He later explained, “We have a full rescue team on standby, including firefighters, EMTs, and divers.”
YouTube star MrBeast is addressing the controversy surrounding his latest video.
On Saturday, he uploaded “Would You Risk Dying For $500,000?” which featured a stuntman navigating a series of fire-themed “death traps” to win the cash prize.
The 27-year-old creator described the challenges as “fire traps,” including being shot out of a cannon into flames, jumping through rings of fire, and surviving massive explosions. The video begins with the stuntman tied to a chair in a room surrounded by fire.
MrBeast, whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson, clarifies at the start of the 25-minute video that the contestant, Eric, is a stuntman, adding that “we are gonna push him to the max in this video.”
After fans raised concerns about the fire-based challenges, MrBeast responded on both X and YouTube to address safety issues. Eric successfully completed the traps, winning $350,000.
In a pinned comment on the video, he wrote, “I just wanted to mention that we take safety extremely seriously. Every challenge was tested by multiple stuntmen. We have a full rescue team on standby with firefighters, EMTs, and divers, equipped with an ambulance and fire truck. We also had a pyro team controlling the fires and multiple fire suppression methods on every challenge to ensure we could essentially turn off the fire if there was ever an issue.”
He added, “But our stunt coordinator did an amazing job as always, and none of these systems were ever needed. Just wanted to be transparent with you all since I saw some concern!”
On X, MrBeast shared a shorter version, saying, “If you’re curious, obviously we had ventilation for the smoke and a kill switch to cut off the fires. We had professionals test this extensively and the guy in the video, as stated, is a professional stuntman. I take safety more seriously than you could ever imagine.”
Despite MrBeast’s reassurances, many fans criticized the competition as recklessly dangerous.
“This is just dangerous and seems psychopathic,” one user wrote on X. “How far is too far? Is MrBeast just Chris from Total Drama Island now?”
Several compared the stunt video to a real-life version of Squid Game, the Korean thriller where desperate contestants risk death for huge cash prizes.
“Sooooo why do people still defend MrBeast again?” another user tweeted. “Like bro replicated Squid Game, which was a show that was supposed to represent how poverty can make people do inhuman things for money, and he decided to replicate it for s—s and giggles :/ This clip is icing on the cake.”
Another commented, “The Squid Games was a documentary. We were warned about this.”
As one of the world’s most popular content creators, MrBeast has expanded into multiple business ventures, including hosting Beast Games, an Amazon series in which 1,000 contestants competed in elimination challenges for a $5 million prize last year.
In September, the show became the subject of a lawsuit against Amazon, production company Off One’s Base, and MrBeast’s company MRB2024. Five anonymous contestants claimed they were “exploited” during filming—allegations MrBeast called “blown out of proportion.”
The lawsuit is still ongoing.
Beast Games premiered its first season in December 2024 and was renewed for two additional seasons in May.