Mr Beast, whose real name is James Stephen ‘Jimmy’ Donaldson, is the most successful and probably best-known YouTuber in the world with over 369 million subscribers. The then 13-year-old appeared in front of the camera back in 2012. Today, the US American earns an estimated 82 million US dollars a year with his videos. So it’s no wonder that market giant Amazon also wants a slice of the pie. On 18 March 2024, Mr Beast announced on X, formerly Twitter, that he wanted to create the ‘biggest game show in history’ together with Amazon Prime Video: Beast Games. But just a few months later, in September 2024, a lawsuit was filed against the production company in Los Angeles. The accusation? Exploitation, deception, sexual harassment and ‘infliction of emotional distress’.
What are the Beast Games actually?
Beast Games, inspired by the viral Netflix show Squid Game, is the biggest game show in the world. It has been available exclusively on the Amazon Prime Video streaming platform since December last year.
In the lavishly produced show, which is of course hosted by Mr Beast himself, 1,000 contestants compete in various challenges for an absurdly high prize money of 5 million US dollars. The game show breaks several records: never before have so many contestants taken part in a comparable programme, and never before has such a high prize money been paid out to a single person in a game show.
But that’s not all: a small city was even built for the production of the Beast Games: ‘We spent 14,000,000 US dollars to build a city on a field where the participants can live and compete against each other,’ wrote Mr Beast on the platform X. This city consists of several buildings, numerous houses, parks and a basketball court.
However, shortly after the city was built, it was criticised for the first time: as the Kurier reported, numerous environmental activists accused the project of interfering significantly with the surrounding natural environment for the filming. Some commentators also questioned whether such a mega-project, with its high costs and enormous consumption of resources, was justified in times of global challenges such as climate change and social inequality.
That was just the tip of the iceberg: shortly afterwards, a class action lawsuit was filed by participants who levelled even more serious accusations.
What are the Beast Games accused of?
On 16 September 2024, a class action lawsuit was filed with a court in Los Angeles by five participants. Their names are not known. For fear of online hate, they wish to remain anonymous and only appear in the lawsuit under the names ‘Contestants 1-5’.
Their lawsuit is specifically directed against the companies ‘MrB2024’ and ‘Amazon Alternative’. ‘MrB2024’ is the production company allegedly owned in whole or in part by Mr Beast, while ‘Amazon Alternative’ is the division of Amazon Studios that produces content for the streaming service ‘Amazon Prime’. In addition, a third production company called ‘Off One’s Base’ is said to have been involved in the production as well.
Horrible working conditions
According to the class action lawsuit, the producers of Beast Games created ‘working conditions that jeopardised the safety of the workers’. The participants were allegedly only provided with food and drink sporadically and in insufficient quantities. No consideration was given to allergies, food intolerances or dietary preferences (vegan, vegetarian, etc.). Access to hygiene products and medical care was also made difficult and scheduled rest breaks were allegedly not observed.
According to the indictment, the production controlled every aspect of their lives during the show. The participants were allegedly forced to take part in games in an undernourished and overtired state, which entailed ‘unacceptably high risks of physical and psychological injury’.
As a result, several participants are said to have been taken to the local hospital due to the poor conditions during filming.
A ‘culture of misogyny’
The set is also said to have promoted ‘a culture of misogyny and sexism’, creating a ‘hostile working environment’ for women. This also included sexual harassment, which the production is said to have deliberately failed to take action against despite allegedly being aware of the incidents.
One of the female claimants, known only as ‘Contestant 5’, said in a statement: ‘I wanted to join because I was a fan of MrBeast and his videos made me smile during the COVID-19 pandemic.’ I was expecting to be challenged, but I never thought I would be treated like this – like I was nothing – less than nothing. And as one of the women, I can say that it absolutely felt like a hostile environment for us. ‘Honestly, we couldn’t have been less respected – as people, let alone employees – if they had tried.’
According to the lawsuit, a production manual created for the show stated, ‘It’s okay for the guys to act childish’ and ‘Really do everything you can to support the guys filming and help them create content.’ ‘Help them behave like idiots.’
Financial exploitation & deception
There are also accusations of financial exploitation and deliberate deception: According to Stern magazine, the employment contracts between the production and the participants allegedly contained unclear or illegal clauses in order to circumvent labour laws in California. The participants also accuse the production of having been inadequately informed about the content before the start of the show or even deliberately misled.
After the production started, Mr Beast explained that money was not a factor in the 100-million-dollar production. According to the lawsuit, however, the participants were not paid a fair wage. Four of the five plaintiffs claim that they have still not received the promised compensation, i.e. the minimum wage. They also claim that overtime was never paid.
In addition, the participants are alleged to have been improperly categorised as ‘volunteers’ instead of employees. This is said to have been to the advantage of the ‘Beast Games’ production, which presumably avoided wage taxes and received tax concessions.
What does Mr Beast himself say about the allegations?
Initially, neither Mr Beast nor the production companies commented on the allegations.
On 25 November 2024, just under a month before the show’s initial release on Amazon, Mr Beast spoke out on X, stating that there will be ‘plenty of behind-the-scenes footage when the show comes out to show how exaggerated these allegations were’. However, he couldn’t release this footage ‘just yet because it would spoil the games’.
In an interview on Good Morning America on 11 November 2024, Mr Beast said: ‘I’ll have to let the lawyers sort it out, I can’t comment on it.’ However, he added: ‘What I can say – I’ve personally talked to 700-800 attendees, and they all want to come back, they all had a great time.’ ‘You can look at their content online, and I think that speaks for itself.’
What comes of the lawsuit remains to be seen.
Translated by Anna Smith
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