MrBeast Shoots “Beast Games” in Las Vegas, Controversy Abounds

By Scott Roeben, on July 18 2024
9 min read 217 comments
Las Vegas

Superstar YouTuber and philanthropist MrBeast (nee Jimmy Donaldson) is filming his new Prime Video series, “Beast Games,” in Las Vegas.

“Beast Games” is an upcoming reality competition show where 1,000 contestants will compete for a $5 million prize.

The production is using Rio and Luxor for staging, and about 2,000 people are being transported to Allegiant to film a segment of the show on July 18, 2024, pretty much as we’re writing these words.

If you don’t know who MrBeast is, you need to get out more. Or, technically, less. It’s a YouTube thing.

Of course, everyone involved with the production is under NDAs (non-disclosure agreements), but we are Vital Vegas, and we didn’t sign a damn thing. Nothing happens in our town without us knowing about it.

Transporting 2,000 people in a bus caravan to Allegiant is tough to keep under wraps.

Anyhoo, Donaldson is a cultural phenomenon. With 304 million subscribers, he has the most-subscribed channel on YouTube. He also has a paltry 22 million followers on Facebook.

MrBeasts stunts typically involve giving away a lot of money.


The format of the show being filmed in Las Vegas hasn’t been revealed, but give us a minute.

MrBeast says think “Squid Games,” but “on steroids times a billion.”

We do know the show will feature “physical challenges, as there was a call for “paid testers” by an audience and seat filling company recently. The ad offered Las Vegas locals $150 and a free meal to run, jump and pull ropes.

There’s a good chance the people who did this didn’t know why they were doing it. Now they know.

More top secret scoop: MrBeast is staying at Resorts World.

Another fun fact: Contestants on the show have been spotted at Rio wearing garbage bags, presumably to cover the uniforms worn on the show.

MrBeast bought out Plaza downtown. Here’s a look at some of the aforementioned contestants wearing the aforementioned garbage bags. It’s hard to imagine people would suffer this indignity just for millions of dollars.

Contestants have also been spotted at Palms. It’s a lot of contestants and lots of hotel rooms.

As a show with what’s being touted as the biggest prize in game show history, of course Las Vegas had to play a part.

It’s an impressive feat to have kept such a big production quiet in a town as small as Las Vegas, but word was bound to get out. Anticipate the Las Vegas Review-Journal “breaking” this story in a few weeks, as soon as they figure out what a “MrBeast” is. Or Prime Video. Or streaming.

There’s no air date for “Beast Games,” but we’ll be watching. Las Vegas makes everything better.

Update (7/19/24): In a concerning twist to this story, a source claims Desert Springs Hospital “has seen countless patients today coming from ‘Beast Games’ due to lack of food and water.” We have reached out to MrBeast and his publicist about the situation, no further information is available at this time.

Here’s a pic of contestants at Rio.

Fun fact: A contestant tells us they walked the entire line pictured above and it stretched a half mile.

Update (7/20/24): We heard back from a MrBeast representative, who stated: “MrBeast was working on an upcoming video with three medical issues out of 2000 participants. Two were medical events unrelated to the games or production, and one involved dehydration. There was plenty of water and electrolyte drinks on-site and a full medical staff.  Personnel attended to the people immediately. They were all released shortly after and are doing well.”

We’ve received contradictory reports about the conditions during the production of “Beast Games.”

A hospital employee told us, “I’m aware of three or four hospital evacs today. Overnight shift said it was insane, so not sure if or how many hospital evacs there were. The production is a shitshow and unprepared for the scale. Making decisions as they go along. The bare bones medic staff on site is not adequate and were overwhelmed last night. They compete at night.”

One contestant reports, “Contestants were instructed to provide producers with five days worth of medications, and as of today, contestants have not received a single dose. They have denied food to diabetics, denied water to contestants, and at least two individuals have had seizures as a result.”

The MrBeast representative says this information is “inaccurate.”

Since our original story, we’ve heard from a number of eliminated contestants and their experiences vary widely.

They have confirmed Rio was the main staging area for the production. It seems this portion of “Beast Games” will feature 2,000 contestants being narrowed down to 1,000 through a series of competitions. The first competition involved teams of 400 lifting 10,000-pound weights with pulleys. The three-day production in Las Vegas ends Saturday, July 20, 2024.

