MrBeast’s Book With James Patterson Finally Reveals the YouTuber’s Actual Worldview. Oof.
Slate · L · trust 51/100
A novel by MrBeast and James Patterson exists, and, as instructed, I have read it in full.
MrBeast, the world’s most famous YouTuber, is no stranger to diversifying. On top of the YouTube channel and his TV show Beast Games , there’s MrBeast burgers, a candy brand called Feastables, a financial platform called Step, and a toy brand.
The author James Patterson is no stranger to partnerships with famous people. He has co-authored books with Dolly Parton and Bill Clinton, among many others. He also turns out an extraordinary, near–existentially troubling volume of work, more than 200 books and counting, many now with the help of co-writers. In 2025 alone he had eight books out. In this way, he and MrBeast are not so different. They are both at the helm of massive content-production operations. But still, I was surprised to learn that these two people had teamed up to release this novel, The Most Dangerous Game , which came out on Tuesday. Reading it was an experience, if not quite the one intended.
In a promotional video for the novel, MrBeast says, “If you like MrBeast videos, you’re gonna love this book.” Which is the premise on which the existence of this book is based. MrBeast has more than 500 million followers on YouTube, roughly one-sixteenth of the entire population of the Earth, which should mean a good number of people will hear about and buy a book co-authored by him. It should, on a pure numbers game, go gangbusters. It does not yet appear to be going gangbusters. According to publishing gossip, preorders for the book numbered in the four digits, which is a vanishingly small number for a title rumored to have been subject to a deal of over $1 million with HarperCollins. As one colleague put it, “You get MrBeast for free, why would you pay $30 for this?”
MrBeast, whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson, has stated an explicit goal in writing this book. According to an interview with PC Gamer , he wants to “get a whole generation psyched about reading again.” A noble goal, and the word generation here is interesting—it implies that the novel is aimed at younger audiences. The book does indeed read as if it’s aimed at middle-graders, but it isn’t being marketed as such. It is, ostensibly, for adults. But adults, too, are also not reading as much as one might like. So if the aim is to get people, of whatever age, who don’t read to pick up the book, then perhaps it’s pitched just right: very easy to read, nothing left implicit, plot-heavy, broken up into short chapters, superficial in its themes and characters. The unsquarable circle, the likely reason behind those disappointing presale figures, is that the book is an attempted treatment for a problem in the culture ecosystem that the book’s author is himself a big part of. People aren’t reading. They’re watching YouTube. Some people are doing both, but the Venn diagram of MrBeast fans and James Patterson fans is not, I would imagine, a large one. If you like MrBeast videos, I don’t think it is a given at all that you’re “gonna love” his book, or buy it.
I can see why he assumes that, though, because The Most Dangerous Game is basically just a MrBeast video in book form. The story is as follows: A thousand contestants from across the world who have demonstrated some kind of inner strength or ability are invited confidentially to an unscreened, secret Squid Game –style knockout competition that is seeking to find “The One,” a special person who is apparently going to not only win a billion dollars but use those billion dollars to save all mankind in some way. MrBeast himself is a consultant on these games, and also a surprise contestant. The whole thing is presided over by a kind of Wario MrBeast, an evil, unseen person known initially only as The Host. They battle through snake-infested forests, traverse glaciers, punch sharks in the nose, things of that nature. The games turn out to be not what they seem, and plucky young kids survive and the right person wins. The end.
The book is not good. It is a bad book. But it is a book . I read a lot of bad books as a teenager, and as a result I now read good books. That trajectory isn’t guaranteed, but it does happen that way for some people. Plenty of other people start reading bad books, fall in love with reading, and continue to read a lot of bad books. Is that better than not reading at all? Better than watching only, for example, high-octane, smooth-brained, bleakly amoral contest shows on YouTube with gigantic cash prizes? I think it probably is.
The book itself is a strange, strange artifact, however, because it is as close as MrBeast has come to expressing his worldview in clear terms. He is notably apolitical and uninterested in discussing the morality behind any of the anarchic, scattergun philanthropy-as-circus he engages in for some of his videos. But Jimmy Donaldson appears as a character in this book co-authored by Jimmy Donaldson, so it seems plausible that his character embraces Jimmy Donaldson’s actual beliefs. And the character repeatedly and baldly states those beliefs because, again: This is a bad book. This, I think we can assume, is how MrBeast sees things:
Jimmy is as terrified as anyone by what he sees as a dangerous predystopian world. Drastic measures are required. It’s why he signed on in the first place, willing to help in any way possible. The quest to identify The One was new and bold and necessary. Maybe he was naïve to believe in it. But Jimmy still considers himself an idealist. He believes that one great man or woman is capable of changing the course of history, the same way great leaders always have in moments of crisis for civilization.
Notably, Donaldson doesn’t seem to see himself as contributing to this pre-dystopia by dangling the promise of life-changing amounts of money to people for the entertainment of other people, even though I challenge anyone to watch Beast Games and come away without at least some feeling of having witnessed a grubby…
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