Who remembers the (long ago) days of waiting in line (often overnight) wearing a wristband to buy concert tickets? Over Labor Day weekend, thousands of people waited in line at American Dream in East Rutherford, not for tickets to a stadium show but for a chance to meet the famous YouTuber MrBeast and try a MrBeast Burger at his just-opened restaurant.
Jimmy Donaldson is the North Carolina YouTuber better known as MrBeast, whose channel has more than 100 million subscribers! Over the weekend, thousands of fans gathered at American Dream for the Sunday opening of Donaldson’s first ever physical location of his hugely popular virtual restaurant, MrBeast Burger.
In what looked like pure pandemonium, huge crowds overtook the mega-mall and entertainment destination, with more than 2,000 fans waiting in line overnight for a chance to try the new burger and see MrBeast himself. Some fans reportedly flew in from overseas for the opening. Others drove hundreds of miles to be there in person. MrBeast kept the restaurant open late, until nearly midnight, to make sure everyone in line could get a burger.
Among the menu items at the American Dream location include a Beast Style Burger (smashed crispy beef patties with house seasoning and the works), a Crispy Chicken Tender Sandwich, a Nashville Hot Chicken Tender Sandwich, Beast Style Fries that come loaded with carmelized onions, MrBeast’s own Feastables Chocolate Bars in a bunch of flavors and more.
MrBeast Burger first launched as a delivery-only restaurant brand and quickly became the most downloaded app on iTunes and Google Play. The opening landed MrBeast in the top 5 most popular Google searches worldwide and resulted in the #1 trending video on YouTube. The delivery-only restaurant operates in more than 1,700 locations across the country and has international ones, too. Two years after opening its first delivery-only service, MrBeast Burger debuted its first full-service dining destination at American Dream on Sunday.
Donaldson is the creator and philanthropist known all over the world as “MrBeast.” His YouTube videos frequently show him giving huge amounts of money, food and supplies to those in need and hosting epic challenges. In July, MrBeast became only the second personality channel to surpass 100 million subscribers on a single channel. Donaldson has more than 200 million subscribers across all his channels and over 25 billion views.
In January, Donaldson launched his own food brand, Feastables. His most famous fundraising events are #TeamTrees and its follow-up #TeamSeas. #TeamTrees raised over $20 million to plant 20 million trees worldwide and #TeamSeas, raised over $30 million, which led to 30 million pounds of plastic and trash being removed from oceans, rivers and beaches across the country. Both initiatives were collaborations with YouTuber Mark Rober.
He launched Beast Philanthropy in 2020 and has since donated over 1.2 million free meals. Projects expanded to building fresh water wells in Cameroon, building houses for tornado victims in Kentucky, building homes for the homeless in Costa Rica and donating over $3 million in humanitarian supplies to Ukraine war refugees.
Have you or your kids watched MrBeast’s videos? Will you be making the trip to American Dream to try a MrBeast burger?