The competition in Las Vegas is for YouTube and isn’t part of the Prime Video series.

Round two of the competition involved contestants choosing one of hundreds of briefcases. Fifty of the cases in each batch of 400 contained automatic eliminations. There were also red cases containing$1,000 (along with elimination), which many contestants chose.

By most accounts, the production companies involved (Amazon and MrBeast’s company from South Carolina) were not prepared for the logistical challenges of a competition involving 2,000 people. In fact, many contestants assumed the conditions of the production (including hours of waiting at various stages) were psychological endurance tests. That does not appear to be the case.

A number of concerned friends and relatives have chimed in on the comments of this story to express concern for their loved ones. Serious issues appear to have been isolated, and not unexpected given the fact 2,000 people were participating in the taping.

Accounts from contestants range from people having a great time to something quite different.

One contestant noted production staff hired locally were treated poorly, with some working shifts in excess of 24 hours in a row; medications (such as inhalers, contact lenses and feminine hygiene products) were surrendered, which caused concern among the production’s medical staff, with some encouraging contestants to hide their meds in their clothes to avoid detection; the 2,000 trash bags used to conceal show uniforms were thrown away at Allegiant (MrBeast is known as an advocate for saving the planet); due to the large number of contestants, waits could be an hour for elevators at hotels (including for registered guests not involved with the show); contestants were asked to give the production team several pair of undergarments, which were not returned upon disqualification; there were not enough busses to transport the contestants to Allegiant; contestants were not allowed to leave their hotel rooms, several were caught in the pool at Rio and were eliminated from the competition; contestants were also eliminated if they were caught with their production wristbands flipped to show the MrBeast logo; food consisted of what’s described as “hideous porridge.”

Another contestant says: “No medications, no undergarments despite supplying five days of. Only ‘electrolytes’ were Gatorade handed out on the second day in small batch that ran out quickly and people were fighting over, hoarding. Ran out of meals for people. Water would run out. Was completely not a safe space. Many of us knew it would be mentally challenging, but the danger we were put in and lack of care from staff wasn’t expected. No clear communication between staff either, making it worse.”

Questions about the fairness of the competition have also been raised. The 2,000 contestants were divided into groups of 400. Some of the contestants reportedly stacked the deck in their favor by creating teams of mostly young, strong men. The first group eliminated was largely older people and women.

Some of the biggest lessons here are: 1) People can go through the same experience, but can describe that experience very differently, 2) NDAs are pretty much meaningless, at least in Las Vegas. Nothing happens in our town without us knowing about it.

If you’re a parent, don’t worry, the kids will be fine. If you’re a MrBeast fan, you’ll love how he was greeted when he entered the stadium in his black satin tuxedo, the contestants lost their minds. If you’re the Las Vegas Review-Journal, you suck.

MrBeast in his aforementioned suit with one of his “Squid Game”-inspired henchpersons.

Update (7/21/24): Here’s some additional information provided by a member of the “Beast Games” production team: “Can confirm five days of medication and undergarments, most of which have been lost and not adequately tracked by production. Limited amounts of Gatorade on-hand started on Friday. It did run out, but there was water. They did run out of food on Friday. Personal/feminine products initially were non-existent, but they got some supplies later. Undergarments are 100% lost because they weren’t adequately tracked when surrendered. Personally spoke with a young lady contestant who self-eliminated after about 14 hours because she had to eat and take medicine which had been lost. She was crying, but otherwise O.K. I’m basically just confirming much of your reporting to say in my opinion there was a complete failure of planning on the part of production. And, sure, some people are up for it, but I’m an adult and recognize it’s not a safe environment. Good luck to eliminated contestants when trying to retrieve their luggage and personal belongings including phones. All that is stored at the Rio in a meeting room without any organization. So think 2-3 bags per person times 2,000 and looking for your bag. Needle in a haystack.”

A family member of a contestant claims, “On day one, contestants went over 24 hours without any medication which led to the seizure of a contestant on the first day. No medical staff was on site and it took about 5-8 minutes to arrive to the scene. Contestants had to do crowd control to make room for medical. Contestants were supposed to receive medication on Thursday morning/midday, the challenge began finally around 5:00 a.m. Friday due to lack of coordination. Medication still had not been delivered to contestants until 4:00 p.m. Friday. Contestants slept on ground with sleeping bags.”

