MrBeast – whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson – recently debuted his very own game show that involved 1,000 people all competing for a whopping $5 million cash prize.

It’s said to have cost $100,000,000 to put together, and aired its first two episodes on Thursday (19 December) on Prime Video.

The remaining eight episodes will continue to be released on a weekly basis.

But before the highly anticipated show aired, it had been hit with multiple controversies with MrBeast and Amazon being sued by a handful of contestants for alleged ‘chronic mistreatment’ and other things while filming Beast Games.

Now, there have been reports that contestants had to sign a waiver before participating, in questionable documents that have been released.

Part of a contract obtained by The New York Times (NYT) back in August read: “I understand that such activities may cause me death, illness, or serious bodily injury, including, but not limited to exhaustion, dehydration, overexertion, burns, and heat stroke.”

A handful of anonymous participants spoke to the newspaper and claimed that they’d suffered injuries from the physical challenges in Beast Games.

NYT also states that there were reports of ‘several hospitalizations’ and that the sources it had spoken to say they witnessede people vomiting and passing out.

Amid the claims and the show dropping on Prime yesterday, MrBeast featured on a livestream with Jynxzi where the fellow social media star asked the game show host how people ‘dropped 10 feet without pain’ in reference to a scene where dozens of competitors are seen plummeting through trap doors.

“We worked with the same stunt crew that does all big action movies and that kind of stuff and, basically, that tower falls into 5 feet of foam,” MrBeast said.

“There was actually a higher probability that you were going to drown in the foam than hurt yourself because the entire top of the tower – you can’t tell because of the way we painted it – that is just really thick foam.”

He went on to insist that they did ‘5,000 test drops’ before actually filming the game show, adding that ‘obviously no one got hurt’ in the trials.

“Underneath the foam is a crash pad as well, which we didn’t even need,” MrBeast went on to share.

YouTube star MrBeast is known in the space for his big-budget productions and has truly transformed the way people consume content on the platform.

He has raised the level of content creation for other users after spending millions on each of his unique concepts.

However, in a new series with Amazon Prime Video, the creator has taken the budget to a whole new level.

MrBeast – real name James ‘Jimmy’ Donaldson – dropped the trailer yesterday (December 8), and the reactions have been a mixed bag.

While some can’t wait for the series to drop, others have hit out at the amount he spent on the production.

Taking to X, MrBeast wrote: “I spent over a year creating this 10 episode competition series, breaking 40 world records, building the craziest sets in entertainment history, featuring 1,000 players, and a $5,000,000 grand prize!”

The teaser showed contestants wearing blue tracksuits, similar to the ones we saw in Squid Game.

Players will face challenges that involve monster trucks, a pirate ship and jumping out of a helicopter.

Beast Games will land on Amazon Prime Video on December 19 (X/@MrBeast)

In a separate post showcasing his jaw-dropping set, MrBeast added: “We spent $14,000,000 building a city in a field for the contestants in Beast Games to live and compete in… December 19th is almost here.”

But the huge amount of money didn’t exactly land the way he might have hoped it would.

One user replied: “You could have re-built real cities in North Carolina.”

Another said: “You can do far better and more useful things with this amount of money.”

While a third added: “Think of the good that could do this Christmas to someone’s life.”

Someone else penned: “I am sorry but one 25 minute video is not a good way how to spend 14 millions. You can do far better and more useful things with this amount of money.”

To which MrBeast responded: “Hmmm, it’s almost like this is a 10 episode Prime video show I made and not a 25 minute YouTube video lol.”

Some fans have hit out on the amount of money spent on the series (X/@MrBeast)

However, some fans came to his defense.

“I mean, you are making a series, so it will be expensive. The trailer does look cool, so I will check it out when it’s released,” one commented.

In September, a lawsuit was filed against MrBeast, his production team, and Amazon, after a contestant who took part in the show claimed they were deprived of medical care, food, sleep and ‘the necessities of basic hygiene’.

However, MrBeast has quashed these claims.

He said: “We have tons of behind the scenes dropping when the show does to show how blown out of proportion these claims were.

“Just can’t release it now because it would spoil the games.”

UNILAD has reached out to MrBeast’s reps for comment.