spent a huge amount of time analyzing feedback on Beast Games. I watched every review, read every comment, and even observed people’s reactions while they watched the show. The overwhelming message was that viewers wanted the winner to earn the massive prize, not just get lucky. Season 1 had too much random chance involved, so we significantly reduced that in Season 2. People wanted to feel like the winner truly deserved it. Another key point was that it took too long to connect with the contestants. It wasn’t until later episodes that you really understood who they were and what motivated them. So, even though I usually aim to make things bigger each season, we intentionally scaled back from 10,000 contestants to 200. This allowed us to focus more on showcasing the contestants’ personalities and stories earlier on. Viewers loved the scale and the prize money, but they really wanted to connect with the people competing and see skill, not just luck, determine the winner. We took all of that to heart when creating the new season.

ScreenRant mentioned that the show was inspired by Survivor this season, especially with Jeff Probst making an appearance. Can you tell me about working with him and what that experience was like?

Okay, so this is huge! I’ve been dying to talk about this for months – we filmed it like five months ago, but I was sworn to secrecy with so many NDAs. Basically, we did a collaboration with Survivor! Jeff Probst actually co-hosted an episode of Beast Games with me, and it was incredible. I seriously think people are going to flip when they see it. We even filmed on the actual Survivor island, and the Survivor crew built all the sets for our episode of Beast Games. They filmed it, they built everything… it was just awesome! I’m so hyped for everyone to finally watch it.

The interviewer from ScreenRant asked if the show could potentially go on indefinitely, like Survivor which has already run for 50 seasons, and wanted to know what the creators envisioned for its long-term future.

MrBeast (Jimmy Donaldson) wants to make his competition show an annual event. He really enjoyed creating it and feels many other competition shows are too predictable. He hopes his show will inspire innovation in the genre, creating a new kind of competition TV, similar to how shows like Deal or No Deal and Survivor did years ago. He’d love to see more shows pushing boundaries with big sets and huge prizes, and envisions families gathering each year to watch people compete for top honors. Ultimately, he’s aiming for 20 seasons of the show.

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2026-01-07 21:51