We have heard similar reports from various sources about the sleeping arrangements at Allegiant Stadium. Contestants who were in all three phases of the elimination slept two nights in sleeping bags on the field.

Rounding out the inside scoop on the three competitions, the third and final night’s challenge has been described as a “capture the flag” game with a race, “similar to the previous suitcase game,” per a contestant.

Update (7/22/24): We finally got our hands on a photo of the game as it unfolded inside Allegiant Stadium.

Exclusive AF, as the kids say.

The growing number of comments about this story from contestants is enlightening and somewhat alarming. Others are saying the hardships were to be expected. We have received several reports contestants were injured during the final night of production.

We have also been given photos of the contestant shirts (the ones being concealed by the garbage bags).

Be patient, we’re pretty sure you’ll be able to get one on eBay after the show airs.

As we’ve reported, questions continue to be raised about the fairness of the competitions in “Beast Games.” Game shows are highly regulated, and multiple sources believe the competitions were not fair to everyone.

One commenter says, “All challenges were skewed to favor young, athletic men (despite being presented differently). It was said multiple times before all challenges that safety was a top concern and would be taken seriously by production, and that there would be no tolerance of pushing, shoving, or tackling (basically any sort of assault or battery from contestants onto contestants) and none of that was enforced. The contestants that committed said acts were not eliminated or even disciplined.”

Another commenter said, “Each challenge catered to young strong men, who bullied female and elderly contestants and ultimately took away any chance of a fair competition. I have always been a fan of Mr. Beast. I believe in the causes he donates to and all the good he has done, but in a world where women’s rights are literally being threatened I’m disappointed that he would spearhead a show that encourages such toxic masculinity.”

A source says there was a pile of cash on display during the competitions at Allegiant Stadium, the $5 million in prize money, all $1 bills.

That’s a lot of clams, or possibly simoleons.

Reports of poor planning and treatment continue to stream in.

A commenter on our story claims, “In the third challenge (on the 20th), there was one person, presumably a young female given the petite body size (and medics calling the person ‘ma’am’) that was tackled by a larger, athletic male, so the athletic male could get the flag, and the presumed female was knocked out cold due to the impact (that’s why the medics were calling out ‘ma’am’ to the person, trying to wake them up), and that person that tackled them was not eliminated.”

A separate commenter says, “Treated everyone like animals and a lot of people were mentally and physically abused. They denied people meals and they wouldn’t feed them for hours, 10-plus hours. Women were bleeding through their clothes. I heard multiple people had seizures and they denied medically necessary medication to contestants and that’s just the tip of the iceberg.”

Honestly, we were personally trying to stay as neutral as possible until the whole “women were bleeding through their clothes” thing.

Counterpoint opinions include, “Suck it up, people. The contestants are living in luxury compared to the way millions of people in third world countries must live every day.”

Another commenter concurs, “Dear contestants, please take accountability. I see a lot of complaints of parents of their “dear children” as if they were not briefed at all or have no clue about these competitions. Sorry to break it to you parents, but that is your adult child’s fault.”

A competitor shared more details about the briefcase challenge: “The briefcase challenge consisted of essentially around 400 briefcases placed on tables which were divided in four quadrants. There was the northeast quadrant, the southeast, southwest and northwest quadrants. In this challenge, the teams were now competing against each other as the big twist. So each team took turns competing against themselves. All the team members were placed around the four quadrants so it was 100 players on the north side, 100 players on the east side, so on and so forth. Then on the screen of the stadium appeared a graph showcasing all of the briefcases. The screen then highlighted which briefcases were safe and unsafe and the challenge was to essentially run and touch a safe briefcase first. The problem was that the spacing between each briefcase was only big enough for a single file line of people to go through so pushing and shoving was inevitable. Right before the countdown began, MrBeast specified to not shove or push each other but it was to no avail, countless people got injured. Many were trampled and some others got it worse, some got slightly concussed from what I heard while others had it even worse than that.”

Our final update: The Las Vegas Review-Journal still sucks.