MrBeast Opens Up About Unsettling Robbery

MrBeast is often one of the most positive forces on the internet, but one terrifying incident at the beginning of his career left him with almost nothing. MrBeast sat down for an installment "The Yard" — a podcast led by Ludwig Ahgren and his friends — to talk about his recent videos, his business strategies, and even some dark points in his life.

For those out of the loop, MrBeast has made a name for himself with extravagant and expensive YouTube videos that typically showcase both his creativity and willingness to share his wealth with the world. The notoriously generous YouTuber has collaborated with chef Gordon Ramsey, organized massive fireworks celebrations, and recreated Willy Wonka's chocolate factory. Even though fans don't love everything MrBeast has done, he's generally become one of the most recognizable and beloved figures in content creation.

While the creator has almost 100 million subscribers on YouTube now, and would be instantly recognizable in public, that wasn't always the case. Years ago, when first starting his YouTube channel, MrBeast was robbed of almost everything he owned. The event might have been terrifying, but the YouTuber looked back on it with humor, sitting down with "The Yard" podcast to describe the experience. After talking about viewer numbers and expensive videos, MrBeast opened up about a truly scary experience he encountered early in his career.

MrBeast casually brought up that he was robbed four and a half years ago, back when he was first taking off on YouTube. He insisted that the story, in hindsight, is pretty funny. 

He had been out late filming one evening, so he didn't return home until almost 3AM. When walking through the door, MrBeast said he saw a small red dot hovering on his door. For a moment, he thought he was going to die, and that the dot was something straight out of a "Call of Duty" game. "For like five hours, I was just opening the blinds," MrBeast said, miming peeking out of a window. He was robbed the following day.

"The next day I left my house and literally the second I left everything in my house was stolen," MrBeast said. "Someone was basically stalking me." Even though the situation sounds horrific MrBeast was able to laugh about it with the crew of "The Yard," joking that maybe the burglar was trying to lure him a way from his home like a cat with a laser pointer. What was even more surprising was how extensive the theft was.

"They took my blanket. I don't know why. Including the blanket on my bed, which I thought was a really weird thing to steal," MrBeast laughed. While the rest of "The Yard" cast laughed, joking that the burglar wanted to clone MrBeast, they also seemed incredulous that he was even robbed of his blanket. "That's was early on, though, like, how many subs did you have?" Ludwig asked.

"Oh, like a million," MrBeast shrugged. While MrBeast didn't believe that the burglar knew him personally, the experience was surely still jarring. The robbery wasn't the only thing MrBeast shared on the podcast, though.

MrBeast happily shared some behind-the-scenes secrets about his videos, including the cost breakdown of his most popular project. Ludwig asked MrBeast if he typically loses money on his over-the-top videos, using the "Squid Game" recreation as an example. He posited that MrBeast spent over $4 million on the "Squid Game" video, and essentially broke even when considering the money he made back from ad revenue and sponsorship. MrBeast agreed that the video wasn't profitable, but said that he actually lost money making the epic game show. "That's not including the employees," MrBeast said. "The video definitely lost money when you factor everything in."

Originally, MrBeast said that the video was supposed to cost less than half of what it ended up costing. Small things added up, and as he worked on the set, MrBeast kept finding things to add or change. MrBeast also worked to pay both contestants and the crew who helped film the video. At the end of the day, it ended up being a much bigger project than he'd even imagined, but the final results are undeniably impressive.

Even though MrBeast's robbery left him without a blanket to sleep under early in his career, it's safe to say he's turned things around. These days, he's managed to translate his success into money that he can then reinvest in himself – and his fans. And probably plenty of extra blankets.